Hope For the Best, Plan for the Worst

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September 17, 2014 by JImbo

Prep Alone, Die Alone (courtesy of the SHTF Journal)

I saw this article on a friend’s Facebook status and it got me to thinking. I think a lot about this sort of thing.

First, it makes for some interesting stories if I ever get writing actual books.

Second, it gives me something to do while bored at work.

Third though, it just might come in handy.

In driving, you’re a lot safer if you drive defensively. You look far down the road and assess potential dangers before they get to you. It gives you more time to react and avoid injury.

This article is worth a share. I know it’s about the “Apocalypse” scenarios and folks give preppers a lot of grief. However, it’s not all that different from my grandparents canning fruit and vegetables for the hard times. The Depression was a pretty hard damn time, and FELT like the Apocalypse to them!
       
The points made here are sound. You need a community to make it through hard times. Doesn’t have to be large. Doesn’t have to be the “official” community (government), can be an extended family, a group of friends or a club, whatever.

The point is that in the movies you see individuals roaming around alone. That’s not quite realistic I think. (Yeah, I know they’re movies.) I think it’ll be more about who you can gather together and survive WITH.

No one individual has all the skills to do everything. And more than that, they can’t do it all AT THE SAME TIME. Even if you do hunt your food, cook your food, build your shelter, etc… what then? You use all your time to survive and have none to plan ahead or prepare for hard(er) times… winter coming, natural disasters, wild animals, sickness, looters, etc.

Then there’s the long term aspects. One person doesn’t survive beyond their own lifetime, even in the best of conditions. That whole “repopulate the Earth” thing kinda requires more people. A LOT more people unless you wanna be inbred.

That’s why the heroes never really interested me in the movies. Mad Max was cool, but I was more interested in the walled village he came to. I want to see how people think a community functions in the future, how they distribute resources, how they defend themselves and how they make decisions.

Will it be a dictatorship?

A gang?

A democracy?

A theocracy?

Maybe it’s the historian in me, or just so much time doing planning and operations in the military. A cool sword fight doesn’t thrill me. Figuring out how their economy works, or what they trade for, or where they get bullets or food from… that is FASCINATING!

Personally I think if shit went down, it would be the small communities that would survive. We’re spread out, we have stronger societal ties, and there are non-governmental, local community organizations to take over.
For example, even the whole TOWN might be a bit big if there were no more gasoline or electricity. Can’t call. Can’t drive. Walking and riding horses will be it very shortly.

So, you organize with those people in your neighborhood. Out here in the sticks it’s easy to figure out where people will go. Where do you go in case of an emergency? Two places I can think of.

Fire Department or the Church. Those are naturally local entities, serving a small close knit community.The ties among members already exist and they have to be geographically compact to work.
There’s your leaders probably too. Human beings are creatures of habit. If you’re used to the Fire Chief showing up in a crisis, that’s who they’ll go to again. For morale they’ll probably go to the local pastor if there is one. Most of the halmet or village will follow one of the two.

That is how I see stuff happening out here. We’re not in the city. No need to flee it. The biggest threat I can see (besides sickness) will be the mass exodus of starving, desperate folks from the city.

They won’t stop. They can’t. There’s nowhere else to go.

Anyway, the point of all this is… look around. See how things work. Figure out where you want to go, what you want to do if shit does hit the fan.

It’s no different in theory than looking where the exits are when you get on a plane or sit down in a movie theatre. Handy to know just in case. It’s just on a bigger scale.

Think ahead!

Remember, a good scavenger will eventually get enough food to survive.
A good planner will already have food and toilet paper stocked away.

 

 

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