Oddly enough, I didn’t get pinged.
I think this is a most excellent article that makes a very salient point. I think it is exactly going to happen like that, most people will be the sheep. Just human nature to follow the crowd, especially these days reinforced by pop-culture, media and skoolz.
Can you imagine (worst case scenario) millions of zombie-looters leaving the cities looking for food and whatever else? How long will that situation last? Will they die off fast enough so that some self-sufficient survivors remain without being overrun and killed? Because the first reaction of this mob to seeing a little place in the country where people still have food is going to be ANGER and a jealous rage.
Deep, deep down they will know that these people worked hard and sacrificed to move away from the city and raise/store their own food. Deeper down they might even know these people did the right and proper thing. The rage also comes from knowing that they their own selves didn’t do this, didn’t prepare, didn’t know to or care to. It will just make them madder. They are conditioned to think it unfair.
So even though many who did the right thing have a shot at survival, if the mob finds them early a few rifles might not make much of a difference.
Hopefully enough of the mob dies off quickly enough for some in the far flung hinterlands to survive, rebuild a society and some day allow the exploration and resettlement of the rest of the continent.
Hopefully it would never get quite that bad.
Martial Law under a hard tyranny is one route, and most folks will cheer for Martial Law as opposed to anarchy and starvation. It could go Mad Max, or tyranny, or the USA might split into regions, with differing outcomes.
But sooner or later, that city food supply conveyor is going to experience a disruption, and Katie bar the door.