The Disaster Myth Narrative: No One Panics, No One Loots, No One Goes Hungry

SHTF Plan ^ | 9/10/13 | Daisy Luther

[Kartographer]

SHTFplan Editor’s Note: There will be no panic. The government will be there to help when everything around you falls apart. Those really smart people on TV said so. This is the 21st century, and we’re way past really bad things happening.

“The most effective way to destroy people is to deny and obliterate their own understanding of their history.” ~ George Orwell

I was recently doing some research about the aftermath of some natural disasters that took place here in America. I was shocked to find that the articles I was looking for – ones that I had read in the past – were pretty hard to find, but articles refuting the sought-for pieces were rampant. Not just one event, but every single crisis aftermath that I looked up, had articles that were written after the fact stating in no uncertain terms that the hunger, chaos, and unrest never happened.

Apparently we, the preparedness community, are all wrong when it comes to the belief that after a disaster, chaos erupts and civic disorder is the rule of the day.

According to “experts” it never happens.

[Kartographer]

"Self-sufficiency means freedom. When you can feed yourself, clothe yourself, shelter yourself, and protect yourself, you are far less likely to need to cede your freedoms in order to stay alive. And in a police state that is frantically trying to withdraw our constitutional rights, this just won’t do. They need leverage."

You either prepare and stand on your own beholden to no one or you become dependent on others to provide your basic needs and become thier ‘serf’.

Me I don’t want to be beholden to anyone for providing what is needed for me and mine. I certainly don’t want to have to kiss some ‘gubberment’ third class bureaucratic's behind in an effort to get some help from them.

I certainly don’t want some ‘jack booted’ thug herding me in line and telling me where to stand, sit, eat or sleep.

And last but not least I don’t want to be shut up in with a bunch of ‘zombies’ and have to worry about not only trying to get basic necessities but having to fight to keep what I manage to get or becoming their 'punching bag' so they can see how much they can make me bleed.

[Kartographer]

Preppers’ PING!!

[Travis McGee]

Alas, Brave New Babylon

(link to the Free Republic thread)

[Hardastarboard]

In the event of a SHTF event where I live, nothing bad is going to happen (to me) within about a three hundred yard radius.

[yarddog]

I don’t think anyone knows exactly what will happen and what the response will be to whatever it is.

Having said that, it is better to be prepared and not need it than to not be prepared and not have anything.

[njslim]

Sept 11 2001

People inside WTC/Pentagon did not panic, there was no pushing or shoving others out of the way

Injures/handicapped were assisted out of the buildings

Others ran in to help the Fire/rescue responders

Afterwards people came and donated all they could in terms of time and money

[jacquej]

How do we get this across to our adult “froggy” children, who do not have the sense to hop out of the slowly warming pot?

I have been trying for years, and they think I am an old kookie, who sees monsters under my bed.

Don’t give a rat’s patootie about myself, but sure wish they would wake up. They refuse to look at the facts, saying they do not have the time - busy careers, kids in sports on the weekends, fantasy football, etc.

I think Alinski (sp?) has won. Makes an old mother cry.

[cuban leaf]

Hey, just thought i’d let you know that I read that. I really liked it until it got near the end. I found myself unconciously “skimming” in the “preaching” part, kinda like I did during John Galt’s speech in Atlas Shrugged. I was about to say something else, but it would be a spoiler.

But it was a very enjoyable read.

[cuban leaf]

Read Revelation. God wins in the end. And it is just possible that it is fast approaching...

[Southack]

You won’t see panic until people figure out that they are going hungry, with no solution in sight.

If people aren’t hungry, the propensity for panic is minor.

[Kartographer]

There’s a Great Storm coming you can feel it and the our great cities are on the edges of it now, soon it will consume them.

I posted an article by Selco just the other day called:Lessons In Urban Warfare: “People Will Die In Huge Numbers” [ http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/3063901/posts ] and as I said in on that thread: Many think that Urban Warfare is something that could never happen in America and That anyone that believes it can wears a ‘tin foil’ hat. Well I have news for them pick up any news paper, read the news blogs or just look around you. Urban Warfare has already started here.

Its your choice you can prep or you can stand around on a bridge waiting for FEMA to bring you a bottle of water, a MRE, a warm blanket and a kiss for your boo-boo and maybe you can even get your picture as you stand there on the national news.

As I said any one with half a brain can look around and see for themselves what is happening right before their eyes.

So listen to what the bible says: A prudent man sees danger and takes refuge, but the simple keep going and suffer for it. NIV Proverbs 22:3

One of the things Selco covers in this article is the fact that many will not accept that a breakdown is occurring even as they watch it happening before their eyes. Why don’t they realize it? It’s caused by a condition called ‘Normalcy Bias’ a mental state people enter when facing a disaster.

It causes people to underestimate both the possibility of a disaster occurring and its possible effects. This often results in situations where people fail to adequately prepare for a disaster, and on a larger scale, the failure of governments to include the populace in its disaster preparations. The assumption that is made in the case of the normalcy bias is that since a disaster never has occurred then it never will occur. It also results in the inability of people to cope with a disaster once it occurs. People with a normalcy bias have difficulties reacting to something they have not experienced before. People also tend to interpret warnings in the most optimistic way possible, seizing on any ambiguities to infer a less serious situation.

A good article on ‘Normalcy Bias’ is on our own ChocChipCookies Blog The Survival Mom:

http://thesurvivalmom.com/2010/12/29/normalcy-bias/

You either prepare and stand on your own beholden to no one or you become dependent on others to provide your basic needs and become their ‘serf’. Me I don’t want to be beholden to anyone for providing what is needed for me and mine. I certainly don’t want to have to kiss some ‘gubberment’ third class bureaucratic to try and coax some help from them, I don’t want some ‘jack booted’ thug herding me in line and telling me where to stand, sit, eat or sleep. And last but not least I don’t want to be shut up in with a bunch of ‘zombies’ and have to worry about not only trying to get basic necessities but having to fight to keep what I manage to get.

There is a Great article in my Preparedness Manual on building your on Bug Out Bag titled: A Highly-Mobility 72 Hour Kit-by Ward Dorrity. You can download the whole manual at:

http://tomeaker.com/kart/Preparedness1j.pdf NOTE! THIS IS A FREE DOWNLOAD. I DO NOT MAKE ONE CENT OFF MY PREPAREDNESS MANUAL!

For those of you who haven’t started already it’s time to prepare almost past time maybe. You needed to be stocking up on food guns, ammo, basic household supplies like soap, papergoods, cleaning supplies, good sturdy clothes including extra socks, underwear and extra shoes and boots, cash (I myself have been putting up change for the past few years both for the metal content and the fact that using change places to make what purchases you can will move you down the the list of possible marks during shtf), tools, things you buy everyday start buying two and put one up.

As the LDS say “When the emergency is upon us the time for preparedness has past.”

Again I like to recomend FReeper’s ChocoChipCookie Blog The Survival Mom (Please Blog Police let this one slide!) Where you can get lots of useful information like:

http://thesurvivalmom.com/2011/11/20/8-morale-boosters-for-any-worst-case-scenario/

http://thesurvivalmom.com/2010/02/02/survival-priorities-the-rule-of-three/

And More

Also there is Ferfal’s Blog a survivor of Argentina’s first collapse:

http://ferfal.blogspot.com/

And there is Selco’s Blog a Bosnian War survivor at:

http://shtfschool.com/

“There is no greater disaster than to underestimate danger. Underestimation can be fatal.”

[marron]

Just some thoughts that come to mind.

1. Be as prepared as you can be.

2. Expect to be the one your family and friends coalesce around. You’ll have to be the calming force.

3. Keep what you have very low profile both from people who don’t need to know and from government. Dress down. Don’t brag or talk too much about what you’ve got.

4. A parallel economy will develop and the new reality will look like the third world, but people do survive in the third world. You just have to have what it takes to survive the transition, and skills to trade in the new parallel economy that is the real economy. Be prepared to build and defend the world you want to live in.

5. In the meantime, look up. Fortune favors the brave and determined.

[yarddog]

I have the same problem.

My only living child is married with two children and is financially very well off. I have attempted to convince them to prepare for catastrophe but the only thing I have gotten through to them is to stock up on food if for no other reason than it is probably a good investment.

My parents could have gotten through just about anything. They both grew up under harsh conditions during the depression but they both died years ago at an old age.

[mountainlion]

These posts have a lot of good information but there is no one size fits all. Most is written for city folks which only applies to half the population and landmass. We all are different and will have to develop different methods. We will not be perfectly equipped for problems.

[TheOldLady]

Saul Alinsky.

That is so sad.

However, the left has successfully propagandized at least three generations of children in our schools, colleges, and universities.

Undoing all that misinformation and teaching of some bizarre “History of the United States” propaganda that never happened is a nearly insurmountable task.

[Chuckster]

George Hanson: You know, this used to be a helluva good country. I can’t understand what’s gone wrong with it.

Billy: Man, everybody got chicken, that’s what happened. Hey, we can’t even get into like, a second-rate hotel, I mean, a second-rate motel, you dig? They think we’re gonna cut their throat or somethin’. They’re scared, man.

George Hanson: They’re not scared of you. They’re scared of what you represent to ‘em.

Billy: Hey, man. All we represent to them, man, is somebody who needs a haircut.

George Hanson: Oh, no. What you represent to them is freedom.

Billy: What the hell is wrong with freedom? That’s what it’s all about.

George Hanson: Oh, yeah, that’s right. That’s what’s it’s all about, all right. But talkin’ about it and bein’ it, that’s two different things. I mean, it’s real hard to be free when you are bought and sold in the marketplace. Of course, don’t ever tell anybody that they’re not free, ‘cause then they’re gonna get real busy killin’ and maimin’ to prove to you that they are. Oh, yeah, they’re gonna talk to you, and talk to you, and talk to you about individual freedom. But they see a free individual, it’s gonna scare ‘em.

Billy: Well, it don’t make ‘em runnin’ scared.

George Hanson: No, it makes ‘em dangerous. Buh, neh! Neh! Neh! Neh! Swamp!

[Travis McGee]

I totally understand, and so do you. My goal with the first 2/3 of Alas was to create enough interest to cause the reader to climb up the tower with the narrator. Then it’s a classic (and intended) “bait and switch” over to the “why” or “message” part.

If I wrote a 3K word essay on “Why our civilization is failing and will crash,” nobody would read it. Hence the story. Thanks for reading it. The target audience is that group that would otherwise never, ever read that “why” message.

[Travis McGee]

This will be our civilization, one day before our major cities are burning.

Alas, Brave New Babylon.

[B4Ranch]

>>In the event of a SHTF event where I live, nothing bad is going to happen (to me) within about a three hundred yard radius.<<

Google “101 - Part 1 Introduction - Rex Reviews” with the quotation marks.

[yorkiemom]

I was recently doing some research about the aftermath of some natural disasters that took place here in America. I was shocked to find that the articles I was looking for – ones that I had read in the past – were pretty hard to find, but articles refuting the sought-for pieces were rampant. Not just one event, but every single crisis aftermath that I looked up, had articles that were written after the fact stating in no uncertain terms that the hunger, chaos, and unrest never happened.

When looking for copies of 1984 and Animal Farm to re-read, they seemed to be in short supply. Even Amazon had very few versions available and local bookstores had none. They are either being suppressed - or we are buying them up in droves. I hope it's the latter. I do know they are not taught in schools any longer. Mores the shame.