“Head for the hills” does not work very well for very long.
Virtually everything we have or use today requires a machine shop.
Can you live without these things:
paint and paintbrushes
bandages and medicines
shaving razors
brass shell casings
rubber
plastic
metal knives
glass
spark plugs
motor oil
auto oil filter
fishing line
metal components of tack for horses
clothing, cloth, thread, sewing needles
underwear
flour to make bread
shoes
canned food
concrete
hammers and nails
well pump
irrigation pipe
writing implement
countless other things
As all their possessions, clothing, trucks, cars, guns, knives, hammers, pitchforks, generators, gears, etc., wear out and eventually become useless, a familiy that had “escaped into the hills” would find their camping trip becoming far less comfortable than living in a city 4,000 years ago. Anyone who can’t make their own shoes will be required to trade for them or go barefoot, for example. If one is going to drill every hole in the wood of one’s fort with a HAND DRILL, the simplest kind of drill that will last the longest - what to do if it breaks ? New hand drills have to be made.
All farming products must be created on farms. Unfortunately, farms can’t be picked up and moved about, they’re pretty darn stationary. They’re also very hard to defend. If an enemy wants to destroy a farm, they simply need to fight the farmer - they can even lose and run away - they will have messed up the crops for that year.
All manufactured products have to be made in some kind of shop. The shop may be ever so humble, but a shop must be used. A lathe can’t be carted about on one’s back in the woods and set up outside. It needs a concrete floor, it needs climate control. Or it simply will not produce accurate parts. And eventually, the lathe will need repair.
Now if one has a vacation or hunting cabin near a nice little town way up in the woods, say NE Pennsylvania - well, that’s a little different. One could have one’s stockpiles there and set things up so that with a little trading with nearby people and a nearby small town that the everyday comforts of life could be maintained while costing a minimal amount. The town would be small enough and far enough from big cities that the “evil warlord” would not want to waste their time “attacking the cabins up by the lake”. That kind of situation would perhaps work as a peaceful area some folks could run to if their city/suburb had some big public safety problems. Any “attack” way out in the boonies will make everyone else who lives out there band together to repel the “band of thieves”.
The U.S. has vast tracts of land where the population is spread thin. And millions of people concentrated in cities and suburbs who couldn’t survive on their own in the woods beyond a few weeks.
Hence, the “big battle” of some “big chaos” would be decided very quickly, within a year or two. The more “chaos” there is, the more uncomfortable everyone gets. Groups of harassed citizens, living in a city or town, if things got really bad, would hire and recruit fighters to defend their area, and rather ruthlessly and unceremoniously execute intruders - so they could go on about their lives. One only has to attend a town meeting and see the typical nastiness to imagine how long societal breakdown would be tolerated; simple property changes can cause hatred and grudges that last for decades.
If the “run to the hills” is viewed only as temporary, until some “battle of warlords” is settled and the “escapees” then plan on rejoining a more stable society, then perhaps the creature comforts will be in a tolerable state long enough to make it practical. But a permanent “run to the hills” is simply a lot more uncomfortable than most imagine.
If there is widespread “chaos”, someone or some group would rise to the top and take control through physical force. Whoever has the most military and ex-military at their command stands the best chance of being that person - about 99% chance. And if I’m living alone in a cave, and there are millions back in the city - why would anyone waste time coming out to my cave to steal my last few cans of beans, with a whole city of rubes to rob.
In any struggle, supplies eventually become the deciding factor. The survivalist idea is romantic, but civilization has advanced to the point where most people can’t come close to being able to achieve any sort of decent life completely on their own. Anyone who wants to survive completely on their own should be making their own bows and arrows and learning how to use them, practicing up on making knives, hand tools and farming implements. It’s the blacksmith who will be hold the keys to prosperity.
So for most of the survivalists and the rest of the 300 million Americans who can’t run to the hills, they need to trade with each other for their everyday needs.
300 million starving Americans - I’d hate to be the one standing between them and their supper. How to survive in the city may be the best knowledge of all.
Bingo!
An archaeology article I read long ago about a farm in Subroman Britain (5th century AD, i.e. after the emperor Honorius called the Roman legions back to the continent in 409 AD) noticed that almost the first change in occupation patterns was conversion of the Roman farmhouse/villa, which had been decorated for obvious residence, into a strictly work location. Residents removed to hilltops and only came down to the old farmstead, which had been located in the middle of the bottomlands, convenient to the best fields, for work.
Spanish vineyards changed their operations in the 5th and 6th centuries, too -- relocating close to navigable rivers. Similar thinking: quick retreat by water if needed. The old fields and vineyards continued to be worked, but people changed where they lived and slept.