Posted on 10/19/2012 10:08:13 PM PDT by Feline_AIDS
Preppers,
I'm new to this prepping thing, and I have some questions.
I don't know exactly what you're all prepping for, because I know there are different concerns in different parts of the country. Californians, for example, are more concerned about the big one than I am on the east coast. I'm more concerned about an EMP than people in Wyoming, probably.
But what about when the SHTF? I'm assuming by SHTF everyone means economic and thus governmental collapse. Is that right? No more USA?
I have some questions that are ignorant and simple, but I was born that way, so bear with me.
Even when the SHTF, the government of the United States will persist, simply because the government is the original prepper. Mt. Weather facility and all that. So what we really mean by "governmental collapse" is extreme lawlessness and no new goods or resources. Plus government non-intervention. The government may exist, but that doesn't change the fact that hungry/thirsty/angry people will be fighting for resources. When the SHTF, Americans will have to be self-reliant without any support from any public utility or service. Many, many people will die. Many more will be desperate and act in ways they'd never imagine before they die.
How long do you all expect this state of things to last? If all public utilities in the US were permanently shut off, wouldn't it only be a matter of weeks before the great die-off happened? Dehydration would get most of them, then the rapid spread of waterborne illnesses would get lots of those left. Gangs would form and survive longer through unpleasant means. When will the well-prepped prepper stick his head out of his hidey-hole?
Because the government will persist in some capacity, it's reasonable to expect they'd eventually try to straighten things out. Maybe I'm crazy for thinking that, and I don't mean that the correct response to disaster is to sit and wait for Uncle Sam to carry us out on his shoulders. What I mean is that I don't see how the SHTF situation would last more than 6 months, max. A new, smaller society would form and rebuild, most likely without the tech we have today because the industries that support that tech would be gone.
I guess I'm just trying to reconcile two things in my brain. 1) The US government will be present in some form not too long after the catastrophe. Less than a year. Not in its ubiquitous wannabe-omnipotent present state, but it would return. This doesn't mean safety or salvation, but it probably does mean cooperation. Possibly the return of some order. And some society would develop that is fueled by the self-reliance of the remaining people. 2) Most preppers seem to be expecting a lifetime of bushcraft.
Parting thought: If Obama wins reelection, I will take prepping much more seriously in the next few weeks/months. If he doesn't, I will continue to prep for more localized catastrophes.
You are saying you are an old guy? Come live here. Old guys know so much and are so capable in severe situations.
I think we need an “Old Timer Survival Club”. What a powerhouse that would be.
Common theme. In Rescue Dive training, the mantra is do not turn a solo rescue into a double rescue.
Kippered herring, stewed tomatoes and beer is traditional for Sunday mornings. Harumph!
You would have to make it here on your own after everything turns to crap. Bring food and EMT stuff. Don't try to sneak into the AO. It's not healthy.
/johnny
Not long ago, just a month or so, I went to bed upstairs at 2 am, and took off my emergency pendent and dropped it on my bedside table. In a short time, there was a loud banging on my door. When I dropped the pendant, it hit something that punched it's button and it alerted the base unit downstairs and it called 911. Since I was upstairs, I didn't hear that happen.
I went to the door and it was like Christmas with so many flashing lights going. Two cop cars were there, the fire truck, and ambulance. There had to be 12 or so people standing there and the firemen were ready to tear down my door. I held out my pendant and said what happened and apologized profusely.
When they were convinced I was okay, the procession left my house. The police show up to make sure the situation outside isn't dangerous and are ready to deal with whatever is inside. After they make their outside assessment, the firemen are there to tear down the door and evacuate the patient from upstairs if that's where the patient is. The EMTs are there to deal with the medical emergency.
I think they were there within 8-10 minutes of the unit calling 911.
“What if they just decide to kill you and family and take all you have is your plan to just stand there?”
Anyone who breaks in will kill you - they have taken the killing path if they try to break in.
This year I’m considering Halloween decorations that include manikins nailed to trees, impaled, etc. and labeled with signs that say things like “Looter”, “Rioter”...
No particular need to take them down before the elections, I suppose.
The closest thing we could have to a riot here is a fence down, and cows in the road......
There is not here.
Earlier this week stupid cop accidentally shot a guy across the street from my front door.
I’d be moving......
Not old enough, yet. Still young enough to think I’m not getting old. However, we youngins can’t let those oldtimers get beat on. Besides, after the bad guys were done beating up on you they’d just come after us, so we might as well take care of them while we know where they are.
Nice! I like it. “Honest, officer, it was ‘ween decorations! I swear!”
I would cheerfully kill for a wafer fab job anywhere but California.
I've done that, btw, for over a year, in an unheated shack on the side of a mountain with no commercial electricity and only a manual well for water.
I guess, by your estimate, that was before you were 32.
a great book to read about this issue is called Earth Abides by Stewart.
It is the story of the return to sociatial functioning after a worldwide disaster.
The end of the world as we know it might not happen, but where we live, we can have blizzards or ice storms and power outages that last for days.
That’s what we are prepping for. Fuel, canned goods, TP, dog food and coffee.
and have it in my reference binder.
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You have a BINDER?
I figured you must be anti woman /sarc
we were married that I found out that not all that time she’d spent in mental hospitals was as staff...
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You are not kidding...
I keep trying to convince the silver-haired golf cart crowd in my AO to mount mini-guns on their vehicles. They can be so sneaky at times, moreso than those of us who still raise hell with noisy ATV/UTV's. ;)
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