If someone could help me with the basics of survival, like farming or whatever, I’d find some way to contribute. But I don’t have any basic survival skills, or the space to have months of food saved up. I don’t know much about shooting or self-defense. I could probably hunt if I could get my hands on a left-handed bow (I used to be an archer.) It’s getting over that first hurdle of ''every man for himself" that would be a challenge. I’m also somewhat physically frail. I would be functionally disabled about four days a month without birth control.
But if I could somehow get past the initial stages then yes, I could adapt and figure stuff out. I could help build things. I’ve always wanted to learn how to build things.
Yes, the question of nearby humanity is a big one, and the degree of competition vs. cooperation will be a big factor.
I think, in an apocalyptic scenario where there’s an infrastructure collapse but not necessarily a horrible catastrophe that results in something like a radioactive wasteland, that we will largely work together to rebuild society. So I don’t think we’ll be doing it all alone, and I don’t think it will be (for the most part) a ‘Max Max’ style scenario of roving gangs and constant battles to the death for a can of beans.
Think I’m being too optimistic? I don’t think so. This is what human beings have been doing since the beginning-- forming societies. We are a social species. This is what we do. Yes, there will be pockets of violence and fighting for resources, but I don’t think it will be the relentlessly grim inhumanity to man that shows like ‘The Walking Dead’ often depict.
If I could ignore the reality of living in a city, so the real risk of anything I do being stolen or otherwise damaged, because there’s a lot of people here living in tiny flats with families who are going to hit major issues well before I would, it depends how much prep time I get really.
I’ve done enough vegetable growing to be reasonably confident I could, given space, time and a bit of luck, probably grow enough to live on, so long as I stayed healthy. I also live in an area with good fresh water supplies, and there’s good farm land nearby. I do some foraging and I’m good at plant ID, which could be useful. But if the apocalypse was tomorrow, with the best skills in the world there’s nothing much to forage, and no potatoes or grains are going to be harvestable here until June at the very earliest. It would be different if it was starting in spring, with enough time to get relevant supplies beforehand, maybe.
I typically keep at least a month or so’s stored food around- not prepping exactly, just I’m bad at meal planning so keep my options open. I have a woodburner, but only a week or two worth of wood available if I was actually using it as a main source of heat and for cooking (including boiling water), rather than an occasional extra on cold nights. If I made it through to spring, I’d be pretty weak and not much good for anything, if I had to rely on what I have and can do.
We’d be all right for a few weeks or months in terms of food and water, but if the shit hits the fan, I expect roving gangs of people looking to steal my stuff. When we get to that point, I’m out. Y’all can have all my food and water, and eat my corpse if you have a mind to – I’m plump*, and probably tender. Just be kind to my cat.
I’m a solid 1.5 ! I figure the end will be similar to the outcome in the 1959 film On The Beach! …Republicans and the far Right will blame Democrats to there last greedy breath as they clutch there Ar 15’s for eternity !
Eh, I’m probably a two or even a three (barely), but have enough concerns to probably drop my score far lower.
Compared to a lot of posters here, I’m slightly (!) younger in my early 50s, with no medical issues or prescription drugs. I’m sadly well armed and ammoed up, and due to minor prepper tendencies, have enough shelf-stable food and water for 3-4 weeks. I’m a decent shot, and have a lot of .22 for varmint hunting. I even have some weird skills that might be usefully rare in a post-apoc society, as I’ve done some casual blacksmithing work with my FiL (who has an entire forge setup in town, including “modern” gas fired forges but also coke and charcoal set ups).
But seriously, even with all of the above, Colorado has very poor soil near me, and too many people to support on it, plus no one is armed enough to protect themselves 24/7 without a substantial association. Plus, depending on the apoc in question, I’d likely join some of the zeros - a painless way out has a great deal of attraction if it’s really the end of the world - my only reasons to ignore that would be protecting my wife and my pets, which would tear me emotionally with my inability to do much for them.
I wonder how many people are on livesaving meds right now.
I have a friend who has a rare condition that causes tissue to build up in her trachea, slowly suffocating her. She has to have surgery to remove it every year. If she did not have yearly surgery, she would die. I think about her all the time when people ask apocalypse questions. What are the odds she’d find a surgeon? Increased risk of sepsis even if she could. It doesn’t look good.
Yes, in my post, there’s lots of work to be done. Some of it requires skills. Cutting down trees is easy, but doing it in a way that no one gets injured or killed, and no important materials are damaged, is another thing. But moving the logs around once they’re cut? That’s mostly just labor.
Same with building a log cabin. Knowing how to plan out the building, and shaping the logs to fit together takes skill and knowledge. But then, I’d need a few helping hands to do the “lifting logs into place” part.
Same way with growing food. Knowing what to plant, where to plant, and when to plant takes knowledge. But tilling a large field needs labor, and lots of it.
Sure, there might be cooperation on such things. But I can also seen good old fashioned slavery rearing its ugly head. “I’ve got the tools, the skills, and the seeds, so you’re going to follow orders and work your ass off, because that’s all you’re good for!” Given the choice between slavery and starvation, I suspect a lot more people than you’d like to believe would bend the knee.
Needing pretty much any kind of medical intervention would be a death sentence for most people. In The Stand, there was a scene where someone dies because the people in their group didn’t have the skills needed to perform an appendectomy. And that’s a relatively simple procedure.
You’re right humanity has banded together since forever. But everyone who did that grew up in a society that was based on banding together.
Speaking just to the USA, everyone here now except the elderly grew up in a society where thinking about other people was mostly for suckers. If you were thinking of other people, it pretty much stopped at your immediate family or maybe church. Everyone else was a faceless obstacle, not a real human.
Given the propaganda of the last 20-30 years, a decent fraction of Americans are positively salivating today, pre-apocalypse, at the idea of eliminating vast swathes of their fellow Americans. I see very little evidence those folks will cooperate with each other in doing anything except perpetrating violence. They sure as hell won’t cooperate with those they think of as parasitic Others.
I’m afraid this is true, but a significant fraction of these are living this out via watching Fox News, voting Republican, grumbling on Facebook, and buying stuff from Franklin Mint. I pray that if the shit really hits, and these folks move from fantasy to reality, they will discover wells of compassion and decency that TV drove out of them. (Think of it – no TV and no Facebook! It’s just possible that alone would usher in an Age of Aquarius. )
I’ve got modest camping, gardening, and survival skills, but I can see that getting fresh water would be a big issue. We’re hooked up to municipal water. I don’t know anyone other than commercial well-drillers with the equipment to sink a well. There is a creek about 2 miles away. I voted 2.
In fact, most of the medical issues I have would probably get better under such a scenario. Almost all are related to being overweight, and that’s one problem that would fix itself pretty quickly if I was out there having to cut down trees to make fields to plant crops to feed myself.
Yes, I think (at least hope) that when shit gets real, a lot of the Fox News inspired ‘recreational hating’ will disappear. A lot of that is being driven by the very media that will no longer exist, and a lot of it needs constant stirring to stay agitated. Yes, there will be some acts of atrocity based on hatred that people get to act out, ‘Purge’ style, but I think (or again, at least hope) much less than some might expect.
I voted 1. I’d be hopeless. But my answer might be a 2 depending on the scenario. Is it merely civilization that has collapsed, or are all the people who would likely be looking to do me harm already dead, so that I only have to worry about the elements rather than roving bandits? In the latter scenario I might be slightly better off.
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