A gang, which likely outnumbers the people in your home, surrounds the place and simply decides to wait you out. Or sets fire to your roof. Or they simply storm the building, as some of the looters are likely to be either police officers who have become desperate or current or former military members who have experience in house to house combat. Or they simply wait until all or most of your party are outside and then they snipe you off one by one.
How long are well-armed people of any religion or personal creed going to last?
Well-armed compounds really only “work” when they are manned by trained people who realize that they may be killed defending them. Since that doesn’t include most people in any society, most siege situations end rather quickly and usually in the favor of the parties laying siege. After they do, if the people who started the siege are enraged that your defense has cost them members of their raiding party (especially family, friend and loved ones) they’ll probably execute any of the captives for whom they cannot find a later “use” .
I have enough food in my home to last me and my SO about 6 months. I also have firearms and ammo. After 6 months or so has passed, if things haven’t gotten better or if it appears that we are going to be assaulted by a mob for our stores, I plan on beating a hasty retreat and starting over elsewhere. If that’s not possible, then I guess we’d have to decide if we want to live in some sort of “Mad Max vs. Damnation Alley”type of post-apocalyptic nightmare and then make some hard decisions.
By the time the situation degenerates to marauding tribes, I doubt most people will still be trying to hold out in one-family homesteads, if only because they would be overrun like you conjectured. People can band together for defense too.
However whenever you read or listen to “preppers” and most survivalists on television, they emphasizes how they are prepared to survive as individuals,not as part of a larger group. Nor do most seem interested in restoring their larger civilization which itself would help lead to anarchy.
Unless society as a whole or a reasonable facsimile thereof could be reconstituted within weeks or months of a SHTF event, then things would simply grow worse until some form of “The Postman” style series of feudal states would arise. Now those states wouldn’t have any issues with relieving dedicated groups of their stores as they (feudal states) aren’t known for their belief in the “democratic process.”
If you have read my previous posts on the subject, you’ll know I’m not one of those “I’ll make it on my own” nutballs. There is strength in numbers. that’s why in a survival situation I hook up with other people I know are prepared. A defensive area will last a lot longer than a mob outside. We have food and water…they don’t. They’ll move on to easier pickings.
I like to go camping/backpacking a few times a year, so my survivalist rig is mainly camping gear. A tent is great- if the power goes out and it is cold, you might be surprised at how warm you will be inside a tent. It is like being inside a giant piece of clothing I guess, it really holds the heat in. Set one up in the living room and you don’t have to worry about temprature. You can also stay surprisingly dry in a tent, even in the most relentless rainstorms.
There is the camp stove and fuel, a water purifier, the backpack itself. I don’t have a gun or even a Rambo knife, just some pocket knives and a hand saw and hatchet I suppose. There are a lot of rice and beans around, along with some dehydrated camping rations. Lots of outdoor clothing, sleeping bags, cord and duct tape, tarps.
I don’t know about the end of the world- I’m pretty much ready to be homeless.
Prepping is helpful with or without expected crisis because it helps individuals to become more independent. In this case prepping does not simply mean obtaining goods needed to survive but learning skills such as permaculture, herbal medicine, storing and preserving food, water management, first aid, self defense, etc.
I have no idea. I don’t talk to him much, most of the information I get regarding him and his life comes through his wife/my aunt. She is even more hilarious than he is, actually. He decided he needed land in the middle of nowhere to become a prepper for the end of the world and she tagged along, super excited to get to go on a grand adventure in a new town. She takes classes at the local Y, gets together with nearby neighbors and drinks margaritas and designs clothes for her granddaughter, etc. She is having a great time while her husband is building his compound. Then he stocks the pond on their land so he has plenty of fish in case of the apocalypse, so of course she names the fish and decides they are her pets, getting upset when he tries to catch and eat them. She is thrilled to shoot guns in their yard, getting target practice and whatnot, but she doesn’t see it as getting ready for the end of the world, just a super fun thing to do on a Saturday afternoon. They have been married for more than 30 years and are very happy together but sometimes it is kind of like if Bert and Ernie were an old married couple.
Even the stuff you don’t think you need to worry about you might. I had a case of 1½ liter plastic water bottles in the basement. Despite supposedly being sealed, it’s amazing how much they shriveled up when water evaporated over time. Also, the stickiness of tapes in first aid bandages changes over time (especially when subject to temperature extremes, like in your car).
I also have a good selection of per-bankruptcy Twinkies; should be good for another 30 years or so.
My personal philosophy is that most people want to live as long as possible, ignoring the fact that their quality of life will steadily decrease. I’ve known a lot of close family members who died of old age, and usually their life ended 20-40 years before they finally kicked the bucket. My aunt, for example, has been in nursing home care and an invalid for the past 20+ years after her second stroke. Seriously, who wants to be 80 years old in a post-apocalyptic world?
So, when I see these survivalists, I’m thinking, why are they spending tens of thousands now for when they are over 70? Why not spend it now when they can enjoy it?
For me, I am expecting to live my life to the fullest until I am 60, then, gracefully die instead of fighting for 10% of my current quality of life with arthritic fingers and dementia.
She sounds like a good egg, pbbth. DO keep in touch with her. You being around to listen may bump up her spirits, though given your details about her, I doubt she’d ever let on.
Planning for a week or two of local disaster might be a good idea. Planning for the end of civilization is cuckoo for coca-puffs. Nevertheless, my plan for the zombie apocalypse is to get a Mad Max Road Warrior style metal mask and some leather and cause mayhem with a band of idiots. I’ve always thought of myself as the King of the Idiots.
It should not be harmful given what is happening right now, i.e., no global economic recovery for several years, high food and oil prices, more problems involving droughts and floods, more significant environmental damage, and more.
Within reasonable limits, prepping is useful - it would be stupid not to prep if you live in any kind of high risk area. But I don’t think that those kind of “preppers” are what the OP is talking about. The really hardcore ones, with underground bunkers and years of food and plans for completely self-sustaining electricity, they’re not really, 100% expecting the apocalypse to come - it’s a hobby. Like that guy who’s always working on the next home improvement project, or that family who constantly rearrange their living room furniture because they swear, next time it’s going to be perfect.
Everyone has their own little mental fantasy - being a rock 'n roll star, writing a bestselling series, going to Mars, being elected President - some people’s consist of Yellowstone exploding. So it’s not that it’s “worth it”; they enjoy stocking bunkers and imagining endless disaster scenarios. When that hobby becomes an obsession and starts interfering with everyday life, then it’s time to step back and examine your priorities.
This is definitely not the same as fantasies about being a pop star, etc. Many of the crises mentioned have been raised by various organizations, ranging from the WHO to insurance firms to military organizations to the Pentagon.
