[armchair psychology]
So you’re saying there’s a whole *book *about [fictional] people like Johnson who got the big promotion because of their marketable skills but get their true comeuppance when the S hits the F? Fascinating!
[/armchair psychology]
I’d have to say, the introduction of European pathogens to the virgin fields of the Americas after contact with Europe started in the 1500s comes pretty damn close. Multiple diseases people had no immunity to, cumulative death rates capable of hitting 80 - 100 %…is pretty apocalyptic.
As for a look at how much of the current population of the world can be fed in a total breakdown situation I recommend “Dies the Fire” It is fantasy, and not an event anyone should prepare for, but the author really did his research on the consequences.
Anyway, I seem to remember some researchers going through a lot of records on disasters, and finding that most social people with the biggest networks survived best. Preparing for a specific disaster runs the risk of preparing for the wrong one, but social connections are always useful I guess.
And if nobody has any stores of supplies on which to draw, of what use is the networking? Neither friends nor supplies are enough on their own, as I have said in previous threads on this topic. What is puzzling to me in these threads is the hostility that preppers draw. If you don’t believe any prep-worthy crisis is ever going to occur, what does it matter to you what people you don’t even know do with their money? Even if they are the worst kind of gun and mre hoarding caricature of a prepper, what’s it to you? You don’t think there will be a crisis. You aren’t planning on stockpiling anything and many of you don’t like guns, so it isn’t even like they are depriving you of stuff you would like to have or driving the prices up past what you can afford.
I’m not seeing any hostility, just some rib-poking. People at the extreme ends of any hobby or endeavor invariably draw criticism or hoots of derision, so it is with preppers.
I assume you have seen the show “Doomsday Preppers”, do you not find many of the people depicted therein hilarious? The incredibly specific threats they imagine and their often half-assed attempts to prepare for them are often quite funny.
I think my attitude is closest to Lemur866’s. Yes, I expect something bad to happen. I’d like to have more non-perishables and water set aside. I wish we had a diesel generator. My thought is 3-4 weeks. But realistically?
-tornado: even an EF-5 which we’d survive won’t end society as we know it.
-blizzard: most likely disaster. We’d be in trouble, but likely wouldn’t die. What we have around the house right now probably would suffice, even though it might screw us up real good as the only food available.
-earthquake: possible, but unlikely to wipe out our local infrastructure.
What I do expect to happen in the next twenty years is some type of civil insurrection of the have nots vs. the haves. And as we’re a little closer to the former, I don’t feel very threatened.
Everything, so far, in the history of history has been temporary. Even the big “collapases” have happened over the course of years, if not centuries (the fall of Rome, etc). So my personal guess is that it would be temporary.
Never watched it. I’ll take your word for the hilarity based on the fact that every reality showI ever tried to watch presented their subjects in the most provocative and/or antagonistic way. If you are basing your opinion of preppers on that show, then I suspect you have some wildly wrong ideas about preppers and prepping.
I am a medieval reenactor and I camp out ALOT. Because of this I have most of my gear in a set of 4 big plastic bins and my tent. I keep an assaortment of canned food in one of the bins as well as my camp stove and a few bottles of propane. I also keep a pack of bottled water in the trunk of my truck. I usually restock my stuff a few days after I get back from an event, so if I had to I could throw those bins in the back of my truck and hit the road in about 15 minutes with enough food and supplies to last a week or so. Add my guns and a few boxes of ammo and I make it more likely I keep it.
Well, I’m not a prepper (seriously, I’d be the first person jumping out of a window if the shit hits the fan). But assuming your friends are willing and able to hike to their rural hideaway, their plan doesn’t seem that comical to me.
I can think of situations where it would be more advantageous to stay in the city. Organized emergency relief efforts would likely focus on urban centers first, and of course, there is protection and support in numbers. But I can also think of some situations where being in a city is that last place I’d want to be. Like in the case of highly infectious, lethal disease. Or political turmoil resuting in civil unrest and anarchy. I suppose an extreme prepper would have both rural and urban/suburban hideaways.
And lots and lots of guns and ammo. That is one constant, no matter what scenario is being planned for.
Past performance being no guarantee of future returns. Still, my money is on Humanity.
If I lose, I promise I won’t complain afterward. 
It’s 181 miles. They are older (~65) and unfit. The idea of walking there has never crossed their minds. They are upperclass WASP types and I’m pretty sure the wife cries if her hair appointment is rescheduled.
OK, that is ROFLMAO comical.
The comment you responded to was addressing “temporary” on a time scale of weeks.
They have kids and, maybe, grandkids? If so, there is a pretty good possibility the place is as much for those people as it is for themselves. Or maybe they like having a country place to get away to when times are good. Whatever their motivations are, I wouldn’t expect they’ve shared them all with you.
But where are you going to go? If something happens that you have to decide in 15 minutes that you need to get out you’ll be stuck in traffic with everybody else who decided they needed to get out. Even if you’re not in traffic you’re going to have to go a long way to insulate yourself enough from other people that you’ll be safe.
Civil unrest, hurricanes, epidemics, volcanoes, war–they all have a build-up that gives one plenty of time to evacuate. The only likely disaster that I can think of that would really require getting out of dodge at a moment’s notice is earthquake related like a tsunami. We have recent experiences in Japan and India where guns+ammo did not appear to be any help.
I was just thinking of something I read once, and I wanted to get opinions. The gist of it was that most preppers were going about it all wrong in one very important respect: they were trying to prepare to survive world-ending catastrophe alone. The author’s opinion was that people best survive by pulling together a small community of people preparing together would fare much better than each of them would alone.
People talk about having lots of guns and ammo, but that’s unlikely to make a huge difference if being attacked from all sides by a mob who’ve realized you have life-sustantaining/saving supplies. Or if you get sick and have no one to care for you (and you’d be too sick to use your weapons then, anyway). Sometimes whatever medicine is stockpiled won’t be sufficient to keep you well.
Nope, that’s not the main point of the book, it’s just a recurring minor theme.
The main points are, I’d say, we’re insanely vulnerable to an EMP attack and afterwards anyone who’s an insulin dependent diabetic is completely hosed.
But yeah, what is a highly marketable skill in a technological civilization is not necessarily so when the lights go out for good.
The bolded part cracked me up. Have you read your replies to even sven? You seem genuinely angry at her for not having a freaking bug-out bag. As far as I can tell, the only hostility expressed in this thread is coming from you.
Scumpup… in all fairness, does seem genuinely pissed off.
glad he’s not
…also, welcome back to posting!