What misconceptions do you think there are about societal collapse and its aftermath?
My example is the idea from pop culture that there would be a single faction representing what’s left of the US government that may or may not be legitimate in charge of what’s ostensibly the United States proper. I think the reality is that there would be many factions claiming to be the US government or successors to it. There’s also the issue of the military and police. There are over 2.2 million members of law enforcement and the military in the US as we speak and I think it’s a given many would form their own territories and governments of various kinds and ideologies. Many would simply become bandits and form gangs in addition to civilians doing the same with all the horror and atrocities that come with. It would be like medieval Europe but with firearms and armored vehicles. I assume the above is true for any country with a sizeable military and police force. People certainly won’t all be holding hands and singing Kumbaya in the ruins under the rule of some benevolent philosopher king.
That me and my buddies, with our impressive collection of AR-15s and SIG Saurs, will make this little leafy corner of Indiana or wherever a no-go zone.
We’ll be cordoned off and expected to deliver a quota of corn if we want to avoid what the stock of chemical/biological weapons can do to us
That seems rather optimistic. It would be much easier for them to make a few preemptive strikes and then give the media the “facts” of the matter. Too many people believe that someone else will balance that non-existent “teeter-totter” and, if not, they won’t be affected.
Or simply threatened in a more mundane fashion. It isn’t much use if you and your friends are greatly outnumbered and outgunned by the surrounding factions. 100 people with rifles probably aren’t stopping 500 people with rifles and armored vehicles.
That there will be continued access to gasoline or other fuel to run vehicles for marauding hordes and intrepid individualistic adventurers.
That high-quality ammunition will be in vast supply for more than a couple of years.
I was going to say that the US government would instantly become an autocratic state ruling by violence and oppression, but now that’s already started.
The main one IMO is how easy it would be for society to break down completely. IMO things could get really bad with a lot death and destruction and still society will still function to some degree. Think of Germany at the end of WW2, you had destruction and death on a massive scale, easily comparable to most Hollywood apocalypses, yet society carried on on, people went to work, it didn’t all collapse.
That goes double for the military hierarchy. That would take even more than civilian society to break that down. Remember the plans for WW3 in Europe called for 90+ percent casualty rates in the American units in Europe, and that was the plan.
If we’re talking North America here, how completely even a small war would trash our cities. We haven’t had military conflict on our continent since the US Civil War, and none of our infrastructure was built with that in mind. A good artillery barrage would cause a lot more damage than most people think.
How “fun” it would be. I’ve interacted with people who imagine it like a fun zombie-type shootout, killing all those neighbors who had the wrong political views, roaming across the landscape on pickups, living off the grid in pretty natural scenery, etc.
They don’t picture the 99% intense grueling work, boredom, fear, no antibiotics, no running water.
I’ve spent a day on a “working” ranch. Sure a lot of food comes in, but it comes in spikes. If you’re not at a spike, then you’re eating your future seed stock (animal, grain or vegetable) if you’re starving, which means big problems down the line. Similarly, the amount of work is back breaking, most of us who aren’t young and in good shape are going to die very quickly between the lack of food and labor.
And, of course, the elephant in the room. Transportation. Once the stocks of working fuel is gone (quite quickly mind you!) and we’re in the bicycle and shoe-leather stage of transportation, those food producing regions (that have survived) isn’t going to be shipping it anywhere outside a few hours walk without major organization. Most urban people live waaaaay beyond that range.
I’m of course leaving out a huge number of other factors, such as food preservation, difficulties in irrigation, and tools to maintain even smaller (non-agribusiness) farms, the mobs of people raiding and killing everyone on the farms to get food (and then leaving it fallow) and the large loss of skilled persons to manage food generation WITHOUT all of the said tools.
I think the assumption is that if an enemy is able to attack American cities with artillery, we’re probably already in bad shape? I can see where that point of view comes from.
That silver and gold will be the currency used. It will be bread and bandages. I actually joked that in the apocalypse currency will be bourbon and toilet paper (someone added bullets). It was funny until covid hit and proved I wasn’t joking.
To expand, I think skills will be huge. If you are the only person that can do X and everyone needs that, you are the safest (and probably relatively richest) person in the compound. Intellectuals ill be eaten.
Yeah, I was going to say this, except with post-Black Death Europe as my example. The biggest myth is that societal collapse is a thing. Particular societies have collapsed, but there’s always a new one coming along to fill the vacuum.
Location is important. Cities will be truley screwed after about 3 days .Maybe sooner.
You can watch the roads coming in right now. Hundreds, maybe or thousands of semi tractor trailor rigs coming in all day and all night, mostly at night, to keep stores and warehouses supplied. That is what feeds the city. It takes a lot of product to keep a city running and none of it is made there.. That will stop and everyone will be out of supplies an a few days. You think toilet paper during Covid was bad? Everything will be gone.
The common trope of going to a Costco or a similar store, those stores will be enptied very soon, and then what happens? No food, no supplies, roads are unpassable, no way out of the city. No fuel. You are not going to be able to even walk out.
Rural ares will last longer. I live in a large county with only 2 roads in and out that can be easily contolled, and it has reasources from the ocean and a large river, that won’t last long either, but a bit longer.
How many guns do you have? Ammo? Humans ar not benevolent when their personal needs and family are endangered, they may share what they have left when they can.
Everyone will get protective of the resources that they have, and probably very mean.