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Old 04-13-2015, 11:32 AM
 
Location: rural south west UK
5,369 posts, read 3,546,263 times
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"low chance" yes, impossible no. there is a saying:"prepare for the worst and hope for the best". so you are saying we shouldn't bother? just rely on TPTB and hope it never happens. good luck with that, typical sheeple attitude, ignore it and it'll never happen, yeah right.

Last edited by bigpaul; 04-13-2015 at 12:15 PM..
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Old 04-13-2015, 12:25 PM
 
Location: Just over the horizon
18,401 posts, read 7,003,692 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Cape Cod Todd View Post
I was watching the Walking Dead last night and had a thought about prepping.
If we take out the zombies we have a group of people who are trying to survive after a catastrophic event. In the last few seasons the group has had much more to fear from other people than the zombies. They have faced enemies who have tried to steal their supplies to enemies that have taken up cannibalism.
The group tried to stay put in a prison which gave them security and they tried to farm veggies and raise pigs to eat but that failed. All along they scavenged to homes and towns in their immediate area until the supplies were exhausted. They were eventually set on the run by a more powerful group of survivors.

The show has them currently on the road, living day to day and near their end where some are questioning why they are trying so hard to stay alive. The group is actually becoming the ones to be feared after suffering some very hard losses to other people and zombies.

With prepping I think even the best prepared would eventually find themselves roaming the land scavenging what they could find.

Remove the zombies and insert another natural disaster and I think this is how the survivors would end up in the post apocalyptic world.

What do you think?

You have to remember that the show is based on a comic book, being just the authors take on a fictional apocalyptic event with lots of poetic license thrown in.

That being said, I think the people with the best chance of long term survival will be those who are knowledgeable and adept at how to survive alone in the wilderness.

Communities help in some ways but present many pitfalls in others. Avoiding interaction with other humans is not for everyone though and many people can't deal with isolation or mother nature for that matter.

Me personally, I'd want to be as far from civilization as I could get.....a permanent bug out location that with terrain and features that would discourage most people from venturing, and where I'd worry more about four legged animals than two legged ones.
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Old 04-13-2015, 12:34 PM
 
Location: rural south west UK
5,369 posts, read 3,546,263 times
Reputation: 6507
most of the current population will not survive a life changing event and many will not even want to. about 97% of the population does not store more than a few days worth of food at any one time and most of that is thrown out once it gets to the "use by" date. most people don't have a clue where and how their food is grown or reared and wouldn't know how to even start being self reliant.
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Old 04-13-2015, 09:25 PM
 
Location: SC
8,793 posts, read 8,102,135 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by bigpaul View Post
"low chance" yes, impossible no. there is a saying:"prepare for the worst and hope for the best". so you are saying we shouldn't bother? just rely on TPTB and hope it never happens. good luck with that, typical sheeple attitude, ignore it and it'll never happen, yeah right.
Yes. At least - not to the point that too many carry this insane obsession.

My question to you and others is... at how many times in each millennia - strike that - each century, during the span of a lifetime, has there been complete civil, societal, and technological breakdown? One? Zero? If you were prepping right before that time, then you won the lottery - that is if you were any good at it and survived. If you were madly prepping at any other time in history - then you wasted time - and your life, and the lives of your family who could have been doing better things like contributing to society instead of hoping it falls or hiding from it.

Stock up on food, water, and ammunition, and then get a set of books such as... http://www.amazon.com/How-Things-Wor...hy+things+work and be done with it. If you are stocking up on far more than you can carry, well...

Last edited by blktoptrvl; 04-13-2015 at 10:44 PM..
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Old 04-14-2015, 01:57 AM
 
Location: rural south west UK
5,369 posts, read 3,546,263 times
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The Aztecs, The Mayans, the Pharohs, The Ancient Greeks, The Romans, they all thought that their civilisations would last forever, we are no different, maybe with all this technology people think its impossible to fail, nope we just have further to fall is all. prepping is what I do, its not all I do but I am always looking at ways to improve me and my family's survival, I'm probably about done with the buying stuff I'm beginning to wean off that but the larder is stocked and restocked all the time. my main thing this year will be to increase my skills and knowledge to use those skills, these will enable us to survive and thrive when everything else post SHTF has been consumed, eaten, used or broken. prepping is like insurance, people have car insurance but hope they wont have an accident, people have house insurance but hope the house wont be flooded or burnt down, prepping is the same, we hope it will never happen but we are covered in case it does. if I die before it happens, my gear can be sold off and my food can be eaten.

Last edited by bigpaul; 04-14-2015 at 02:08 AM..
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Old 04-14-2015, 02:27 PM
 
Location: Backwoods of Maine
7,485 posts, read 10,435,834 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by blktoptrvl View Post
My question to you and others is... at how many times in each millennia - strike that - each century, during the span of a lifetime, has there been complete civil, societal, and technological breakdown? One? Zero? If you were prepping right before that time, then you won the lottery - that is if you were any good at it and survived. If you were madly prepping at any other time in history - then you wasted time - and your life, and the lives of your family who could have been doing better things like contributing to society instead of hoping it falls or hiding from it...If you are stocking up on far more than you can carry, well...
Has it ever occurred to you that something a bit less than "complete civil, societal, and technological breakdown" could also have far-ranging and catastrophic effects on people? What about if only half of our society breaks down? Pick 1/2 - any half - of the things that society depends upon: just-in-time grocery deliveries to the stores, ATMs open 24/7, affordable energy in the form of petroleum-based products, racial harmony (if you can call that what we have now!), operational cell towers, or any combination of any factors that make up just HALF of what we enjoy today, and imagine life without them. And yes, all of the things I have mentioned have occurred in the past century or less, save those things that were not invented yet.

And still, people survived. We used to have a lot more family farms than we have today in the US. That was a big factor in human survival. Just in the Great Depession alone, there were bank runs, foreclosures, bread and soup lines, hunger (esp among women and children; ever notice that all the people in those lines were men?), and yes, many people did die from the effects of the Great Depession. Many more died during the War Between the States ("civil war") who were not soldiers on any battlefield.

And why would you need to carry your food and gear? Have you not heard of caches? How about retreats?
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Old 04-14-2015, 02:36 PM
 
Location: Backwoods of Maine
7,485 posts, read 10,435,834 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by blktoptrvl View Post
Yes. At least - not to the point that too many carry this insane obsession.
In exactly whose opinion are people preparing "to the point that too many carry this insane obsession"? Who are you to decide what is reasonable and what is not? Do you have a crystal ball? Do you have some objective measurement of what would not be an insane obsession? Exactly which members who post in this forum, do you consider to be reasonable, and which are guilty of insane obsession? Based upon what?
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Old 04-14-2015, 04:59 PM
 
Location: SC
8,793 posts, read 8,102,135 times
Reputation: 12991
Quote:
Originally Posted by Nor'Eastah View Post
In exactly whose opinion are people preparing "to the point that too many carry this insane obsession"? Who are you to decide what is reasonable and what is not? Do you have a crystal ball? Do you have some objective measurement of what would not be an insane obsession? Exactly which members who post in this forum, do you consider to be reasonable, and which are guilty of insane obsession? Based upon what?
I expressed my opinion. Calm yourself.

And it's not just my opinion...

http://www.backdoorsurvival.com/are-...d-to-prepping/

... It all starts innocently enough. We are bit by the prepping bug and typically start storing some extra water, food, flashlights and batteries in response to a widely publicized natural disaster. Soon we move on to first aid supplies, home defense systems and bug-out-bags. And it goes on from there.

Somewhere along the way, prepping takes over our lives and becomes a significant lifestyle shift. Our spare time is spent planning for the BIG EVENT, be it a natural, man-made or even a politically motivated apocalypse...

Last edited by blktoptrvl; 04-14-2015 at 05:46 PM..
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Old 04-14-2015, 05:18 PM
 
Location: SC
8,793 posts, read 8,102,135 times
Reputation: 12991
Quote:
Originally Posted by bigpaul View Post
The Aztecs, The Mayans, the Pharohs, The Ancient Greeks, The Romans, they all thought that their civilisations would last forever, we are no different, maybe with all this technology people think its impossible to fail, nope we just have further to fall is all. prepping is what I do, its not all I do but I am always looking at ways to improve me and my family's survival, I'm probably about done with the buying stuff I'm beginning to wean off that but the larder is stocked and restocked all the time. my main thing this year will be to increase my skills and knowledge to use those skills, these will enable us to survive and thrive when everything else post SHTF has been consumed, eaten, used or broken. prepping is like insurance, people have car insurance but hope they wont have an accident, people have house insurance but hope the house wont be flooded or burnt down, prepping is the same, we hope it will never happen but we are covered in case it does. if I die before it happens, my gear can be sold off and my food can be eaten.
I am not sure this counts. We are talking about catastrophic and sudden crisis aren't we?

Did those civilizations 'fall' overnight? Or was there a one, two, or five hundred year slide? During the fall of those civilizations was there a constant run on the supermarket where bread, butter or milk were not available? Or was it just that they became weaker and weaker every day until they were absorbed by some other civilization, or the people moved to a new location? Was there panic in the streets and wholesale mad max stye looting, burning, and rape and pillaging?

For the sake of argument, If you were alive during that time and living amongst people and those people were starving, don't you think that somehow someone would notice your family was still doing OK? I wonder if once word got out, if the local potentate wouldn't send his well fed men to your house to "borrow a cup of everything - leaving you with nothing?

I wish I could say good luck to you with all that prep work, but I am betting and hoping it won't be needed. I guess this is why you are a 'prepper' and I am not.

Last edited by blktoptrvl; 04-14-2015 at 05:33 PM..
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Old 04-14-2015, 05:24 PM
 
Location: SC
8,793 posts, read 8,102,135 times
Reputation: 12991
Quote:
Originally Posted by Nor'Eastah View Post
Has it ever occurred to you that something a bit less than "complete civil, societal, and technological breakdown" could also have far-ranging and catastrophic effects on people? What about if only half of our society breaks down? Pick 1/2 - any half - of the things that society depends upon: just-in-time grocery deliveries to the stores, ATMs open 24/7, affordable energy in the form of petroleum-based products, racial harmony (if you can call that what we have now!), operational cell towers, or any combination of any factors that make up just HALF of what we enjoy today, and imagine life without them. And yes, all of the things I have mentioned have occurred in the past century or less, save those things that were not invented yet.

And still, people survived. We used to have a lot more family farms than we have today in the US. That was a big factor in human survival. Just in the Great Depession alone, there were bank runs, foreclosures, bread and soup lines, hunger (esp among women and children; ever notice that all the people in those lines were men?), and yes, many people did die from the effects of the Great Depession. Many more died during the War Between the States ("civil war") who were not soldiers on any battlefield.

And why would you need to carry your food and gear? Have you not heard of caches? How about retreats?
And the Civil was was how many centuries ago? Almost two at this point. And so my point was that those who prepped from 1874 to now wasted their time. Even during the war when things were bad, people moved. This was not a catastrophic fall of civilization. During the worst of it, the siege of Vicksburg and Petersburg and Sherman's March, what percentage of the total population was effected. Again, I am saying that you can spend a stupendous amount of time with this and never need it. In fact, the chances that you will are astronomical.

Last edited by blktoptrvl; 04-14-2015 at 05:40 PM..
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