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I don't even own a TV anymore. For me it's an infernal waste of time. What few movies I bother watching (which I'll admit I REALLY love and can watch over and over), I can get on video or stream. As for just watching TV as my parents used to do or I did as a kid, man, I can think of a thousand more productive and enjoyable things to spend my time on. But... to each his own. TV and Hollywood are big businesses and someone has to fund them.
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Originally Posted by Submariner
I suspect that loosing TV [and the effect of it's programming] will boost the collective intelligence in our society.
It definitely would. Even if that time were spent writing letters aunt Gertrude, it would be a boost--especially considering what the programming consists of these days. I'm sure not many people on this forum has seen "Idiocracy" (I believe Missing has), but I see more and more of that society every day as I look around. Talking about prophetic--one of the favorite TV shows of that time is "Owww, my Balls Hurt," which shows the character getting repeatedly injured in various ways in "that area." That's about what I see any time I glance at what's on TV these days.
Note: do not watch Idiocracy if you are easily offended or can't handle potty mouths and base, sometimes sexually explicit, humor. It sure does a good job of plotting the course of our society by "hyperbolizing" our society, though. I wish I'd have written that screenplay.
Once the Military stop getting paid wouldn't they start doing like in New Orleans and confiscating goods for themselves, ultimately creating another group of people w/ out and forcing them to fight or scrounge for food.
That may be true in third world countries where the cultural norms don't include certain respect for private property and being in the military gives a sense of superiority, but the US military is pretty disciplined, trained to deal with hardships, and have leadership promoted more or less by merit. So I would not expect that to happen.
I would rather expect that rations would be retrieved from storage, certain units would be decommissioned or placed on leave, and things kept calm.
I don't even own a TV anymore. For me it's an infernal waste of time. What few movies I bother watching (which I'll admit I REALLY love and can watch over and over), I can get on video or stream. As for just watching TV as my parents used to do or I did as a kid, man, I can think of a thousand more productive and enjoyable things to spend my time on. But... to each his own. TV and Hollywood are big businesses and someone has to fund them.
It definitely would. Even if that time were spent writing letters aunt Gertrude, it would be a boost--especially considering what the programming consists of these days. I'm sure not many people on this forum has seen "Idiocracy" (I believe Missing has), but I see more and more of that society every day as I look around. Talking about prophetic--one of the favorite TV shows of that time is "Owww, my Balls Hurt," which shows the character getting repeatedly injured in various ways in "that area." That's about what I see any time I glance at what's on TV these days.
Note: do not watch Idiocracy if you are easily offended or can't handle potty mouths and base, sometimes sexually explicit, humor. It sure does a good job of plotting the course of our society by "hyperbolizing" our society, though. I wish I'd have written that screenplay.
TV is just mass propaganda. It's a one-way conversation where you have to shut up. Put in the hands of people with a certain agenda, and you arrive at the mess that we have.
That may be true in third world countries where the cultural norms don't include certain respect for private property and being in the military gives a sense of superiority, but the US military is pretty disciplined, trained to deal with hardships, and have leadership promoted more or less by merit. So I would not expect that to happen.
I would rather expect that rations would be retrieved from storage, certain units would be decommissioned or placed on leave, and things kept calm.
In the event of a major collapse, as a result of a nuclear war, meteor impact, massive Calif earthquake, etc., the U.S. would fold like a stack of cards. Pockets might survive--people in remote places with lots of weapons and food, organized groups in the cities, military bases, hardened government facilities like NORAD--but the rank and file American, accustomed to three hot meals a day and amply stocked supermarkets, will die.
City dwellers who embrace cannibalism will survive. In the end, it will be the urban degenerate cannibals versus the remnants of civilization, and which group prevails is probably unknowable at this time. The plentiful availability of fat, rich flesh will be a tremendous advantage for the new savages roaming the streets of the former cities. The survivors in their strongholds will run out of food eventually and be forced to eat people as well.
Our civilization is woefully unprepared for a collapse. The Africans and certain primitive tribes in isolated spots such as the Amazon will probably fare the best.
In the event of a major collapse, as a result of a nuclear war, meteor impact, massive Calif earthquake, etc., the U.S. would fold like a stack of cards. Pockets might survive--people in remote places with lots of weapons and food, organized groups in the cities, military bases, hardened government facilities like NORAD--but the rank and file American, accustomed to three hot meals a day and amply stocked supermarkets, will die.
In the late 70s, President Carter ordered the DoD to develop an "Enduring Deterrence" plan to continue to operate for weeks or months after execution of the Major Attack Option of the Single Integrated Operational Plan. I was on the Strategic Air Combat Operations Staff at Offutt AFB at the time and was part of creating our "plan" (as it were...it was a pretty tough job to create a plan that would go into effect after you were certainly dead).
We ran though thousands of calculations to determine what kinds and amounts of stored resources would be necessary to sustain different sizes of forces in different areas of the country. One basic item, for instance, was that a facility would need to have available three gallons of water per day for each individual. That includes water for sewage--which is utterly essential for an period over a couple of days.
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City dwellers who embrace cannibalism will survive. In the end, it will be the urban degenerate cannibals versus the remnants of civilization, and which group prevails is probably unknowable at this time. The plentiful availability of fat, rich flesh will be a tremendous advantage for the new savages roaming the streets of the former cities. The survivors in their strongholds will run out of food eventually and be forced to eat people as well.
Food is not the first problem. Water is the issue. When the pumping stations shut down, every city will become uninhabitable in just a couple of days. Cities for sure are death traps.
Most of the dystopic fantasies aren't really that credible. It's not as though we don't have precedents in human history. Civilization will not utterly deteriorate, especially now that humans know what it is. It will be more like "Tunnel in the Sky" that "Lord of the Flies."
However, we figured that in any of the most likely bad scenarios--and we were planning for an all-out nuclear war--anyone who was prepared to survive thirty days far away from a city--sufficient safe food and water and shelter--will be okay. Even in the case of a nuclear war, if he follows fairly simple precautions against the immediate effects of fallout, he might die of cancer five years earlier than otherwise, but otherwise he can survive...as long as he's prepared for the first 30 days.
City dwellers who embrace cannibalism will survive. In the end, it will be the urban degenerate cannibals versus the remnants of civilization, and which group prevails is probably unknowable at this time. The plentiful availability of fat, rich flesh will be a tremendous advantage for the new savages roaming the streets of the former cities. The survivors in their strongholds will run out of food eventually and be forced to eat people as well.
Too many people on forums like this have a cannibalism fetish. Wouldn't a Sears catalog lingerie section be easier?
In my opinion, people who would even want to exist under these conditions are no longer human:
I would prefer a bullet to my own head (After gorging myself with water hemlock--especially the roots--to render myself useless to the cannibals) before I got to this point.
Beyond this cannibalism fascination, your logic baffles me. Rather than "running out of food eventually" and getting to the point of becoming animals, why not store some food right now? It's relatively cheap and abundant at this point. The basic staples have a shelf life of 25 years when stored properly. This is what the reasonable mind has done throughout history. And in that 25 year interim, do you think you could learn to garden, farm, forage, fish, and hunt? There is a logical way to avoid the above tragedy.
Beyond this cannibalism fascination, your logic baffles me. Rather than "running out of food eventually" and getting to the point of becoming animals, why not store some food right now? It's relatively cheap and abundant at this point. The basic staples have a shelf life of 25 years when stored properly. This is what the reasonable mind has done throughout history. And in that 25 year interim, do you think you could learn to garden, farm, forage, fish, and hunt? There is a logical way to avoid the above tragedy.
Your points are taken. My cannibalism notion was somewhat tongue-in-cheek. Frankly we don't really know how Americans would respond to such a dire situation. People really came together during 9/11, but there was no hardship involved, just sympathy for the victims. During the gasoline shortage in 1973, things were mostly orderly, but a few people were stealing tank trucks, shootings at gas station lines, talk of military moving in to restore order, etc.
I think that the real issue is going to be security. Foraging, farming, and hunting are all great ideas, but if you also have to deal with marauding bands out there, picking you off one at a time, it's not going to be a cake walk.
I guess if you can get a big enough group together, and have people guarding the perimeters of a decent-sized stronghold, you stand a chance. If a band of 25 renegade soldiers happen by with jeeps, rocket launchers, and 50mm mounted guns, things are going to get pretty rough. You'd need to prepare landslides and booby traps to stop them from advancing, or set up a dam mechanism that could be quickly opened to flood the valley and take out a large group; then when they're gone, it'll be a few months of hard work to put things aright again.
Probably staying away from the cities is the best idea. Cities will be death traps. Flat, accessible, unprotected areas will also be vulnerable. I'd think a mountainous region would be best--hard to get to, defensible, plenty of wildlife and foraging opportunities, and clean mountain streams.
That may be true in third world countries where the cultural norms don't include certain respect for private property and being in the military gives a sense of superiority, but the US military is pretty disciplined, trained to deal with hardships, and have leadership promoted more or less by merit. So I would not expect that to happen.
I would rather expect that rations would be retrieved from storage, certain units would be decommissioned or placed on leave, and things kept calm.
My father was A 30-year lifer and saw combat in Burma, Korea, and did two tours in Vietnam. But funding defense decreass every year, Increasingly, care of disabled vets, those who suffered from PTSD and those who suffer from taumatic brain injury BTI . We already have inadeqate care to help treat them in the first plsace. Next you figure that an army under a coup, but come smartly to its duty,and Happy ever after. Ya think? Is my Dad and rhousands of CO's and First Sergants going to be in charge od dromes flying over Huntsville without so much as a qualm? And just like so many guerilla was, our army would be baffled to put it midly.
And how many members now serving are on active duty? One percent of the population. Dp you really believe that the Arm and other forces will be able to stop this - especially since many of the "looters" are just people trying to get some in the on-coming calamity of starvation .
Never ever depend on someone else. I don't care who it is he Arny, FEMA, etc. They're busy foraging back there in the forest.
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