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Oh come on now. You know what they look like. They are most often the color of pale brown that you typically see in the toilet the day after a burrito binge, or some other horribly drab hue (like an imaginative shade of grey or tan ). They are gigantic (as big as a workhouse or poor farm once was), and most often have only two buffoons residing within. They often have some ridiculously laughable elements of the grand upscale, true mansions from the past incorporated, helter-skelter, into their tactless, maladroit, and profoundly shameful design: most often this includes some pathetic, miserable, and wretched attempt at Colonial or, even more frequently, Victorian architecture--Queen Ann, Second Empire, Gothic, Stick, Romanesque, Italianate, etc... often all thrown together in a truly gut-wrenching menagerie from hell. They are often topped with the ultimate in ghetto... cheap stucco over 4x8 wafer with the joints painfully obvious. Oh the humanity...
Oh god... I think I'm going to be sick now. Thanks a million for prompting such horrifying, nightmarish mental images.
Well, see there... we agree on the "stupid people" part.
Don't forget the stick home made with the toxic 2x6s covered in stucco made to look like a southwestern adobe home with a flat roof. This 4,000+ sqft home will be equipped inside with the most luxurious stuff, dual-zone A/C, multiple kiva fireplaces, as well as painted in all sorts of bright colors, with the bathrooms in an obligatory bright blue with a native Sun symbol of some sorts. Nothing spells ancient pueblo like this $600K home owned by a New Yorker or Californian infatuated with the "Santa Fe culture".
Obviously, to top it all off, this home will have a wooden ladder on the side of the house going to the roof and an expensive and heavy wooden entry door.
All this for two empty-nesters to show us how the ancient pueblo Indians lived in their sprawling dwellings!
For maximum bang, build the home on top of a hill overlooking as many poor locals and their trailers. That way everyone will know who YOU are.
If you do decide to visit more than twice a year and actually live there, please do run for town council. We need more people like you to come from New York, Chicago, LA, San Fran or wherever, demand more roads, better schools (even though your own kids are long out of school), and finally, we will, at some point need a Starbucks, what kind of a place is this???
Last edited by LordyLordy; 08-12-2014 at 07:54 PM..
Oh come on now. You know what they look like. They are most often the color of pale brown that you typically see in the toilet the day after a burrito binge, or some other horribly drab hue (like an imaginative shade of grey or tan ). They are gigantic (as big as a workhouse or poor farm once was), and most often have only two buffoons residing within. They often have some ridiculously laughable elements of the grand upscale, true mansions from the past incorporated, helter-skelter, into their tactless, maladroit, and profoundly shameful design: most often this includes some pathetic, miserable, and wretched attempt at Colonial or, even more frequently, Victorian architecture--Queen Ann, Second Empire, Gothic, Stick, Romanesque, Italianate, etc... often all thrown together in a truly gut-wrenching menagerie from hell. They are often topped with the ultimate in ghetto... cheap stucco over 4x8 wafer with the joints painfully obvious. Oh the humanity...
Oh god... I think I'm going to be sick now. Thanks a million for prompting such horrifying, nightmarish mental images.
So, the answer would be, "No, I can't give you an example; therefore, I'll just blather on a bit."
Just read through this topic and some others over here with great interest during which the following question arose concerning survival when the big collapse has come: have any of you preppers ever hung out for some time in Detroit MI, Flint MI, Camden NJ, East St. Louis MO, Gary IN or the numerous other cities like those to see how you'd manage in a real post-apocalyptic scenario? If so, how did it work out for you?
(Please don't get any ideas from my post and do not goto these cities, they are very dangerous. Just curious if someone had done so already to see if he can handle the real thing.)
Just read through this topic and some others over here with great interest during which the following question arose concerning survival when the big collapse has come: have any of you preppers ever hung out for some time in Detroit MI, Flint MI, Camden NJ, East St. Louis MO, Gary IN or the numerous other cities like those to see how you'd manage in a real post-apocalyptic scenario? If so, how did it work out for you?
(Please don't get any ideas from my post and do not goto these cities, they are very dangerous. Just curious if someone had done so already to see if he can handle the real thing.)
I spent a good deal of time in Detroit from 1997 until 2002. It was easy enough to avoid trouble as crime there is highly concentrated in certain sections of the city. The other cities you mentioned would be worse although I know that certain real estate businesses in East St. Louis and Gary have done very well selling homes on contract. This is true in the Chicago slums too.
Just read through this topic and some others over here with great interest during which the following question arose concerning survival when the big collapse has come: have any of you preppers ever hung out for some time in Detroit MI, Flint MI, Camden NJ, East St. Louis MO, Gary IN or the numerous other cities like those to see how you'd manage in a real post-apocalyptic scenario? If so, how did it work out for you?
(Please don't get any ideas from my post and do not goto these cities, they are very dangerous. Just curious if someone had done so already to see if he can handle the real thing.)
I spent a lot of time in war zones, including the former Yugoslavia during their breakup wars.
While I had always lived in a pretty self sufficent manner, Seeing what even limited scale wars do to the civilian populations was a real motivator to set up to protect my family for any disasterous situation that possible occured where I live.
It doesn't have to be a war or a slum to destroy normal society, look at the aftermath of hurricanes or earthquakes or the tidal waves that hit the south Pacific not long ago.
Politics like Fergesson Missouri when you have agitators sending riots into the street can also disrupt normal life.
Looking at history, periods of peace and quiet are not the normal scheme of things, just interludes between the next disaster and the last.
I guarantee nobody reading this is going to "survive" if that means living forever. Live long enough, and you will be old, decrepit, pissing over yourself, and mumbling something or another in a nursing home corner.
But, as far as people trying to prepare to make it through the gathering storm, yes, you have my best wishes.
Patriot Nurse on Youtube gives a scenario of what would happen in a SHTF scenario. She breaks it down into social layers. Which types of people would go down first, why and what you have to do about them. In the city you have to worry about those who are violent, totally amoral and have nothing to lose first; the drug addicts, felons and ex felons, those with military training, the nutjobs, etc. They'll be the first ones to come after the ones with the food, shelter and supplies. The elderly, sick, disabled, children and women would be the first targets to go down. Then you have the self entitled people addicted to their technology, cell phones, cars and the comforts of civilization. They're not paying attention and many lack survival preparedness skills so they're soft targets.
You also have to consider various scenarios; natural disaster, financial collapse, war. Which demographic group would have the highest chance of surviving.
Being a serious prepper, you have to have not only weapons and the knowledge to use, you have to know self defense without weapons. Knowledge of chemical weapons is good too. Women especially have to realize this. Medical knowledge is going to be important too.There is a German 2011 movie called Hell that gives a sort of realistic scenario of what happens in a dystopian world. Book of Eli alludes to cannibalism. Cannibalism is one thing some people will have to get used to if they want to survive, not just eating bugs. The tv series Revolution is another show I love.
I had never even heard of this movie until recently, and your post made me remember to watch it.
It is indeed a bleak picture of how things could be, given a nature related disaster and the aftermath to follow.
While much grittier, it is similar to the HG Wells novel and the movies of "The Time Machine" in that it envisions humans devolving into cannibals. The two movie versions are compelling, and while I prefer the first entertainment wise, the more modern version of the movie in 2002 explains how "evolution" led them to that point.
The bottom line is that Hollywood's versions of how an apocalyptic future might be on the surviving humans, most do not show how bleak things might become. It is hard to imagine that more than 10% of the earths human population would be prepared to deal with such basic survival. The others that might survive will be do so by using their wits, cunning, and survival instincts. That would include the need to become ruthless in the face of potential threats to any of the basics needed for survival such as water, food, and shelter.
Of course if the most important survival need was threatened(oxygen), very few people will be prepared to survive and human existence would likely end.
Just about everyone trying to escape from large cities will die if the food distribution net collapses. They will have to traverse a lot of hostile terrain just to get to a place of safety. Hardly any country people will welcome you or even allow you to cross their property. You will be the surplus population and nothing but dead weight to those already living where you will have to go. The only organized attempts by city dwellers will probably be led by street gangs and will be heavily armed. They will see you as a source of supply and as competitors for the quickly dwindling resources.
As a farmer, I can say that my family will welcome those who can contribute and as many children as we can support, but we have that luxury. We live in a secluded valley, surrounded by mountains on 3 sides with a severe choke point at the 4th. We can and do produce our own food, have good sources for fresh, clean water, have a solar farm and a generator, have conversion kits for our vehicles (all diesels) to run on vegetable oil, years worth of spare parts, and a valley based ability to defend ourselves. Our adult children and their children will try to return if possible and everyone will be armed.
We have skilled medical people and enough supplies to get us through a couple of years. Our library of survival skills and methodology is extensive and most of the men in the valley are combat veterans or law enforcement officers. We even have our own volunteer fire department. Most vital of all, very few know where we are other than a vague geographical description.
There are a couple of homes in our valley that are owned by seasonal visitors. If they are here at the time of the catastrophe, they will be welcome. If not, some of them will be denied access to their places. It will be hard to do, but it would have to be done to give our families a better chance of surviving.
Those of you who think your guns will be enough, you are wrong. Remember that the sound of a gunshot travels a long way in the country and announces your presence to anyone listening. The essence of survival is stealth and planning, not brute force. Bulldogdad said "You must be willing to wipe out or assimilate all competitors in your tribal area that must be ever expanding." No. The collapse and the die off will last for years. There will be no meaningful competition after the first few months until many years later. At the time that competition appears, we will have to make choices based on the facts. If we don't keep our humanity and our civilization we should all just die.
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). They are gigantic (as big as a workhouse or poor farm once was), and most often have only two buffoons residing within. They often have some ridiculously laughable elements of the grand upscale, true mansions from the past incorporated, helter-skelter, into their tactless, maladroit, and profoundly shameful design: most often this includes some pathetic, miserable, and wretched attempt at Colonial or, even more frequently, Victorian architecture--Queen Ann, Second Empire, Gothic, Stick, Romanesque, Italianate, etc... often all thrown together in a truly gut-wrenching menagerie from hell. They are often topped with the ultimate in ghetto... cheap stucco over 4x8 wafer with the joints painfully obvious. Oh the humanity... 
