Any goals past mere survival?

[TRX]

Most of the gun forums have SHTF areas, and there are whole forums like whenshtf.com dedicated to it.

Reading through the messages, there are two clear scenario groups.

Group 1: Plans to grab his arsenal, take off somewhere (usually "the mountains"), engage in long gunfights with roving gangs, and live as some kind of combination of "mountain man" and "road warrior", at least until the ammo gives out.

Group 2: Builds stocks of supplies, plans to hunker down at home or some preselected location for the duration.


The interesting part is that both groups expect "them" (apparently the reviled and hated Feds) to eventually come swooping in and make it all better. Eventually, anyway.

The other interesting parts is that both groups expect to make it alone, or with a very small group of preselected friends.

Many of these people are network engineers, stockbrokers, insurance salesmen, radiology techs... in a post-apocalyptic world, they have no useful skills.

If "civilization" failed, what skills do you have that you could contribute to rebuild a community?

Make no mistake - you *need* some kind of community. You need someone to watch your back when you sleep, to help guard the crops, and to help when you get sick. If you're lucky, you might even live long enough for old age to be a problem.

When things are scarce, other people are going to want the things that are yours, and they're willing to gang up to get them. The only long term way to resist them is to have your own gang, whether you call it that, or a village, or a retreat.


So, would you be just another mouth for "them" to feed, or do you have any useful skills? Bear in mind there's liable to be a surplus of fighters and stoop labor.

[Black Blade]

I live in a very isolated rural setting in the Rocky Mountains so I will likely dig in. I have other places I could fall back to if necessary. Most of my neighbors are preppers and in a similar mindset and many are Mormons so roving gangs of Mormons aren't a serious concern of mine. I'm more of the idea that we will see an economic collapse worse than the Great Depression with oppressive Government controls. My idea of survival is to "Go Galt" and watch the chaos from afar.

[hcpookie]

My goal is to collect a harem and live as a provicial warlord

[pirate56]

Originally Posted by hcpookie

My goal is to collect a harem and live as a provicial warlord

I like the way you think!!!

I live in a condo, my plan is to go out in the parking lot, do a mag dump and let everyone know that now, they are all working for me!!

[zoom6zoom]

Yes, achieve global domination and repopulate the planet with redheads.

[Rahatlakhoom]

I've been in construction all my adult life, so I have knowledge and services to offer.
Although in a SHTF, retiring to a cave makes a world of sense to me.
A nice fire pit in the main floor area. Animal skins, fresh meat.
A voracious sex frenzy for the sake of repopulation like zoom says.
When does it start?

[Frogman]

You might find this interesting if you like survival versus shtf [Only registered and activated users can see links. ]

[sjohnson]

A human being should be able to change a diaper, plan an invasion, butcher a hog, conn a ship, design a building, write a sonnet, balance accounts, build a wall, set a bone, comfort the dying, take orders, give orders, cooperate, act alone, solve equations, analyze a new problem, pitch manure, program a computer, cook a tasty meal, fight efficiently, die gallantly. Specialization is for insects.

-Robert A. Heinlein

I took that to heart as a young man. I haven't yet died gallantly, conned a ship, planned an invasion or set a bone. Something to look forward to

[XSapper]

Originally Posted by sjohnson

A human being should be able to change a diaper, plan an invasion, butcher a hog, conn a ship, design a building, write a sonnet, balance accounts, build a wall, set a bone, comfort the dying, take orders, give orders, cooperate, act alone, solve equations, analyze a new problem, pitch manure, program a computer, cook a tasty meal, fight efficiently, die gallantly. Specialization is for insects.

-Robert A. Heinlein

I took that to heart as a young man. I haven't yet died gallantly, conned a ship, planned an invasion or set a bone. Something to look forward to

I'll agree with that, unfortunately there are many that can do none of those things.
Spent the first 12 years of my adult life blowing things up, next 17 fabricating/ welding so along the way I've picked up a lot of skills. The fact that I've been too poor to pay people to do work for me, so I had to figure out how to do it myself has helped.

[yarro]

If society breaks down to the point that many envision and the government reacts the way they say then they are dead. The government will go door to door collecting resources and disarming everyone. If you resist, they will simple blow up where ever you at. They will fly around with FLIR looking for hold outs. They will look at satelite maps for signs of you. They will look through tax records when you just disappear.

All is not lost as there are things that will have a happish ending if you were a little prepared. I broke them up into three groups.

Everyday senarios that you should be prepared for as they are most likely:

1) You loose your job or lose income.
2) You or member of your family becomes disabled.
3) Local crime rate goes up.
4) Inflation takes off or Deflation takes hold.
5) Taxes get raised insanely.
6) You have legal troubles.

The senarios that are most likely but not everyday type stuff and you should be prepared for:

1) a 3-5 day localized severe breakdown of order due to social upheaval or natural disaster. This is why you should have firearms and the skills to use them.

2) A localized breakdown of supply in the neighborhood of 7-28 days possibly associated with the previous or due to a cut of petro supplies or economic crisis. This is why we prep.

3) An attack on a major US city that kills tens to hundreds of thousands causing 1 and/or 2. This will happen at somepoint because we let our enemies make highly enriched nuclear fuel and no one has ever failed to make a bomb after obtaining it.

4) A honest all hands on deck war like WWII, if overseas then preping will be a goodsend, but if here then firearms and skills will be needed along with the prep.

5) Civil war or oppressive Hugo Chavez type government, which could cause intemittant 1 and 2 with lots of shortages.

6) A biological threat (affecting humans or food supply) spreads across the US causing 1 and/or 2.

Unlikely events (but have happened while humanity has been around):

1) A dorminant volcano near/in a major population center becomes active and disrupts/displaces large numbers or people.

2) A super volcano erupts causing mass crop failures or maybe killing most everyone in North America.

3) A smallish comet/asteroid creates and air burst.

4) A very large earthquake in the ocean causes a tsunami across the entire east or west coast (East Coast has known threat).

5) Full scale nuclear war. The prep and planning required to guarantee survival of this is beyond most people's finances and realistically may not actually be possible.

6) Large asteroid. Requires luck and see #5.

-yarro