The idea with the survivalist model is to simply survive the transition. Often with a close cohort (not solo). As far as transportation to the place, I have motorcycles. See my previous picture of mode of transportation.
His point is, as always, if you’re not an expert in whatever we’re talking about your opinion doesn’t matter. Because BS grew up in a rural area his opinion is more valid than ours. Also, he hasn’t freaked out in about four weeks so he’s due.
I am disappointed that what should have been a fun discussion about hypothetical scenarios has become a vessel for some people to disparage others. All I can say is, based on the responses here, maybe some people are more cut out to form post apocalyptic social groups, and others should be left alone.
This conversation reminds me of the Hunger Games. Katniss Everdeen had skills!
Oh now you are the leader of organized militia? Your strength is the organized community of people with diverse skill sets sticking together, not your stockpile of hard goods. That’s fine with me.
You alone in your bunker with some ammo and food = easy pray even for a gang of hipsters. No question.
That’s why I’m saying arrows and crossbow bolts. You can retrieve them, their deadly and they just plain look cool. And, compared to guns they are relatively silent.
They have no qualms about killing off popular characters (diverging somewhat from the original graphic novels to my understanding). Milton was killed off because the ruthlessness of the local leader became too much for him to stomach and he rebelled. We obviously shouldn’t base our end of civilization decisions on a TV show based on a graphic novel, but I think history does suggest that it is typically the most ruthless, aggressive person who rises to power and the folks with the soft skills end up as their bitches until the leader becomes tired of them, current “civilized” societies excluded of course.
I was assuming a group of 5-15 people from the onset, not solo. Guess I did not make that clear. Nobody wants to be a hermit.
Although, I question even this. US special forces often rack up 20 and 30 to 1 kill ratios when they get cornered even by trained opponents such as the Taliban. I feel like if you are on your home turf, well prepared and you’ve been shooting since you were 6, you’d have a pretty heavy advantage against urbanites crunching through the woods unfamiliar with what they’re really doing. You have to realize that a good shooter hell bent on defending his turf against an agressor in the woods is going to start picking people off at 300 meters before you can even identify his location. It’s not like this CQB stuff you see in movies.
I don’t disagree with you. But you will lose more arrows than you think with a compound bow (which are also louder than people think). The range is also pretty limited.
I’m with you. pull the trigger higgmond. Just let me stop by CostCo first…
The switch has already been flipped but it’s a slow moving process at first, you have time. For those making preparations, I’m fairly certain the zombies will die off after a couple of months. The cloned dinosaurs could be around for quite a bit of time though. I will be leaving for my secret Mars base as soon as all of the Victoria’s Secret Angels arrive at the launch site. For the few of you who will survive and actually care, Mars is actually very nice, kind of like San Diego. The barren, red surface is just a hologram projected from my base to keep those pesky Venusians away.
They’re fun discussions as long as people don’t say “you’re an idiot” or “you have no idea what you’re talking about.” That’s kind of funny since I’m pretty sure most CFAs would be eaten within days. My guess is it would take many different types of people that have a variety of goods to make life really work, so having differing opinions is actually a good thing. If we all stored canned ham and only canned ham life would suck.
I always find it interesting when people think about these scenarios they automatically assume the survivors devolve to caveman setting. We’d still have a couple of generations of survivors that are well educated. Yes, we may get knocked back to the stone age but it doesn’t mean you forget the collective intelligence of the human race overnight.
People will tend to come together. There will be some that go all Jeremiah Johnson, but they’ll be easy pray for the bad seeds that go rogue (led by Sarah Palin). I have faith enough in people that a rudimentary society would form fairly quickly. Safety in numbers and it’s just less depressing than living alone.
Trade will sprout up immediately. Bartering will, or course, happen. It’s the easiest and most straight-forward means of trade, but everyone alive today recognizes how inefficient it is. Finding some sort of common medium of exchange will be paramount. Since gold is the only asset I can think of that has never failed to catch a bid, I think it’s a safe bet that those holding precious metals will find them easy to exchange for goods and services.
So, my basic playbook would go like this: Post apocalypse +1 day you need food and water. As people get hungry and desperate, say +5, it would be nice to have some guns and ammo as well. Then you’d want to find others and start trading as soon as possible. If you’ve stored up enough gold you may be able to become the next Rothschild family. That’d be my goal anyway. It pays to be amibitious in a post apocalyptic world.
Food/water, guns, and then gold/silver. That’d be my wish list. I’m not so sure I’d really care to have land. I mean, it’d be nice, but I don’t want to defend or work it. I’d rather go into business.
^ People keep assuming survivalists are alone in their bunkers in easy to find locations making them easy prey. I think it’s just a lazy assumption people make because without it they just wasted a page of writing. I don’t know how many times I have to reiterate that most of them have preparations for a small clan of family, and if people ever ventured into backwoods kentucky or wv where you can drive 15 minutes on a highway without seeing a structure, they’d begin to get an understanding of how ridiculous it is to think roving bands would find a random group hidden away amidst the backcountry.
The real fact of the situation is survivalists have everything a “normal person” would, including a small cohort, plus a ton of essential items and preparation, a remote location and key skills that those who are unprepared don’t have. Ergo, they are infintely better off to survive a transition between societies. No need for a convoluted discussion grasping at straws.
I’ve seen what happens to urbanites when a cruise ship loses power for 3 days, and I watched New Yorkers panic when they experienced a temporary blackout in 2003 that left people fighting over bottled water in streets that summer. Those people are not prepared in any way for a major contingency. And bankers in particular lack any real tangible skillset in an environment where people aren’t trading on electronic exchanges for alpha.
I kind of agree with BS if you’re talking total devastation in cities. I mean, imagine walking up to some guy and trying to buy a gun from him. Why wouldn’t he shoot you and take your gold? That’s in a Hobbesian state of nature scenario.
If you’re talking about something like Syria or even 1990s Rwanda, then gold is useful. But, those situations are characterized by conflict, not by apocalypse. So, I agree with Sweep’s assessment in some cases. I do agree with the order of preferences, although I would add a couple: fire/shelter/food/clean water/clothing, weapons & means of continued sustenance (farming, hunting) then any type of precious metals.
If gold had no value why would someone shoot you to take it?
Why not? It’s the apocolypse.
Hoarding. it happens. all the time. Just look at what happened in NYC before Sandy was here. people started hoarding way beyond what they actually needed “just in case”. You can always discard later, but never know when you may need it. that’s why someone will shoot you for the gold.
People degrade super fast when it boils down to life/death pure survival. The kind and gentle will get torn up by the ex-cons.
In the Matrix, look at most of the people they choose for those big cave scenes. Certainly not your typical CPA / CFA nerds.
Gold only has value in our culture because of perception. I don’t think it’s been universally sought in all cultures in the World. So it would depend who emerged victorious. Take off the Western dominated goggles man! You never know who the new overlord will be and their perceptions of value.
As far as the order goes weapons have to come first unless you are in a desert. There are replenishing sources of food and water available, especially if you are willing to eat bugs and sh1t. The guns will go immediately and nobody is going to make more. Just look at what happened to gun and ammo supply starting last December, in a far from apocalyptic scenario.