My golden rule....

Shoot, shovel and shut up.

In any SHTF situation communications are absolutely of paramount importance. Once you know what the situation is you can measure your response. Depending on the event shortwave radio may be your only means of receiving information. It is a good idea to have one that you check regularly and store it in a shielded location.

If society slowly broke down over a period of time due to a cause like global economic collapse you would have a sense of how bad things were and were getting. Again you could measure your response.

No one here is going out to instigate violence of any kind. Self defense, and defense of your family would be accomplished by measures you deem necessary and appropriate for the situation and the outlook prospects of societal recovery.

John Galt,

The Golden Rule. Those with the Gold make the rules. That is half of the problem we have today.

Right now the world is wound tighter than a spring. Even in a minor, large scale event - once the first shot is fired in fear, haste or spite that will be the spark that lights a powder keg. Too many people, have been suppressed for too long, for whatever reason(s). This event is poised to happen, and once it starts it will take a little while for calm and rational thought to return.

Major event that effect the whole planet or a home invasion robbery that only effects you and your family; when you decide to use force to repel force, you best be damn ready for the full responsibility for making your decision. BUT, once you make that decision DO NOT hesitate. The consequences are the same if there is a functional government in power or not. The difference is when you will be held accountable for your actions. Remember, even in times of law and order, you have the right to defend the lives of your family with force.

Now keep your guns well oiled and your powder dry,

Mountainman.

CryBaby,

LMAO!!!!

Mountainman.

OK - You've asked a couple of Questions here. In my case it's not a subject that comes up in conversation often - with those shows 'Doomsday Preppers' and 'Etreme Prepers' I really keep a low profile now to the extent of some of my orders that I make are mentioned as for other uses, e.g. - that I am a health food nut for when bulk orders are made or that I go camping fishing in remote areas a lot or some other B.S. to stop the offer of a Free Foil-Hats for all my friends. More so now as we have a new show to add to the list, 'Outback Survivour' using of all people 16 americans - god help us. They got lost using a compass on the first program - they had to go North in direction to find a base area - what did they do - go every direction but to the North.

I have Categories that I use to rate events;

1; Bl--dy annoying - can be something like a power outage because of a transformer or pole collapsed. Short time frame maybe 24hrs. (No Civil Unrest).

2: Real Bl--dy Inconvenient - This is something like the roads are cut due to regional flooding, Time frame covers 24 to 72 hrs inconvenience. ( No Civil unrest).

3: OK - This is Sh--y - Longer Time frame Probable. This is a due to Fire, Flood, Tsunami, Earthquake or similar events. May require displacement of people from original habitat, Possible loss of life and infrastructure for some time, 1 Month to Several Months. ( Some Civil Un-rest due to looting over all now major threat to life in general).

4: Oh, C--P! This is a more serious threat situation, this is an event like a Cat 5 Cyclone, Large Tidal surges, Tsunami, Earthquake above Mag 7. Damage high, much of the indigenous population displaced, Rescue units/ Emergency Services are way over stretched, people left with little food, water and medical supplies. May result in isolated cases of civil un-rest due to haves and have nots. Once emergency gov't services get up to speed unrest should reduce dramatically. Event duration could be up to a year to rectify.

5: Bu--er Me! This covers Pandemics, Wars, Mega Tsunamis, Volcanic eruptions - Serious threat/loss of life, people in panic, desperation, most likely can become hostile. Could pose serious threat to yourself and family/group. May require some reactive force to ensure own safety. Time frame for event duration - up to 2 years to rectify and reduce threat to minimal control level. Areas still under law and order however some are not.

6: %#$& ME!!!!! This covers major event - Asteroid, Super Volcanic Eruption, Tilt of Earths Axis, Deadly Pandemic - such as Anthrax/Ebola or the new strain virulent Bird Flu.
High/Mass casualties, Breakdown of Law and Order. You can become at risk and under a serious threat from the event and other survivors. If needs be Force may be necessary for your survival. Survivors may become serious threats. Duration of event - ??????????????????

This is a basic guide line to give you an idea. There are endless possibilities and combinations of events that could occur. I do use the words - COULD OCCUR!
Along with types of event I think fit which category.

Survival in an situations in 5 & 6 may require the use of force - however I would adopt it as a defensive measure as the other group or person may have bigger toys than me.
I would not like to go on the offensive and suddenly find a 'Bushmaster ' with a crew and a turret mounted 50cal or mini-gun suddenly come out from under a tarp.

You are correct in the assumption of QUOTE { we had better be damned sure that there is no turning back.} END QUOTE. I agree - we had better make sure.

One key factor in our preparation skills I hope are included by all is 'Stealth'. Go about your daily lives without being seen and noticed.
Over all, the threat to you and yours will set the risk management strategy you may have to implement to ensure your survival.

For me, a SHTF situation is not equivelant to the "end of times" scenarios where anarchy reins. SHTF is for me, a tornado blowing through my community, flash flooding, ice storms, unforseen unemployment, personal financial turmoil, critical illness within my immediate family or social group, and the like. For these situations I prepare most diligently. Less so for war brought to our soil, nuclear terrorism, complete financial collapse, and the rest of the end of times scenarios.
So I don't really worry too much about having to fight off hoards of Huns should my personal world go to shit. Most of the world won't even notice or care. I'm also a proponent of "the world goes on", which is to say I don't really think we will see a return to 19th century technology because of world events. I've just returned from holiday in Europe which is actually really enlightening in terms of prepping. One visits cities which have existed for over one or two thousand years, have been sacked many times, and have been dominated by foreign powers many times throughout history, and yet persist. I wonder if our relatively short history here in North Americal has made us all a bit short sighted to the persistance of human civilization and society? A global economic collapse would suck; but would it really mean the end? More of a re-boot I would guess. Without wanting to sound too pragmatic, the rich would still end up being rich, the poor would still be in dire straits, and all of us in the middle class would still be working our arses off to ensure that we did not join the poor.

The idea of having to bug out is really one of absolute last resort for me. I think it terribly unlikely. That does not mean, however, that I won't have a contingency in place should the "terribly unlikely" occure. I just won't commit my life savings or huge effort to that contingency.

Antsy

Wish I were as confidant as you Antsy - the problem lies with - our population is now in the Billions - not as in Millions back then, We are running out of resources ( South china sea current stand off for this example) they had resources in abundance and were primary agriculture and hunter gatherer societies. Use the Mongols as an example they showed tolerance to other religions and often gave an option to a besieged city - open your gates yourselves or we open them. Often the first was adopted for survival.

Our resources are running low with the 2012 World Economic Forum meeting on water stating that by 2030 there would be a 40% shortfall for usable water on current trends.
We currently have a stand off in the Asia Pacific region ATM over resource rich territories with the US sending 2 carrier battle groups to the area and the secretary of defence has stated by 2020 that will increase to 60% of the navy fleet under the current plan.
We are genetically improving viruses and retro-viruses to better kill ourselves.

East and West are at ever increasing religious disharmony - this has been ongoing for over 2,000 years and still the killing continues in the name of God.

We still get Anthrax, Ebola, MRSA, The new strain Avian Bird Flu which is now I think H5N3, and scientists still have no idea what the plague was that almost exterminated mankind in Europe in the dark ages. It simply stopped itself - the worry is will it start again what will we do then.

Like you I wont commit all my time and resources to full on preparing but I will mention that I have taken and implemented steps that give me a good chance should an event occur.

FNQ'er-1,

I don't know if it's confidance or just the recognition that most folk really don't want the music to stop altogether. I certainly agree that there are many more people in our world and it is having an effect on the way we all use resources. I agree too that as has occured in the past, there will continue to be hot spots where cool heads will be ignored over hot ones. I just don't see anything yet that looks like a game changer. Maybe that is the point and we won't see it coming.

I still think it most prudent to prep for the most likely first, then work your way down the list to least. If the impact of the unlikely is so great that it has to be considered, make sure that your preparations will be useful for the more likely events as well. For me, it's the best I can do.

Regarding the Black Death, "The cause of plague wasn't discovered until the most recent global outbreak, which started in China in 1855 and didn't officially end until 1959. The first breakthrough came in Hong Kong in 1894 when researchers isolated the rod-shaped bacillus responsible—Yersinia pestis. A few years later, in China, doctors noticed that rats showed very similar plague symptoms to people, and that human victims often had fleabites." National Geographic
Good antibiotics are an effective treatment for this nasty however I recognize that these are not available to many in the world.

For myself, I am more impressed with "St. Anthony's Fire". A bacteria that caused plague in Europe and was spread through a grain improperly cooked in bread. It effected the rich and poor alike as bread was, and continues to be, a main staple for western society. Bosch painted many scenes of his interpretation of the disease. Ultimately though, culture prevailed.

Keep your stick on the ice,

Antsy

I think this thread qualifies and deserves for a good old fashioned SHTF toe tapper.

Why you may ask?

I don't care....

Communication is all about finding the right language, tone and delivery for the target audience...

In this case ...... boots.

http://youtu.be/SbyAZQ45uww

🙂

Crier, you keep samein' when you ought'a been changin'! 😉

I agree with so much of what has been said above...

For me I don't give a lot of thought to localized SHTF situations...perhaps that is because I am not in an area prone to natural disasters etc which I realize could leave me very much caught by surprise but I believe my current preps will cater for that situation if it did occur anyway.
I prep for and regard a SHTF situation as something that is more wide scale where there is little if any hope of help, rescue or relief from the situation.
I mostly look at Economic Collapse, Man-made Virus', War.
I agree that life will go on but that it may change drastically for a few of years or even a couple of generations perhaps before life gets back on track.
Personal type disasters within my own family...well that is the story of my life so I don't prep for that specifically, I just live with it 🙄
World wide disasters from economic trouble, disease and war have all happened before and will doubtless happen again only with a greater population in greater financial stress I believe it will be a lot worse than in previous times.
I don't go in for the alien attack, asteroid or pole shift thinking because I don't think it is really high on the list of possible events over the more mundane everyday type of events like war or economic woes.

Regardless of any and all possible SHTF scenario's one thing will happen that you can count on... a group of survivors somewhere will gather in numbers and begin to force their "rule" on everyone. If they are criminally minded they will most likely enact a join or die type of code and just like a virus they will grow and continue to assimilate. Your hopes lie in this group being millitary in nature and led by a team of respectable leaders which will only lead to them creating their own form of money and banning gold and silver most likely. They will also put heavy restrictions on weapons so you will lose your cache of firearms. Millitary wants to put control back and they cant do that if there is dissention and a dissenter is armed. If there is even an ounce of corruption at the top then you can gaurantee that the assimilate or die process will be present. This would take from a year to two possibly to begin to happen so if you happen to be a survivor you should expect to either hide out in the hills at around this time frame or become part of a large group. The first choice allows you to go about unnoticed (if you are smart) and you will be passed by. If you choose the latter you will be without a doubt in a position to join the "New regime" as it rolls up to your little township or fight them. There will be many little civil wars before any kind of world is put back together if it ever can be. Knowing this is an inevitability you should be establishing your community to survive by setting up routines of patrols, growing food and so forth. That will take over a year to tweak. Once that is done you cant sit back and live... you now have to prepare for a future "gov't" or other kind of rule coming into existence at some point and as mentioned above... it most likely wont be the peaceful one we have now... the new rule will be on a mission to regain a foothold of control and to do that they will want gas and food for their soldiers (enforcers) and they will take it claiming its your right as a member of the new regime or some other bull. It's complex but you can count on this. If there are survivors... there will be this kind of systemic re-establishment of control by someone. Plan for everything and definately plan long term like a chess player for this should SHTF ever come to pass.

I'm with Antsy though... plan for the small things like black outs and storms and such, think about the big stuff but try to live in the now. I think a week or two of food is great, one rifle and some rounds, some basic stuff possibly but the idea of building a compound and digging a tunnel underground and so forth... thats just too much. I would rather scramble to survive because I was wrong than to waste my whole life dedicated to the end of the world coming and have it never happened. Thats a life not lived. In my opinion.

Someones been watching "revolution"

Actually no. Gonna have to look up what that is though. 🙂 Sounds like it might be of interest.

New show on tv. Basically sums up your previous post. Not very good in my opinion, but what do you expect from network tv I guess.