Quote:
Originally Posted by DonP
There was an excellent series of writeups I read once from a fellow living in Argentina (in a city) during what was basically a collapse of the economy. It got about as close as it gets to a complete societal collapse without actually being a Mad-Max style end-of-the-world scenario.
It was very eye opening, but probably not in the way you imagine.
First of all, lots of crime and much less policing, etc. Power and utilities basically gone. That sort of thing.
Just a few highlights off the top of my head: - It never reaches the point of fantasy total societal collapse. You will probably even still get up and go to work every day.
- Lots of crime and lots of desperate people. But if you try to walk around with a rifle YOU will get the cops called on YOU. It never reaches the point of wild west wasteland.
- Your day will end at sundown. There is NOTHING TO DO once you have no light. You have to experience this to really appreciate it. Your grandparents might but you don't.
- Plenty of people getting robbed, but not by "roving gangs". He couldn't count the number of times people were amazed they got robbed by people who "looked much better off than us!"
Basically a "Bug-In" is actually far more likely as a result of even a severe societal collapse. |
Those points are all covered in my post. I think my criteria for bugging out is quite clear.
I was like you before. Do yourself a really big favour and read One Second After by William R. Forstchen. You will be doing yourself a serious disservice if you do not read it, as it opened my eyes to the possibility of a EOTWAWKI scenario.
Les serious situations: Haiti. Katrina. 1998 Ice storm. People weren't "heading into work" then, and there was chaos. People go nuts when their comfy high-tech lifestyles are disrupted, and people have a hard time coming to grips with the possibility of it ever happening. I feel bad for these people, because they will be the hardest hit.