[Artemisia] A New Discussion - SCA Skills in a Modern Plague

[Padruig]

This is something my wife and I have discussed, and part of the reason we are doing our Yurt project.

Plague, disease, flu, weather, loss of oil, whatever. Our civilization depends on infrastructure. If we lose 40 - 50 %, or more, of our population, even temporarily, because of illness, everything will come to a screeching halt. People who are otherwise healthy will stay home, to avoid catching something, making the civil shutdown even more severe. We have seen inklings of this already, with bird flu, swine flu, and SARs scares.

The first thing that will happen, in my opinion, is that transportation will stop. Dead. Planes, trains, and automobiles, and especially trucks, will effectively stop. Stores will empty in a day, or two, three at the most, and people will be left to survive on what they have on hand. That is the wrong time to prepare for such a thing.

There is a big buzz toward having 72 hour emergency kits. Those are great, if you are involved in a localized emergency, but we are talking about a general, national or worldwide disaster here, and that piddly little 72 hour kit will merely prolong the misery for some, by a few days.

Most people are simply unprepared for such an event as you describe. Our society as we know it will end, and we will have a major die off, not due to any disease itself, but the resultant starvation that will occur.

There will be three types of people in this situation. 

1) the desperate mob, who will be seeking food, fuel, and other necessities of life, and won't care what they have to do to get them. These people will become embroiled in a great deal of desparate violence, for a time, anyway. The more vicious people will prey on the weaker, will survive, and we could see a repeat of what happened in Northern Europe when the Romans left, and the supply ships and caravans ended. One difference is that at least most people then had least some idea of how to farm, primitive as it may have been. Most people today don't even have that little bit of knowledge.

2) the survivalist types, who will boogie off into the wilderness, and just stay away from anyone, assuming that anyone they encounter, at least at the beginning stages of this kind of collapse, would be after their stuff and supplies. And of course, they would be absolutely correct. Those types will be as far away from population centers as possible, and will likely have a tendancy to be a bit trigger happy, also being violent. there also are not very many of these.

Then there will be others who have prepared, and will band together for mutual support and protection. I have a feeling that many SCAdians will be of this type. There are skills that can be shared, and taught, that will be essential in this type of collapse. However, even most of these will be unprepared for the almost immediate lack of availability of foodstuffs. Those who have stockpiled large amounts of food storage will be important to know in this time   ;-)

Some of the difficulty will also depend on the time of year such a meltdown occurs. if it is in early spring, the food situation may be solved by harvest, if there are those who have gardening skills and seed stocks, of which there may be quite a few, and if they managed to avoid or defend themselves from the desperate horde from earlier in the collapse. After several months, though, many of them will be dead, the population will be MUCH smaller, and the food that grows will be much more likely to be sufficient for the survivors.

If the collapse comes in the autumn... well, very few will make it to the next possibility for a harvest.

My suggestion is this, and this is what we are involved in doing.  Stockpile basic supplies... those necessary for life. Learn how to live without everything else. Along with foodstuffs, and clothing supplies, and shelter, obtain and learn how to use defensive weapons and skills. One will most likely need those often in the earlier days. Be prepared to leave, at a moments notice. Have prepared arrangements, in advance, with like minded people, who are also prepared, and be ready to band together, wherever it may be necessary. Of course in order to do this, one must have extra fuel available at all times. Keep your vehicles fully fueled at all times. If the power goes, gas pumps will not work

Allegretza's e-mail byline amuses me, but she is right. "If you prepare for the Zombie Apocalypse, everything else is taken care of."

Picture the worst case scenario you can possible imagine, and prepare for all of the situations and extrapolations that may occur under that scenario. Perhaps the Disaster never occurs, and you prepared for nothing. Gosh, how awful. You are overprepared.

Just because you are paranoid, doesn't mean the world isn't really out to get you...

It is my opinion that one can NEVER be overprepared...

Padruig




Dr. Raymond Zentz
 
It is better to die a free man, than to live, a slave.