On May 26th I published a look into the near future for those who choose the city life: The Scary Truth About Living in Big Cities During the Turbulent Times Ahead. One of the points Jeff Thomas made might have rural Montanans feeling a bit smug as he singles us out for honorable mention:
… So, we’ll see panic exits—large numbers of people attempting to leave as a result of some ‘last-straw’ event. It may be similar to the 1930s – the Okies loading up their Model A trucks with their possessions and driving to California. Only this time, it will be Montana, and other rural places where the existing residents are known to be self-reliant…
He goes on to mention that the expectation of rural, small-town households with their greater degree of self-reliance are attractive targets to those who cruised through life without food or supplies beyond their immediate needs.
“The Zombie Apocalypse” is talked about among those who live without the assumption of well-stocked store shelves always awaiting them. Yet here in rural Montana I don’t think I know of a single person or family with a viable plan for it.
No. I do not believe you will shoot on sight everyone who comes within range of your pseudo-bunkered-up homestead. Even the rare person who could get their head into that space, and who is prepared to act it out would survive for a very brief period when the violence begins. What works many times in apocalyptic fiction has failed in real TEOTWAWKI scenarios.
Somehow eating, sleeping, gardening, cooking, repairing, constructing, wet, cold, and so on get in the way of that perfect defense system with those dreamy interlocked fields of fire covering every possible ingress path.
I read quite a bit of that apocalyptic fiction, but I also read online and books by people who survived societal breakdowns in the real world… worlds apart, to say the least.
Little thugs get stomped by bigger thugs.
Somewhat violent people are destroyed by more violent ones.
Bigger gangs crush smaller gangs.
Scavengers eventually inspect every nook, turn over every rock.
As I have repeatedly featured here, SELCO is one of the few authors and teachers who survived in a city under siege and cultural breakdown. His real-world analysis is highly recommended for those interested in developing workable plans.
In physics it is the famous conundrum where the irresistible force meets the immovable object.
In prepper-ville the perfect bugout plan runs into the perfect bunker with similar results.
Your COMMUNITY better be stronger than the threats it faces.
Am I part of such a community? Nope.
Have I tried? Oh so many times, and in so many ways.
I am either the wrong guy or my timing is not right.
I’m pretty sure I’m in the right place.
I am okay leading or following as long as we are going the right direction. Being the general in an army of one, admiral of a bathtub armada, or leader at the head of an imaginary parade are not activities of interest to me, though I am quite happy just being left alone and going my own way.
I hope the future needs of my community are adequately apparent to enough of my neighbors before it is too late.
Oh well, it has been a good run.
Might as well enjoy it the rest of the way to the finish line.
Keep your honor and integrity intact to the end.
That’s my plan, at least.
…
“No plan survives first contact with the enemy”
– Prussian Field Marshall Helmuth Karl Bernhard Graf von Moltke (1800-1891)