[pabianice]

I agree that a single spark can ignite a tank of propane with explosive results. But one of the problems in analyzing today's world is that no one knows for sure just what will indeed result in a swift collapse. George H.W. Bush is on TV now in a show about his life. He seems an admirable man and was a good president, IMO. But he is also enormously wealthy and that separates him from the rest of us. No matter what happens economically, it will hardly inconvenience him personally. I am certain such people are uber-preppers in that sense.

We live out in the sticks and are thus far better off to survive a partial collapse than the poor bastards in cities that will become Mad Max made real. The real horror of New Orleans and Katrina was not that too many Democrats sat on their sofas and watched the water rise rather than get the hell out of town. The real horror was how fast law and order collapsed. It didn't take much. And people in the Deep Blue cesspool cities -- disarmed and totally unprepared -- will die by the millions after even a month of interruption to the lives of literal and psychic welfare they live. As they stream out of the cities, how well will you be prepared for them?

[Old Sarge]

The real horror was how fast law and order collapsed. It didn't take much.

There are several examples of the breakdown of law and order. Katrina in 2005. Los Angeles in 1992 (Rodney King). The 1977 New York blackout. Law and order, and polite society, is just a veneer.