[cripplecreek]

I think urban civilization is very fragile. Take away the food in a city like LA for a week and it becomes a Snake Pliskin movie in a hurry.

[Lokibob]

Take away electricity, and society as we know it grinds to a halt.

Without electricity:
Water won't run
Sewage won't pump
Gasoline wont move
Food won't be preserved
Food won't grow
Dark will mean terror and crime
Ignorance of the situation will induce panic
Government will be helpless (or more helpless)
Hording will be the rule
Life will be cheap
And FReerepublic will have to be read by candlelight

The urban man needs to learn to be self sufficient. He needs to learn the basics of making his own stuff, from ethanol to gunpowder. The first thing he needs to do is locate and protect a source of water. Then grow his own food. Then generate his own electricity.

I feel sorry for the big city dwellers, who have no clue as to how to survive in a basic and rural world.

[antivenom]

Just finished reading "Collapse" by Jared Diamond...I find this type of history fascinating...thanks for the post.

[trickyricky]

Take away the food in a city like LA for a week
and it becomes a Snake Pliskin movie in a hurry.

LOL! I hope I live long enough to see the Great Wall of New York constructed.

[300winmag]

I think urban civilization is very fragile. Take away the food in a city like LA for a week and it becomes a Snake Pliskin movie in a hurry.

Government, at any level, is incapable of handling any disaster involving more than a few thousand people. Or at least, not handling it before much harm is done.

Katrina convinced me. I used to have this simple bailout bag:

Now I've included this backpack with some additional tools (made possible by changing from a hunter/gatherer society to a farmer/factory worker society):

The main addition to my survival kit should let me reach out 250 yards further than your average gangbanger with his average AK47.

[djf]

Totally agree. If the supply chain was disrupted, it would get nasty in a hurry.

Three days till all h*ll breaks loose. When the shelves are empty, when there is no milk in the fridges for peoples babies, all bets are off.

Personally, I have a well tended garden, at least six months of food, fifty or sixty gallons of water, heating and cooking supplies, medicines, guns and a generator.

If the average family spent as little as ten dollars a week on supplies, they would be in much better shape in six months or so.