Older and younger people during SHTF

SHTF School ^ | 2/10/12 | Selco

[Kartographer]

It was not about “they are old and they are not strong, so we do not need them”. Not in my case. Everyone was needed. The question “how older and very young people did during SHTF?” is to wide. Easiest answer would be that they did like everybody else. Not well, life was hard.

During my trip out of the town, over that mountain, to get some stuff, one of the most important persons in the group was men in his 70ies, he was not strong, he was not powerful, he was old grumpy dude. But his value was in fact that he was something like tracker, scout and in same time guy who knows how to handle horses. In group of strong armed men without too much rules that old guy was something closest to a leader, because nobody of us had a clue about horses and about winter in the mountain.

That old man knew both things, mountain and horses, and he had value because of that.

[Kartographer]

Another good article by Selco, this one showing that Skills and Knowledge will be highly valued 'preps' during a breakdown.

[Kartographer]

Prepper’s PING!

[balch3]

in a study of ships torpedoed in the North Atlantic during WWII, it was found that older sailors had a higher survival rate than younger sailors. The young ones gave up more easily.

[blam]

Part of my prepper expectations are that a couple of clueless younger guys will show up to take orders from me.

If you follow orders, you eat. Otherwise, hit the road.

Me and a couple other (older) local guys are already referring to ourselves as the 'council of elders.' We have the goodies/supplies.

[Lady Lucky]

bookmark (4L8R if not talked out of it by people familiar with the site)

[prisoner6]

Bumping for later.

Would you put me on the preppers ping list?

[VRW Conspirator]

in a study of ships torpedoed in the North Atlantic during WWII, it was found that older sailors had a higher survival rate than younger sailors. The young ones gave up more easily.

In the POW camps of North Viet Nam, IIRC, those that were overly optimistic: "we'll be home by Christmas". It was the ones that maintained hope yet dealt with the reality that survived and survived best.

[VRW Conspirator]

It was the overly optimistic that perished sooner

[Uncle Ike]

It’s only a recent development (’recent’ meaning the last 50 years) that our ‘sophisticated’ culture has come to regard children as burdens, and the elderly as “useless eaters”...

I can’t bring to mind any successful human culture in millenia of history that did not celebrate and protect its children, and revere its elders....

This cultural shift, among others, is what gives me reason to fear that when/if TSHTF, the fall will be far worse than many of us anticipate...

Remember - “Age and guile will defeat youth and enthusiasm, every time”

[AnTiw1]

The old kendo masters used to say that when their strikes began getting slower, their techniques began getting more sly. Often young kendo students say how maddening it is to be thwacked by a shinai wielded by an old man with slow, casual moves.

[2nd Bn, 11th Mar]

This “older’ guy will put down the base of fire while the younger ones assault through the objective by fire and maneuver.

[PowderMonkey]

One thing I find strangely missing in all these discussions will be our need for spiritual strength and guidance in a time of great tribulation. The fabric of society is woven of forbearance, forgiveness, restraint, mercy, charity, and gratitude. Its loom is the Christian tradition. The rise of industry, science, the arts, centers of learning flourished under it. Without it, we will exist for a short while, post apocalypse, as merciless savages only to vanish without a trace in the wilderness of our own making. As if we were never here.

[Bigg Red]

Thank you for posting that. Your thoughts, so eloquently expressed, match those I have had often on such threads. God bless you.

[Kartographer]

Maybe you missed a thread or two:

10 Morale Boosters for Any Worst Case Scenario

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-bloggers/2810214/posts

10. Last, but most importantly, remember the Sabbath. Keeping faith in the Lord will do more than everything previously mentioned. You may think you are not a preacher, and ask, “What do I know about leading a service?” The Bible instructs us that men are to be the spiritual heads of their household, and we lead by example. No one expects you to be Billy Graham, but every man should be able to handle a Bible reading and singing a few simple hymns. Pick the old ones, the ones that most know by heart, maybe even have a couple CD’s. Download or get from your church children’s Sunday school papers/handouts and use them. They are simple and easily taught and learned by all. I suggest you use especially those in which people of faith live through adversity, like the Exodus, the Stories of David, Joseph and Job , Daniel and the lion’s den, or the story of Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego. Teach that believers have often been tested by trials, but that those who keep the faith have endured. . My church has a whole library of our pastor’s sermons available for free download.

[BreezyDog]

Please add me to your ping list too.

[JRandomFreeper]

Wonderfully said.

Please put me on your ping list.

/johnny

[Last of the Mohicans]

Praise the Lord and pass the ammunition!

[Kartographer]

"Praise the Lord and pass the ammunition!"

"Believe in the Lord, but stock-up on ammunition!"

[Mears]

“Age and guile will defeat youth and enthusiasm, every time”

—

Thanks,Uncle Ike,I needed that-—I’m old.

By the way,I actually had an Uncle Ike. Long gone but fondly remembered.

[Uncle Ike]

” “Age and guile will defeat youth and enthusiasm, every time” “

I’ve been trying to find an attribution for that quote, but have found nothing definitive, yet...

I suspect that it may have been Mark Twain, because it sounds like something he may have said, but a BING search seems to yeild only contemporary usages, but not an original cite - but I know I’ve heard (and used) it for many years... (I’m old, too.. ;))