I watched the series on Netflix a few months ago and had fun marvelling at the crazy Americans. I’m genuinely starting to wonder if some of them may have a point.

The things that are rationally likely to happen over the next 20-30 years: more and deeper economic shocks, further weakening of the state/healthcare/workers rights, global heating, more extreme weather events generally, political instability/rise of the far right, more advanced manipulation by bad actors through AI/big data/social media, automation of large numbers of jobs, etc etc

Is it no longer crazy to envisage the medium-term breakdown of society? Maybe this is just my currently poor mental health talking, and I’m aware people have been saying similar things since forever probably, but it seems far from implausible to me right now.

And if so, what can we do? I’m not talking about building a bunker and buying guns, but I guess trying to move towards being more resilient, self-sufficient, practical, and leading a more simple life somewhere relatively remote with good natural resources like water and food to forage feels quite compelling right now. Bollocks to home schooling though, that’s the major downfall, ha!

Tell me I’m crazy pls.

what can we do?

If we could stop voting for **** it would be a good start.

Preppers? Just look at how many of these people protested in the states against lockdown, because they needed haircuts 😁

Growing food and building and fixing stuff must be quite rewarding irrespective of doomsday.

Growing food and building and fixing stuff must be quite rewarding irrespective of doomsday.

This is my feeling. I’m sure lots of us do it anyway and do up to a point but I’m thinking of stepping it up I guess.

Preppers? Just look at how many of these people protested in the states against lockdown, because they needed haircuts

It is associated with right wing libertarianism I suppose, and some of those guys are into it just because it’s a good excuse to buy guns and play in bunkers, I suspect. But there’s also a hippy environmentalist side to it as well.

The joke used to be “get an allotment and buy a gun”, and the first part about being a little more self sufficient is probably worthwhile where we can, in environmental terms rather than doomsday scenario.

But not electing dicks who push us towards those extreme longer term risks is the key.

I’ve just ordered my wife a signed copy of
Ray Mears bushcraft for xmas

Is that prepping?

Mctd The guns for defending your allotment against the long termers

If you do all the prepping, have a nice place, abundant food and supplies but the world is also going crazy, there will be global unrest, lack of food and riots…

Would the crazy % of the 98% of people that don’t prep come straight for you like you are their local supermarket with no intention of using a credit card as they walk out with all your supplies..

How do you solve that?

Got to ask the question post all the looting that has been going on before any food shortages exist…

The not voting in idiots part, how’s that going?

I’ve just ordered my wife a signed copy of
Ray Mears bushcraft for xmas

Is that prepping?

Buying xmas presents in October is a bit more extreme than I was thinking of going.

Even if you do prep and go into hiding what do you do when all your food/water/toilet roll runs out? It’s alright growing stuff but unless you’re in the middle of nowhere it’s going to get stolen or what happens if your crop fails? Are you not just delaying the inevitable of your **** along with everyone else?

And as Uselesshippy pointed out, make sure you shack up with a barber or hairdresser.

Buying xmas presents in October is a bit more extreme than I was thinking of going.

I don’t know if the whole country goes into tier 3 then beauticians will have to close, a bush craft book will come in handy.

If you want a realistic portrayal of doomsday, read “the road”. I’ll take the cowards way out cheers.

Good thinking Drac, could be a best seller at this rate 😀

Mctd The guns for defending your allotment against the long termers

I was trying to avoid being accused of being pro-gun 🤣

The Road is a very depressing and harrowing read/watch. Mind you, someone told me recently that Mad Max was set in 2021?

Where is Utopia? Where is Jessica Hyde?

Answer these and you’ll be fine.

Mind you, someone told me recently that Mad Max was set in 2021?

It doesn’t have timeline as such it was inspired by 1970s oil crisis, there are hints of it being around 1980s though.

I’ve just ordered my wife a signed copy of
Ray Mears bushcraft for xmas

Make sure you hide your beard trimmer.

As long as there’s enough toilet roll we’ll be ok…we can adapt to the rest but if toilet roll stocks go low we could enter a code-brown situation. And that ain’t pretty. Buy toilet roll and store it in a robot armed perimeter defenced under ground bunker, with an automated replenishment system feeding the throne/ tactical room. We’ll get through.

The UK is too small and the population is too dense. US style prepping isn’t feasible. I wouldn’t want to live through the chaos that would follow genuine social breakdown. It would be awful beyond imagining.

But I’ve been playing around with becoming more self sufficient in terms of food. Late frosts and potato blight following a wet August were an interesting insight into the anxiety our antecedents must have felt as they watched the weather.

*orders AK-47 from Kalashnikov.ru*

*heads to Montgomery’s place*

You’ll have to get past the punji sticks first.

The UK is too small and the population is too dense. US style prepping isn’t feasible. I wouldn’t want to live through the chaos that would follow genuine social breakdown. It would be awful beyond imagining.

But I’ve been playing around with becoming more self sufficient in terms of food. Late frosts and potato blight following a wet August were an interesting insight into the anxiety our antecedents must have felt as they watched the weather.

Yeah I’m not really imagining full societal breakdown TBH but I am thinking things will get more difficult generally, and fine I’ll just get a greenhouse then. 🙂

If you look at history though then stable, prosperous societies are definitely not something that can be assumed to carry on forever. We have had a period of unprecedented peace and comfort in Western Europe that won’t last forever, it’s just a question of how long.

I agree. I’d dug up half the lawn, ordered topsoil, seed potatoes and shuttering for raised beds before lockdown was even declared back in March. Nothing I’ve seen since has made me more relaxed; greenhouse went in a couple of weeks ago, and I’ll be digging up the remaining lawn over the winter. No panic buying, but get a bit excess in each week, so have a good stock of tinned goods, rice, etc.

Learning to grow food.
Learning to fix, mend create.
Don’t rely on “the cloud”. Local copies private. Not synced and uploaded with Google, apple, etc who will suddenly claim ownership.
Minimise dept.
Minimise fixed out goings.

All these really come under the broad bander of flexibility. Preparing in terms of 6 months of food and ammunition is will in all probability be the wrong type of preparation. Flexibility is it what sees you though.

TheBrick talks sense

Preppers? Just look at how many of these people protested in the states against lockdown, because they needed haircuts

seems like popular meme/trope, but is there actually any evidence of it.

seems unlikely

You need a base to grow food, though, otherwise you’re into hunter-gatherer/scavenger/bandit territory.

One thing cultivating a reasonable amount of food over the last six months has brought home to me is the idea that you can go it alone is delusional. Being part of a like minded community would be essential.

Being part of a like minded community would be essential.

It was forgetting that fact that got us in this mess in the first place

I’ve been watching The Walking Dead for long enough to know what to do. <Wraps barbed wire around baseball bat>

I’m not sure a lack of food to the point of home grown potatoes being useful is anywhere close to what a societal breakdown would look like. Clearly learning to poo without needing bog roll is looking like the first thing on the list.

I’m just wondering whether to go for wood or metal in a baseball bat… one can take nails through, the other is less likely to split.

Decisions, decisions

Time to get some books on gardening in for when the power/ internet goes down!

For a while I was actually thinking about becoming a prepper. I got as far as having enough stuff. I could not get past the amount of arms to defend said stuff.

So it’s you +3 neighbours Vs on car of armed bandits- you lose

It’s you plus your street Vs 10 cars of bandits- you lose.

It’s your entire city vs london- you lose.

Hence why we have countries. There are too many people for us to be in some lawless border land with everyone in castles. Got a castle- clearly you have stuff and a larger/ more powerful group arrives to remove it.

Got enough of you to fight off everyone? Well good luck feeding everyone! Also congratulations you just became a country.

Got enough stuff to survive? How will you hide your house/ fields/ animals?

I found it alot easier to stop reading stories about ecological doom predicting the end of the world due to climate change. It’s made the last 20 years much more fun than living in some hidden hut in the middle of nowhere

Given that was the systyem under communism and other oppressive regimes, the mindset certainly hasn’t done them any good.

Sets up division, selfishness. IM OK- F YOU mentality.

Don’t underestimate the effects of running out of loo roll, it’s not to be sniffed at.

Not quite doomsday prepping, but I’m having a house built with a reasonably big plot and planning permission for a big poly tunnel, chickens and bees. We’ve tried to be frugal with our food bill, but the weekly shop has gone from £50-ish to £75-ish in the last few years – so growing our own / being more self-sufficient is a necessary response to food price increases if we crash-out the EU.

Given that was the systyem under communism and other oppressive regimes

Could you be a little more specific? What ‘system’?

Not quite doomsday prepping, but I’m having a house built with a reasonably big plot and planning permission for a big poly tunnel, chickens and bees. We’ve tried to be frugal with our food bill, but the weekly shop has gone from £50-ish to £75-ish in the last few years – so growing our own / being more self-sufficient is a necessary response to food price increases if we crash-out the EU.

What are you planning to grow?

I once read that 40% of people have a plan for the apocalypse, and that of those, 98% are blokes of a certain age 😀