Quote:
Originally Posted by jediagh  "Ok so lets say the big STHF thing does happen and society disappears just like in the LIGHTS OUT book and there is no food, no cell phone, no power, etc. If that is the case why bother to be prepared if you can't make it anyways? Would it not be easier to get give up?" |
"I don't believe in the no-win scenario."
Now, maybe we'll get hit with a super dinosaur killer that wipes out all life on the planet. Maybe a super-germ will exterminate the human race. Or, more locally, maybe I'll just happen to be a ground-zero of an attack and be killed before I can even think of putting preparations into play. Those aren't the things I prepare for because there really isn't anything to be done about them.
However, there are plenty of possibilities that don't go to that level. Maybe there will be a complete financial collapse leading to loss of services (utilities, transportation, things like that) which sparks a breakdown in the "social contract" and a rise of brigandage which causes the collapse of society (what I call the "Wolf & Iron scenario" from the late Gordon R. Dickson's novel).
That I can prepare for. Or maybe New Madrid will cut loose and we'll be on our own for some days or weeks on our own before any kind of rebuilding can be done. That, too, I can prepare for. Or maybe something will trigger off widespread rioting in Indianapolis and I'll have gangs of rioters heading for my neighborhood. Once again, that I can prepare for. Or, fate forfend, perhaps one administration of another will finally torque off a large enough portion of the American people that we end up with large scale insurrection leading to possible civil war. And yet again, that I can prepare for. Now, even in the scenarios I can prepare for, there's no guarantee that I'd win, or even survive. Having the bad luck to be at the wrong place at the wrong time, or running into the Golden BB, or being one of the one's who catches the latest epidemic and just doesn't make it, are things that can happen to anyone no matter how well prepared.
But the idea that there are things one cannot prepare for as a reason not to prepare for the ones you can? That's, well, ridiculous.