

How would you survive society's collapse? - tectonic

The recent HN post about what would happen if all technology suddenly disappeared was interesting ( http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=526458 ), but I think a more pertinent question is how best to survive a catastrophic break down of public infrastructure and governance.  Possible causes might be (civil) war, epidemic, or space weather ( http://alturl.com/eo5 ).  Technology and knowledge aren't going to disappear, but the power grid is broken, materials and supplies aren't getting distributed, the Internet and wired telecommunication are gone (at least on a global scale), and governance has probably heavily suffered.  What would you do?
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khafra
Preparation and disaster-specific learning can only take you so far, but
<http://collapse.reddit.com> is a serviceable overview of that part.
<http://thearchdruidreport.blogspot.com> and <http://cluborlov.blogspot.com/>
have a more nuanced view of social and economic collapse; 1950s style "nuclear
armageddon" style survivalism is unlikely to suffice in the real world. For
the last nail in the coffin of "guns and independence" style survivalism, try
the War Nerd's treatment of the topic: <http://exiledonline.com/war-nerd-
apocalypse-never/>. I wish I could figure a way out of his unpalatable
dilemma: convincingly join a large church in a rural area long before the
collapse, or die shortly after it happens.

(edited for tone--I'm an undeservedly arrogant bastard everywhere, but it only
comes across as charming face to face)

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tectonic
Despite the oddly condescending tone of your reply, I appreciate the links.
Thanks. I didn't know about collapse.reddit.com, but I shouldn't be surprised
that there is a forum dedicated to this topic.

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david927
Contingency planning makes all the difference in the world. When OPEC oil
crisis hit in the 70's, only Shell Oil had done contingency planning for such
an event, and it was the only major oil company who had a backup.

So my feeling is: have a contingency plan. It doesn't have to be elaborate and
it doesn't have to be time-consuming or expensive. Just do a thought
experiment about what you would do and make sure there are no barriers in that
plan.

For example, have some water and food that won't spoil. It's not hard to do,
and it's generally a good idea. Things like that.

No one thinks society will really collapse. But companies like Shell Oil know
that a tiny amount of planning for any contingency is just smart.

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tjic
> governance has probably heavily suffered

We managed to settle a continent back when government spending was about 1% of
GDP (as compared to 30% today), so government mostly breaking down wouldn't
strike me as a big problem. Heck, Somalia has functioning water distribution
companies, cell phone companies, etc., even without any government.

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tectonic
My larger concern would be coordination of food distribution from farms to
cities.

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anamax
What can you do for farmers and distributors?

