Any goals past mere survival?

TRX
06-29-2010

Most of the gun forums have SHTF areas, and there are whole forums like whenshtf.com dedicated to it.

Reading through the messages, there are two clear scenario groups.

Group 1: Plans to grab his arsenal, take off somewhere (usually "the mountains"), engage in long gunfights with roving gangs, and live as some kind of combination of "mountain man" and "road warrior", at least until the ammo gives out.

Group 2: Builds stocks of supplies, plans to hunker down at home or some preselected location for the duration.

The interesting part is that both groups expect "them" (apparently the reviled and hated Feds) to eventually come swooping in and make it all better. Eventually, anyway.

The other interesting parts is that both groups expect to make it alone, or with a very small group of preselected friends.

Many of these people are network engineers, stockbrokers, insurance salesmen, radiology techs... in a post-apocalyptic world, they have no useful skills.

If "civilization" failed, what skills do you have that you could contribute to rebuild a community?

Make no mistake - you *need* some kind of community. You need someone to watch your back when you sleep, to help guard the crops, and to help when you get sick. If you're lucky, you might even live long enough for old age to be a problem.

When things are scarce, other people are going to want the things that are yours, and they're willing to gang up to get them. The only long term way to resist them is to have your own gang, whether you call it that, or a village, or a retreat.

So, would you be just another mouth for "them" to feed, or do you have any useful skills? Bear in mind there's liable to be a surplus of fighters and stoop labor.