If literally runing over and crushing another human being is the way people in America will act when it comes to being able to buy cheap Chinese crap they really don't need, how will people act if/when the shit hits the fan? What can we expect if it really becomes a matter of survival for us here?
That's why I don't like being around large groups of people. Ever. The social discipline that Americans had in the 1930's won't make a reappearance if we have another Depression.
Case in point: My home in West-BY-GOD-Virginia is fairly secure. It's off the beaten path, I have well water and can grow my own crops and hunt and fish if I have to. So if I'm home and the shit hits the fan, me and mine will be alright for awhile. But I'm spending another year in Miami with 6 million neighbors. I have a house and a yard, but I rely on city water. I don't have enough space to grow enough to subsist on. And if something happens, I do have some food and water available, but if things are bad for extended periods, even I may turn to looting and maruading to stay alive. Truth be told though, I'd probably just put the family in the cars and high tail it up here. Every year I see the same behavior from adults on Black Friday over toys and stuff they don't need to survive. So what happens if the truly unthinkable does happen and suddenly there is no more food in a city, no more water in a city, and no help is coming? Hurricane Katrina gave us a little taste of what it would be like, but what happens when you add in the cultural or sociological aspects of dependancy to the equation? People that have had their every need taken care of by government or church and suddenly that lifeline is taken away. what happens next?
Me thinks you don't know much about those living in the worse hit areas of N.O. if you think you could add more of a culture of dependency to the equation.
I've said it often- the veneer of civilization is wafer thin. After people have missed 3 straight meals they will be ready to do anything to fill their bellies and those of their families.
I'm not talking about the welfare state. I mean, most Americans simply do not have the abiloty to live on their own. How many people that live near you have wells instead of city or county water? How many of your friends know how to grow and store their own produce? How many people that you know have a skill that they can live off of? How many know how to tan their own leather, make their own tools, make their own clothing, etc.? We've become dependant on others bringing foot, clothing, and shelter to us and trading our time in cubicles for the means to buy those goods. That's the dependency I'm refering to. I write bad screenplays for a living. That only feeds my family because low budget movie houses are willing to buy them. If the shit hits the fan, I can't rely on being able to feed my family off of the fruits of that labor like a farmer could.
The thing is, with these Wal-Mart stampedes, we're not even talking about food, clothing, or shelter. We're talking about cheap stuff like TVs and laptops. How much more feral can these people, who literally crushed a man under their feet to get those things, get?
I agree with you that things could get ugly quickly. With that said, it's important to realize that those people who stampeded were doing so because they were "in their element." I have a feeling that in a long term bad, bad situation, a lot of people would REALLY turn into sheep. They DON'T have the survival skills they need and it would be emotionally and mentally crippling to many of them.
Near me here? Or back in Alabama? Here's a question for you... What good is your well going to do you with no electricity, or fuel for a generator? I got a hand pump on the one at the Noonin' Grounds....
Oh... and obviously if a world ender happened, I'd get the fuck out of WA and back to AL. My farm is pretty much perfect. B/c it's primarily timber. So from the Highway it just looks like woods. However inside, there are a couple good sized food plots (deer) and even a corn field or two on the pipeline. And the pond is a couple acres and full of bass and brim. Also, guess what my pawpaws hobby is? Draft horses and pre-industrial farming/timber/living equipment. He's got a blacksmith shop set up back of his old store (he didn't sell that when he sold his store and timber co.) and sheds full of harnesses, levers, plows, carts, saws, rievers, wagons (trail rides. Even got water wagons and a shitter wagon... water wagon could be useful) everything. While there was still petrol I'd hit that place up with a flat bed and steal everything not nailed down. Every year he did a display at Williams Station Day (our town festival) showing off the old ways. He did the horse part with his team of Pergerons (Blue and Dan RIP. ) and his buddy with oxen (fuck oxen). Fuck, we even made our own cane syrup back in the day. Still got the press. And even though he sold it, I'd raid his old Farm Supply Co. up front too. I'd take a couple dozen trips to get all the feed and seed, but I'm pretty sure it'd be helpful. I'd also go home and raid the gun house out back. Couple K of ammo out there and a fuck load of guns.
I'm really jealous of all the stuff you guys got. I agree that the line between anarchy and civilization is paper thin and I would love to have some sort of self sustaining farm if something bad would ever happen.
I'm guessing that the people in front who did the real trampling were actually just being wedged forward by people in the back who had no idea anyone was being trampled... That's kinda how these things work. I don't think anybody willingly stepped on a guy, but once they get swept up in a big enough crowd, they don't really a choice. They are quite literally being physically forced forward.
This statement really got me thinking. Back in the 60's people said the same thing about the Japanese. Anything (and I mean ANYTHING) that came from Japan was automatically dismissed as either garbage or worthless junk. Today, damn near everything we have thats worth owning comes from Japan. Everything from Cars to Eletronic games and appliances is made either in Japan itself, or by a Japanese company based here in the US. Maybe we should all have listened to Ross Perot when he said that: "If we don't focus on being an ecomonically self dependant nation, we're eventually going to become economic slaves to the rest of the world."
Greed is good. Stealing is bad. Which is why every rational system has a government to stop the latter and allow the former to produce growth. Excluding catchy do nothing slogans, the real question is not whether each is good or bad, but where the line between the two is.
