It has become almost a fantasy of some that those prepared will at some point have a Hollywood-esque showdown to reclaim our lives against now-unknown forces.

What, though, if the doomsday many are planning for is not remotely close to realistic?

What if they held a riot and nobody showed up?

I have often wondered about the fall of society and in our present day and age how a government could keep 318 million people in check during a collapse. We expect that when things get bad it will play out just like it always has around the world and even here on smaller scales with places like Ferguson and Baltimore most recently. There will be riots and the police will show up to keep the order.

The police will keep things from getting too violent and the firemen will put out the burning buildings and overturned police cars and the clean-up can begin at some point. There will be speeches and rallies and this will all be broadcast on the news.

But what if it isn’t?

What if there is some event that causes people to riot and the police don’t appear?

What if the fire trucks don’t roll down the street to put out the shops that have been set ablaze? What if all of the buildings and shops are looted, people are killed, the mob simply takes over and nobody stops them? What if government doesn’t step in at all for some reason and we burn our own country down?

What if we kill off 80% of the population fighting amongst ourselves and the government sits back and gives us “room to destroy” – to let it all happen without stepping in? What if nobody took your guns, because they wanted you to use them to kill your neighbors so they didn’t have to?

Well, we could all march on Washington and demand to be heard! We could storm the capital and crash the gates at the white house. What if nobody was occupying those buildings anymore?

How do you control 320 million people?

I think there are only a few realistic ways you can control that many people. (warning, gross over simplification ahead) The first and easiest is fear. Fear will make perfectly sane people do irrational things. You will give up your freedoms, your privacy, your rights, your property and dignity for a little safety. It has happened over and over again throughout the years and I would argue it has been going on here since 9/11. You can control people with fear. If they are afraid of something or someone and you offer them protection, they will do just about anything you say.

The other way to control people is through force. This would be harder to do in my opinion without a full scale war because it relies on the people being controlled to go along quietly. That gets back to fear. You would use the fear of death in a war to get people to give up their freedom to you.

The easiest way to control people is to amuse them. Keep them distracted and focused on other things besides how they are being treated, or how crappy their life is. For this to work you need a highly evolved media and entertainment industry which we have in spades; a reduction in the awareness of civics and common sense of the masses which, unfortunately, we also have plenty of.

Who needs us anyway?

Our country doesn’t manufacture anything anymore. We the people aren’t needed to keep the wheels of commerce moving in a large sense. We aren’t vital to the war effort. We just exist to buy things and pay taxes to bail out the banks (who no longer need our money but will take it anyway) and conduct wars on foreign lands (that the people don’t agree with). I don’t think we are viewed as necessary in the eyes of some.

I am personally not expecting a big SHTF event to happen where in only days; I will pull out the stops, armor up and begin watching the streets for tricked out buses full of mutant zombies to come rolling into town looking for the last can of gas. Even if there is a global financial collapse, people will still be going to work, maybe not me or you. Mortgages will still be due even if people can’t pay them, grocery stores will still get food, even if there are riots and shortages. It may not completely come crashing down for everyone at the same time.

So, do your prepper plans anticipate a different kind of collapse that isn’t in line with the generic prepper fantasy? Can you live through a slow decline into oblivion? One that doesn’t happen overnight, but over a decade? When our country turns into a third world hell hole in slow motion, will you still be prepared for that?

In most nations, the doomsday they ended up facing did not happen by a military coup or sudden catastrophe or life changing crisis.

It happened incrementally and if you were not prepared for it, you either adapted or suffered.

While everyone should be prepared for a major crisis, we also may want to temper our plans with scenarios that frankly are less volatile and take time, but no less destructive.

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