[Grifter]

I got as far as

The Shit Most Deffinately Has Started To........

I got stuck there

[Pops]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('untothislast', 'S')ome thoughts for gated/walled/armed compound aspirants everywhere:

Your Walden Pond retreat, will be assailed by anyone who can find it - desperate enough to take from you whatever is at hand - if the government hasn't got there first.

[What_Went_Wrong]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('EndOfGrowth', 'H')ey Matt, what makes you think the grid is going down? P.O is a liquid fuels crisis, for now anyway...

[roccman]

I think a bunker in a walled compound is a better idea.

http://photos1.blogger.com/photoInclude ... Buried.jpg

[EndOfGrowth]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('What_Went_Wrong', '')$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('EndOfGrowth', 'H')ey Matt, what makes you think the grid is going down? P.O is a liquid fuels crisis, for now anyway...

[TheDude]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Pops', 'W')hich way are you gonna head?

[Pops]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('TheDude', 'M')ostly I see the suburbers poaching chickens from hobby farmers long before they run into any real Deliverance-style action.

[retiredguy]

Hey Pops,

I was in your neighborhood last summer picking up a locally-made woodstove. I came away with the impression that the bubbas would have a big problem with an athesist like me, even though I do own guns.

I share untothelast's view and plan to hunker down here in the cool, blue north.

[threadbear]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('What_Went_Wrong', '')$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('EndOfGrowth', 'H')ey Matt, what makes you think the grid is going down? P.O is a liquid fuels crisis, for now anyway...

[Tanada]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Pops', '')$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('untothislast', 'S')ome thoughts for gated/walled/armed compound aspirants everywhere:

Your Walden Pond retreat, will be assailed by anyone who can find it - desperate enough to take from you whatever is at hand - if the government hasn't got there first.

[Grifter]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('threadbear', 'S')o much of the current oil "crisis" is manufactured. The real peak is a little further out than we think, and will be managed quite well. The economy, climate change, water scarcity are problems that are much more immediate.

[Pops]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('retiredguy', 'H')ey Pops,
I came away with the impression that the bubbas would have a big problem with an athesist like me, even though I do own guns.

[Pops]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Shannymara', 'I') have the impression if things do get nasty people here (east Texas, very much Southern Baptist) will divide up more along racial lines than religious ones...

[threadbear]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Grifter', '')$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('threadbear', 'S')o much of the current oil "crisis" is manufactured. The real peak is a little further out than we think, and will be managed quite well. The economy, climate change, water scarcity are problems that are much more immediate.

[abelardlindsay]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Pops', '')$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('untothislast', 'S')ome thoughts for gated/walled/armed compound aspirants everywhere:

Your Walden Pond retreat, will be assailed by anyone who can find it - desperate enough to take from you whatever is at hand - if the government hasn't got there first.

[Ebyss]

Why is it that people equate rural living with isolation??? What, you think we don't have neighbours down here? Neighbours with guns? Farmers are pretty good shots, and in this country they're pretty much the only people who get regular practice on moving targets.

Seriously - I don't know what you think rural living is about, but isolation ain't it.

[untothislast]

The best of luck to Pops, and all others who feel that it just isn't enough to sit back and hope that somebody else - government or community - will have the common sense or initiative to help us work through the situation. I just don't think a psychological retreat into C18 isolationism is likely to work in the C21 age of global surveillance - particularly when you can see, just by scanning through LATOC, the measures being slyly put into place to keep tabs on our every move.

Up to now, we've been a relatively small number of PO info devotees here, but this is about to change pretty quickly. I've never been able to judge whether it's better to make full-on personal preparations, or to work to help educate others in the hope that a rising tide of protest might put pressure on our masters to a) own up to the problem, and b) start coordinating a response. When the bad news has been digested by the rest, the neighbours will suddenly start remembering that mass of provisions you used to offload from your truck, and the government will check through (as the UK government is currently doing with ebay sellers) every transaction you've made for the past few years - one of the very good reasons why governments want to phase out hard currency from the marketplace.

Even before our projected 'Day 1' of PO, martial law will be in place - together with the same sort of provisions to be able to seize any of your goods and home, if deemed for the public good, which many governments had set in place for dealing with Y2K.

All I'm saying, is don't expect to be left alone, and that you'll be needing more than small armaments to deal with a military allowed to use the nastiest and most technological weapons at its disposal - and free to do so, because you will have been demonised by the media as selfish un-(fill in the nationality) survivalists beforehand.

For most of the rest of us (and let's be honest, we'd join you like a shot if the offer was open, just on the small off-chance we might actually get away with it) I still say the logical safeguard is to quietly squirrel away a manageable store of provisions to cope with any prospective shortages. Do this on a rotational basis, starting today if you haven't already.

[Ebyss]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', 'I') still say the logical safeguard is to quietly squirrel away a manageable store of provisions to cope with any prospective shortages.

[untothislast]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Ebyss', 'W')hy is it that people equate rural living with isolation??? What, you think we don't have neighbours down here? . . .
Seriously - I don't know what you think rural living is about, but isolation ain't it.

[Twilight]

Without a cataclysmic above-ground event, I don't think there will be any mass public realisation. Awareness will grow gradually, and alarm at the implications will follow growth in awareness the same way production lags discovery.

People are basically too stupid to see it all at once. They will see the trees but not the wood. Inflation, falling incomes, unemployment, crime, and before they realise logistically-inflicted shortages are on their way and empty the shelves, they will first be unable to buy most of the stuff on the shelves.

The majority will feel economic and social implications before they understand the underlying reasons. The temptation to blame the enemy within or without will be strong, and some countries will go to the grave not knowing what caused their madness.

Unless there is a global financial meltdown (even then the blame will fall on the meltdown), people across the world are not going to say at breakfast, "Honey, the global economic system is coming to an end because of resource constraints to fossil fuel extraction, deferred energy system maintenance and industry demographics. Let's go do a run on the bank and load up the pickup at Costco."

Actually I'm not sure a run on the bank is even possible in a country without savings.

Anyway, what I'm saying is that in a long emergency lacking catalysing political or economic events, there won't be panic until utilities fail.