That title caught your attention for sure!
But believe it or not, there are people out there who actually want and hope for a massive, national SHTF event! You can see it in the way many people on a large number of prepper sites write or the videos they produce. They are outright gitty at the idea of it. Very perverse!
Yet when you analyze the thinking of some of these people (because some are just outright kooks!) there is an odd sense that forms an image of scared, desperate people for whom a national cataclysmic event is their only hope out. It’s very sad and disheartening, even frightening, that so many people see a collapse of life as we know it to be not only a viable but reasonable way to improve their own lives.
First, we need to put aside the kooks who think living in a SHTF WROL world will somehow be “cool” or fun. And those who think it will just be an extended camping trip. Have you seen “Mad Max”? “Book of Eli”? Or read “The Road”? Just to name a few…
Beyond them, there is of course the criminal element. The true, hard core “career” criminal would just love an SHTF WROL world! The reality is that criminal activity, especially violent criminal activity, as bad as it is in many American cities (and it is bad regardless of what the statistics claim!) is held in check to at least some extent by law enforcement. Or, to put it another way, if it’s bad now just imagine how it will be with there is no law enforcement on the streets! Already in many cities law enforcement and police response to 911 calls is being reduced due to budget constraints. As of writing this, in California there was recently a mob gang fight outside a MacDonald’s. It lasted nearly an hour. Many people called the police. No one came until much later. And that is under “normal” and “good” conditions!
There are also people who aren’t criminals now but will turn to crime without the fear of law enforcement. Maybe your own neighbors. (A topic for another time)
Next there are the young people, the post‑9/11 generation. These are late teens and 20-somethings who came of age after 9/11. The OWS crowd. They know only of international war and conflict, high government spending, ever tighter security in the name of safety, a roller coaster economy at best, and crushing debts (of their own doing but they don’t see it that way). Through the media at large, politicians, the net and a variety of other sources all they know about America and the American system – i.e. capitalism – are “rich and evil” bankers and Wall Street types, “greedy” lenders who try (and perhaps have) taken their family’s’ homes, “selfish” business owners who lay off their parents and perhaps them too, etc. They have little idea these are both only very very recent events in the history of America as well being a mere fraction of the otherwise good things the American system and Capitalism have done (the iphone, ipad and Xbox for example would likely not be around for them to waste time on were it not for Capitalism!).
For these young people, a SHTF collapse is no big deal. They know no other world. If/when an economic or other national SHTF event happens most young people will embrace it for a long time. It may not be for years until they realize life after SHTF is no better, probably worse, than what was post-SHTF. And some will never realize it since, again, then know no different.
Moving on, next there are people who, for a variety of reasons, are in very deep debt hardship. Perhaps they are on the list to lose their home, their car, or anything else they owe money on. For these people, a national SHTF collapse represents a potential “reset” in their lives. They expect (hope) that debt will be forgiven if not forgotten after TSHFT. Ain’t gonna happen!
The topic of debt after a major economic or financial SHTF has been discussed at length on many other sites so I’m not going to rehash it here. I will say that when it comes to “money” no one is going to forgive or forget you owe them – No one! Payment may not be in U.S. Dollars after an SHTF event. Maybe gold or silver or other metals, maybe property, maybe even forced labor! (e.g. a return to the concept of Indentured Servitude) But either way I assure you, as clearly as the sun rises in the East and sets in the West, someone somewhere will eventually come looking for you to make good on your debts. And they will have the full weight of whatever law enforcement (even private security “consultants” if necessary) to enforce it.
There probably are other groups and types of people who would perversely embrace an SHTF WROL event. But these represent the ones I can think of at the top of the list.
Very telling that our society has produced people with this mindset.
A self-fulfilling prophecy?
Suburban,
Though your post are usually quite good this post was one long string of generalizations which went from bad to worse.
First of all there is a place in every prepper’s heart, dare I say every red blooded Americans heart, where the image of the cowboy–rugged, prepared for anything, living off the land, packing his six shooter and rifle where ever he goes–lives!!! It would be cool to live in a world where you could sling your (select-fire of course) AR-15 on your shoulder and walk around in public that way. This being said most of us would not trade the relative stability of our current situation, with all it’s problems, for a boyish fantasy.
AND I am sure you are right that there are a few who feel trapped by this world due to debt, work situation, or social ineptitude and see a collapse as an escape, although most of the preppers I meet are pretty squared away down to earth folks.
HOWEVER–the bulk of those of us who desire (desire is not the right word) TEOTWAWKI desire, or more properly are consigned to this outcome because we see that the current situation is a downward spiral. It’s not just our economy, imigration, or politcal system that is broken–it our culture. Culture is based on what we worship and our culture worships mammon. What is worse, although culture can be repaired, as it has been in the past, today our society is full of individualistic isolationists. We use electronics and technology to avoid anyone who “annoys” us, anyone with whom we don’t see eye to eye, anyone who challenges our world view. Our culture is broken and it doesn’t seem to some of us that it can be fixed. Let me tell you I have been working to try to fix it for more than 10 years now and it seems only to get worse each day.
Sometimes a car is just done, totaled; in such a case you buy a new one, which can be painful, or ride a bus until you can save up to buy a new car, which can also be unpleasant. You might not WISH that your car breaks down for the final time BUT it might be necessary even in time of hardship to make everyone realize the need for and make the sacrifices for that new car.
I don’t want TEOTWAWKI–I just think it’s necessary no matter how much it hurts, if we want to have any hope of getting things back in order as a culture.
I am consigned to the SHTF because I hope it will teach people what’s really important: what they should value, and who they should worship!! Hopefully it will bring families and communities together. It will definitely remind us of the existence of evil, but also of our duty and responsibility to do good. And though sadly many good people would die, so would those who are today the high priests of the culture of mammon.
I don’t hope for TEOTWAKI, I hope for Gods will to be done, even if it means the SHTF.
Best regards, Padre
PS: As a side note–it really depends to what degree the SHTF, as to whether debts will be collected after the SHTF. Particularly since our debts are contracted in USD which may or may not exist or be worth anything in a week, month, or years time. If a Corp owns my debt and its records are wiped out in some sort of disasters and all of its movers and shakers are dead whose going to com and collect, especially if toilet paper is more valuble than the greenbacks I owe? I contend that this is a reason to go into reasonable debt to square away your basic preps.
Padre — Seems to me you missed the point.
It isn’t that some people see a SHTF or collapes as an inevitable end of what’s happening today. It’s that some people (and I agree probably a small number who are not preppers) actually are eager maybe even gitty for it to come for the reasons listed above.