Being the Gray Man or Woman

[diamond lil]

Well maybe we need to make friends with them and get them to teach us then eh

[bulldogeagle]

Well maybe we need to make friends with them and get them to teach us then eh

depends where they are, cant imagine there are many Somali's where you live Lil? i expect there are more sheep than people?

[diamond lil]

O yes.. this is true !

[Triple_sod]

The chances are if it’s that bad there’s going to be no mains water so people will be drinking whatever they can get their hands on. Some will improvise crude filters and boil the stuff but I reckon most will take pot luck....causing all sorts of terrible diseases. So if we are talking a complete collapse of infrastructure they’ll be none of the hungry mobs we’ve seen in all the ‘survival movies’. It’ll be more like one of those adverts put out by ‘save the children’ that put you off your lunch. You don’t see them trying to rush the aid wagons, most of the poor buggers look like they’ve enough on trying to stand up.

Of course as callous as it sounds, preppers in that situation probably wouldn’t do too bad. As all those around them (and their wouldn’t be many) who’d survived the first few months would have one thing in common, that being they could feed themselves.

During the late seventies and early eighties when the threat of nuclear war with the Soviets was at it's highest the Government commissioned a study that looked into the effect on population of certain senarios.

One of the scenarios was a complete break down of law and order, transport, electric/water supply etc in short a real SHTF scenario. What they predicted was that the population would half every six months untill it stabilised at sub 10 million unless Law/Order, food supply etc could be re-established. After Six months pop' 30 Million, after Twelve months pop' 15 Million and after eighteen months 7.5Million. The study showed (or "guessed") that the majority of deaths would be from disease and later stavation.
That's not to say that gangs wouldn't roam the streets robbing and killing for food, but once it's gone it's gone, and with out the reward of food they would tend not to expend energy and put themselves in potentially threatening situations.

Yeah that’s basically what I meant, in a lot of these films it’s like 10 years after the event and you still have these ‘roaming gangs’...Whereas in real life I think they’d do well for a couple of weeks after a ‘total collapse’ but from there on in pickings would steadily get more and more meagre.

[tfish]

[/quote]

Yeah that’s basically what I meant, in a lot of these films it’s like 10 years after the event and you still have these ‘roaming gangs’...Whereas in real life I think they’d do well for a couple of weeks after a ‘total collapse’ but from there on in pickings would steadily get more and more meagre.[/quote]


You will always have roaming gangs, ten, twenty and thirty years after event. Man Kinds history shows we gather in groups and thrive in groups of around 30 or 40.

The only protection in a world without law is to be in a group.

Their will be no "lone survivors" or "single familys" except for maybe in the highlands and islands.

[Triple_sod]

You will always have roaming gangs, ten, twenty and thirty years after event. Man Kinds history shows we gather in groups and thrive in groups of around 30 or 40.

The only protection in a world without law is to be in a group.

Their will be no "lone survivors" or "single familys" except for maybe in the highlands and islands.

Again, just taking what I say out of context....

I would have thought everyone would have understood the word gang as ‘criminal organization’...like the ‘baddies’ in just about every ‘shtf film’.

[bulldogeagle]

[quote="tfish)


You will always have roaming gangs, ten, twenty and thirty years after event. Man Kinds history shows we gather in groups and thrive in groups of around 30 or 40.

The only protection in a world without law is to be in a group.

Their will be no "lone survivors" or "single familys" except for maybe in the highlands and islands.[/quote]
i think gangs will be prevalent in cities(where they are mostly anyway) and where most supplies will be available and where they feel most at home, put them in the countryside and they will get lost in 5 minutes! not that there will be that much food in rural areas, have you ever tried catching a sheep WITHOUT a trained sheep dog? it isnt easy. i still say small units of singles and small family groups would be easier to hide and keep hidden until the dust settles.

[diamond lil]

If collies ever find this out and go on strike for better conditions, then farmers are up the creek without a paddle eh
I don't watch films and I don't see why any film would mirror reality. Since it's never happened then nobody knows how it will go, least of all a Hollywood producer.

[Brambles]

My word there have been some sweeping statements here.
Firstly, inner city gangs would probabaly never get as far as the suburbs. The communities they harrass would probably take great pleasure in dealing with them. I doubt they would come into the countryside, it's not their natural environment and they have no idea how to behave in it. These people cannot function as an individual and can only function as a unit in the territory they feel comfortable in. Conversely, I think countryside people would avoid cities for the same reasons. I would be more worried about old Joe Bloggs and his mates who have been gamekeeping or poaching all their lives. They have the firepower and knowledge to really do some damage.
Secondly, I fail to see how foreigners are better equipped to deal with 'life after' than anybody else. They are people just the same as anyone, and just the same as anyone, there will be some who do well, and others who don't. Just because a person comes from a poor country doesn't mean they have survival skills.
And then we come to animals. Our island is so overpopulated, that the first food source to go would be farm animals and wild game. It may not be easy to catch a Sheep, but it's sure as sugar easy to shoot one. Also, it doesn't matter whether you can butcher a carcass properly or not, what matters is, you have meat. I doubt anyone will bother that they can't spatchcock a bird or cut a chop or two from a pig.
Whether or not a larger or small group would thrive I think would depend on the skillset within the group. Then there's the whole Alpha thing to contend with. Someone will always want to be in charge. Some will want to follow, others won't. It's human nature.
Finally, I doubt there would be as much lawlessness as some imagine. Once people got themselves organised they would Police themeselves. Civility has a way of surviving.

Anyway, the liklihood of societal meltdown is remote to zero, so this is all conjecture.

I'm shutting up now, this poor thread has gone waaaay off topic

[bulldogeagle]

Brambles, i think you'r right about the gangs being confined to the cities. i dont know about Gamekeepers and Poachers do they even exist outside of "heartbeat"? i live in a rural area and we dont have the big estates and the shooting parties and the big teams of gamekeepers and beaters, what we have is small farms run by 1 or 2 people literally on a shoestring budget. again i cant agree with your sweeping statement that the country is overpopulated, maybe it is in London and the home counties or in the midlands for example, but get out of the cities and large towns and into the rural villages and hamlets and there really arent that many people, my own town only has a population of 1300 and i know lots of villages in my area that have populations in only double figures. you may be right about farm animals and wild game but unless you know what you'r doing butchery is not easy to master, i mean look at a cow for instance, thats a big animal to deal with even after you've killed it, you cant just hack a bit off with a pen knife, you've got to know about joints and anatomy and bones to have any success in getting any decent amount of meat off the carcass.