Yes, and that attitude really concerns me.

I'm very fond of the Swiss attitude about such things and I find myself sorely missing it when I spend long periods in the United States.

The Swiss simply recognize, not pessimistically, but realistically, that the government and the Cantons cannot provide for them if something truly horrid happens.  They recognize that they personally bear the MAJORITY of the responsibility for their well being themselves.  As a result, the cohesiveness of the nation is in some ways much stronger than it is elsewhere in the world, and the expectations for government assistance much lower.  People know that their neighbor will have his/her act together and therefore not show up begging (stealing, armed looting) for food, gas, water or whathaveyou.  The average Swiss citizen has 48 hours of provisions in the trunk of their car (usually those really unappetizing hyper-caloric food bricks that keep for 2 years) because god forbid they would have to be embarassed to borrow some food if something ever happened in the Furka pass.

"Something" is never defined and I love the Swiss response to any foreigner who asks what the (gun, ammo, food, water, first aid kit, fishing kit, filter, cold weather gear, snow chains, signal flare) is for.  "If I knew then it wouldn't be there, would it?"

It is the lack of this basic recognition that life is unpredictable that scares me about living in the United States, particularly in urban areas.  99.997% of the people in a large urban area don't have even close to what it would take (in storage or in smarts) for them to survive for 48 hours if all basic services were cut off.  Because of this lack of planning I suspect some percentage of that are eventually going to be desperate enough to resort to violence to get at what they need.  Worse, that's probably going to result in martial law very, very quickly.  Government will have no choice but to get very unforgiving and very arbitrary in a crisis like that.  That's not a good place to be.  (Someone recently listed many of the emergency powers and authorizations the federal government has in a serious crisis.  Very scary- particularly the one about forced labor).

I stock ammo in Switzerland against the threat of foreign invasion- foreign invasion is unlikely because everyone there does what I do.  I stock ammo in the United States against the threat of civil unrest- here almost no one does what I do.  Important difference, and a disturbing one.  What scares me in Switzerland (and not much) is external force or global nuclear/biological exchanges.  What scares me in the United States (and quite a lot) is panic over anything or nothing.  A significant pandemic flu in the U.S. would be a sovereignty challenging event.

Now, mind you- I'm not some survivalist up in the woods somewhere.  I spend most of my time in the U.S. (which is one of my favorite places to be BTW) in urban areas.  I don't suspect that a really serious SHTF incident is [b]likely[/b] any time soon, but I [b]know[/b] it is possible and I consider it my very Swisslike duty to make sure I am not going to be a burden on anyone else in that event.

As someone I knew once put it: "It's not the odds, it's the stakes."

Tat,

Have you ever thought of writing a book? You express yourself so well it scares me [:D]

I know exactly what you speak of, and it is a sad commentary of our American way of life.

We have it so good here, we fail to see how it could go bad in an instant.

Thanks for the reminder,


dave

No reason for [i]complete[/i] despair.  [b]Some[/b] folks do not speak about making sensible, intelligent preparations.  They just quietly do it.

No, but if you run for president I'll write your speeches!

Exactly!  (Where are you from?  Liechtenstein originally here).

"At least once, every human being should have to run for his life - to teach him that milk does not come from the supermarket, that safety does not come from policemen, and that news is not something that happens to other people."

- Robert Heinlein, "The Number Of The Beast."

I prefer this from the same source:

"The female mind is too fast for me. I often can reach the same conclusion; a woman gets there first and never by the route I have to follow."

Exactly my attitude and well stated. I think my attitude toward preparedness come more from my years in Wilderness Search and Rescue than it does from SHTF type events. I spent a lot of years rescueing people (and even had a good friend die) who were not prepared for events that were unlikely to happen but could be catastrophic if they did..... 10 miles is a decent day hike... but it becomes a medical and survival emergency with a severly twisted ankle.

So I prepare for SHTF the same way I prepare for a hiking trip. I try to imagine any possible situations that could happen (keeping things within reason) and then identify what provisions would be needed to survive/comfortably weather the situation.

It's the same reason I carry a spare tire and pay for car insurance. Why do people find that so hard to understand?

That is ironic... and it happens to me too. Every time I aquire a new firearm my friends (who own one or two guns) always shake their head and say "you're crazy." And then not more than two sentences later: "If the S ever HTF I'm coming to your house!"

So which is it? Am I crazy? or am I just prudent? (Some will probably say both[:D])

Why thank you!  5.56 and 7.62.

Tatjana...
x 39 or x 51?

Arnold is pro gun?