[quote=Arthur Robey]When it gets Bad- don't use the roads. On no account use a vehicle. Sleep during the day and move at night. When you are moving you are vulnerable- you are at a disadvantage. Moving objects stand out… Always do a 360 around your sleeping position, before settling in. Never make a fire. Do not smoke-it stinks- dead give-away. Do not use soap or chemicals. The top of your tent must be no more than a foot above the ground. Always wake before dawn in the dark. Just lie there cuddling your cold steel weapon. Dawn is a favorite time to attack. Forget modesty- always have someone standing guard when you do your ablutions. Getting your throat cut with your pants down around your ankles is not a dignified exit.
Getting water is particularly problematical. Ask any gazelle.
Never, ever feel sorry for yourself. Especially if it is raining and you are tired, cold and hungry. You are especially vulnerable at that time. It will be difficult not to be attracted to the warm glow of domesticated bliss. Those little lights twinkling in the darkness are lethal.
You will lose the use of one hand- It will be carrying your weapon. Your weapon will never be more than a meter from you.
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Aaron,
Thanks a lot for this thread. It's fascinating to consider different levels and ways of awareness, and as someone with little experience with or inclination towards guns, I appreciate the many suggestions on avoiding or altering dangerous interactions without the use of weapons.
It may be that a time comes when only people who carry and understand how to use guns will survive, and, for a variety of reasons, I'm at peace with the fact that I would not be a survivor in that case. After all, there are many things that cannot be destroyed by weapons, and very few things that can be built with them.
Arthur, I appreciate your post, as well as the advantages of pedaling, paddling, swimming, or walking, in the dark. The part quoted above reminds me of Cormac McCarthy's The Road.
Most of my situational awareness was formed in the context of negotiating whitewater rivers, which is a very different environment than human threat matrices. The nineties were good to me, so no complaints. Some days I am attached to ensuring that my genetic line will make it through the coming bottleneck, and other days I think that so much of this is beyond my control that there's little need to struggle. In any case, our smiles and our kindnesses will reverberate through the cosmos for longer than all of bombs of the apocalypse. Or not. But, sometimes belief is more heartening than calculating the probabilities.
As Han Solo once said, "Never tell me the odds!"
Cheers,
Hugh