neversay wrote:Good tip, but I'm wondering: when you come back from a virtual war-zone, does it make you (i) want to be more prepared here in the UK? or (ii) not even bother preparing as we should stop worrying and 'count our blessings'?
Haha, a thought provoking question, thanks! It makes me accutely aware of the mood on the street. What I experienced probably only occurs in iron-man led autocracies, when their rule is threatened, the dung hits the fan fast and big-time. But such countries perhaps exist in part via 'the regime' having it's tentacles down into every facet of your life; for example we had to assume that all our comms was being monitored 24/7. We had a nick-name we used if we wanted to mention this iron-man in conversation, even in our own home, something that only we knew, zero risk of it being over-heard and held against us.
Even then you hesitated and whispered. This ironically seemed to translate into generally high civic order, ie you saw very little crime in your daily life as people were terrified of the consequences.
[I realise, again, that even now I am instinctively afraid to be more specific than ^ re: who/where. I wonder when or if that will ever wear off... truly strange].
I think here what with democracy, as imperfect as it is, there would be a lot of warning signs before becoming a prepper made sense
for me. In the absence of autocracy here perhaps it would take a broad break-down of government. There would be vast protests/riots, with mass arrests and jailings of opponents. You might see some politicians being assassinated. People you know who aren't friends as such [perhaps neighbours, colleagues, and so on] would stop sharing any political opinions with you, not knowing which camp you're in. You will be in a state of near-constant fear, but to get through the day you have to control it, and so you do. The regime would control the entire media as any 'oppo' channels/websites/newspapers etc would be shut down by the state. Those are the kind of things that would really get my attention as warnings.
- Ironically the above might sounds rather ambivalent but the circumstances that 'prepping' are a contingency against do not happen in one day, and if they're happening you cannot fail to notice, the build-up to it will be THE only topic of conversation on an ongoing basis amongst close friends. It feels like you're facing imminent war and it's literally terrifying, genuinely, terrible!
But the flip-side is that I now feel a situation that comes with liberal democracy here, the streets feel lawless and I perceive walking around my neighbourhood [where when I have lived when the UK has been my home, since 1992] the primary threat to my well-being. It might sound perverse but I miss the sense that people are afraid of the police and justice. There seems to be a pervasive sense of lawlessness. Going out feels like it has a good chance of becoming a random wild-west experience. Not helped by me seeing a mobile-mugger on my first day back, plus the un-worried public smoking of cannabis every time I go out.
I won't bring politics into it, but I'll be paying very close attention if there are mass anti-government protests that perhaps morph into riots and looting.
