....a good reason to carry snacks and store a few days worth of food. (Including pet food.)

It is only a government "rule of thumb" for planning purposes. We know how well bureaucracies do planning and execution. Don't read too much into it.

Just measure your neighbors and calculate how much food value they may be and you are good.

In the short term a big disaster can bring the community together. But I suppose once people realized the lights weren't coming back on and the tap wasn't going to start flowing again the darker side of human nature may come out. I've said it before and I'll repeat it here once more- I don't think it's possible to really be fully prepared for an EOTWAWKI situation, and maybe not even desirable. Life is complicated and messy somethings and not always easy but it's still a great gift. I love life, but I love it as part of the civilization I'm a part of. While I enjoy getting out of civilized world and into the wilderness I do it with the expectation that civilization will be waiting for me when I return. Absent that I'm just an animal. Animal life still has value but it's probably not enough for someone used to being human.

My perspective differs from yours here -- while I don't prep for TEOTWAWKI or any variants, I do think that if civilization ended many people would choose to remain human and do what they could to have some civilization. How many, I don't pretend to know how to estimate. Based on your writings here, I'd be willing to bet that you'd be one of them.

Another variable is the type of community where the disaster occurs. If it is one where people know each other and have had long term relationships with their neighbors, they are much more likely to cooperate and take care of those who can't take care of themselves.

In a large city where most people remain strangers to each other, anonymity is a key factor. When a person believes that they are not known, and will remain anonymous, they are much more willing to commit antisocial acts and to not take responsibility for the community's welfare.

There are other triggers that can make the prevailing mood swing either way: leadership can go either way, acts of violence may reduce people to perceiving they are in survival mode and make them less cooperative, prevailing cultural norms and values can push in either direction, perception of other people cheating in access to resources.

Every situation can be very different from every other. One more reason why preparedness is so important. If everyone prepared a little, they would not be so likely to be reduced to antisocial actions. If you are viewed as a good neighbor and you are prepared, your neighbors will look to you for guidance and leadership. Demonstrated skills will carry you a long way in keeping your community working together and taking care of each other. You are reducing their stress and fear.

Another reason, as I have posted in the past on other threads, why communication skills are important. In a community suffering from a disaster your ability to communicate, and understand other people, can make all of the difference.

Great points, everyone! Part of being prepared is to carry fire for civilization: it's just a matter of how far and how long we're willing and able to carry it.

Beautifully said, sir.

If that were my quotable, I would immediately add it to my signature line.

Colour me envious!

That's exactly what it is...

You must carefully consider the consequences of eating humans. No matter how great you believe the moral justification, from that day forward every time you walk into a room, people will stop talking and look at you, and someone will whisper, "Is that Montanero?"

And another will answer, "Yes. The cannibal."

where can you get freeze dried fava beans to go with a fine chianti?