It is interesting and kind of sad that this discussion of survival has focused on the standard, rather weary survivalist scenarioin which society collapses, we all turn to violence in protecting our stash from those who would take it and we go down the rabbit hole of how much ammo, what caliber, etc.

I find these discussion rather tedious because I think if you look at historical instances of tough times, while violence and crime may increase, total anarchy is rather rare. In fact, there is often cooperation, assistance, and aid, sometimes at significant risk.

There are other survival scenarios which are rather common that don't involve social strife. Think of situations like lost and confused hikers caught up in an unanticipated storm, auto accidents or breakdowns on isolated roads. Here the positive side of humanity often appears and folks aid and assist one another, sometimes at real risk to themselves.

Doing volunteer SAR, I and my team mates have sometimes inserted ourselves into seemingly risky situations, but we were trained and equipped for conditions. I vividly remember one operation, deep in a mine shaft, where the situation got a bit out of hand, and I, my companion, and our victims were at considerable risk, but our team mates on the surface pulled through (literally!) and got us out.

The point being that you don't always make a conscious decision to take an unreasonable risk - the situation comes to you and you have to deal with it, since you have this odd desire to keep on living.

Most of my survival situation have involve dealing with natural forces and conditions - hot Arizona deserts, numbing cold, steep and troublesome terrain, dark caves, etc., not social unrest. Often folks cooperate in those conditions in order to survive. To what lengths will you go? You won't know until tested.

I realize that social unrest and crime exists, and one might have to turn to violence to legitimately protect ones self and others, but, rankly, that is rather rare,much less common than cooperation and aid in the ace of adversity.