I'm assuming most of you have, like me, given up on seeing any real survival issues on the show "Jericho". I'm still watching only because DD likes it. <img src="/images/graemlins/crazy.gif" alt="" />

Anyway, last night they had some bad guys harrasing the town and the townsfolk had mixed feelings about what to do with one of baddies that they had caught. The gamut ran from "string him up" to "give him stuff in hopes he'll stay away".

This caught my eye because I had recently read an essay on how vigilante deathsquads have been a necessary part in the formation of every government, wether it be democracy or despot. It was quite an eye opener.

To quote:
But death squads are rational, in their own horrible way. They may prove, as they did in Latin America, to be a pretty effective method of wiping out implacable enemies of social order and preparing the way for democratic and law-abiding government. In living memory almost every decent and legal regime in Latin America was preceded by a chaotic period in which ordinary men armed themselves with guns, said goodnight to their families, and went out in groups to kill some local dissident. That period was a bit further back in the past for the French, the English, and the Americans. But no nation can be shown to have reached the rule of democratic law without it. The work of the vigilantes is the hideous and dark crime that Socrates and the Greek tragic dramatists hinted must underlie all civilization. That crime is indeed a crime, and its perpetrators must stand trial for it, whether before God or some human tribunal. But it is possible that true civil self-government can only be established with its aid."

The article DID NOT give it's blessings to vigilante deathsquads. Please read it before jumping on me. <img src="/images/graemlins/blush.gif" alt="" />

Going back to "Jericho" and tying it into the Equipped boards, how would you handle someone causing violent disruptions to you during a long-term survival situation?

-Blast, finding something to occupy his time instead of pacing and hyperventilating

I don't recall any reports of death squads in 1776.

With all due respect, whose version of history have you read, the winners or the losers? I do remember my high school history teach talking about violent attacks upon those who supported the king of England. A quick search turned up this list of vigilante justice against people loyal to the crown. Some of the incidents described on that page were court-ordered but many other were common folk taking up arms to dispatch loyalists trying to undermine the new country.

Another good essay is this one, at least up until it starts raving about a new revolution. <img src="/images/graemlins/tongue.gif" alt="" />

-Blast

It does indeed depend on perspective. Take Ethan Allen of the American Revolution. To us native Vermonters he's a local home grown hero. To the British and British supporters of his time he was a home grown terrorist. We won the war, we get to decide who to idolize and who to vilify.

I would disagree with the author you quoted on the death squad issue. George Washington & his men didn't go around executing innocent British families. They fought the British soldiers. In fact they let thousands of British loyalists leave Boston when they could have easily slaughtered with the cannons they had pointed down on them. Maybe there was some terriorist type activities that I'm unaware of but most of the history I know is fighting amongst soldiers.

This, or something rather similar to it, even underlied the Rennaissance. What with the likes of the Sforzas, the Medicis, etc, -Poisoning and otherwise Bumping Off their Rivals, -in order to get on Top themselves, -Machiavelli and his Machiavellism, etc.

But here and in your Examples, -Just because it Always or Near Always may happen this way, -Doesn't mean it Neccessarily *Must* Always happen this way!

Just because we as Mankind may "Always" go a Lower Road toward a Goal, -Doesn't mean that a Higher Road or Avenue doesn't also Exist! [color:"black"] [/color] [email]Blast[/email]

Oh, -Both the Loyalists and Patriots did Plenty Enuff such stuff!, -to each other! [color:"black"] [/color] [email]Malpaso[/email]

I have really enjoyed the show - though I do have to keep telling myself this is TV & TV shows usually have some hokey moments. Not to mention the stuff that is inaccurate.

However, there has been plenty of survival related stuff.

Hawkins was aware of the coming danger & grabbed his family & fled the big city. (The folks who were wise & fled New Orleans are an example of modern real world survival thinking) Fleeing danger is the best course of action.

Hawkins PC was prepared for an EMP blast when nothing else in town was. Hawkins lectured his daughter to refill the bathtubs with water after she took a shower because they didn't know when the power would go back out. The glow lights he had stocked up, etc.

Another example is the town looting the abandoned locomotive for food supplies. All the bartering that is going on even if some of it is with the bad guys.

I think they have painted a much more rosey picture of what it will be like, but again it's TV. Oh, BTW, who is mowing all the grass around town? <img src="/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" />

George Washington and many others certainly did Fight Cleanly and Honorably. (Though the Britts might Beg to Differ!, -in our Firing from behind Trees, Native American Indian Style!). But a Good Enuff *other* Individuals on our Side, (and probably their's too), -Certainly *Didn't* always Fight so Cleanly or Honorably! [color:"black"] [/color] [email]Micah513[/email]

“With all due respect, whose version of history have you read, the winners or the losers?”

Well said, well said. All history is subject to whose side you view it from.
I must have been an odd child, because I never bought in to what I was taught in school e.g. that the founding fathers of this country were “Great” men of high moral and ethical values, they were human and had flaws like all the rest of us.