Good points on the survival aspects of the show. I guess I'm disappointed in that it seems to me the writers are leaving out a lot of the hardships. Everyone still looks very clean. Occasionally they talk about having nothing to eat but potatoes or the pumpkin, but it still seems like everyone/thing is too *clean*. I still am measuring against the book "Alas Babylon", which always seemed the most realistic portrayel of hardships and solutions.


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It seems pretty well established that Hawkins knew what was coming. The question is whose side was/is he on.

-Blast

Recently I watched a documentary about the aftermath of hurricane Katrina. If some of you may recall, while Katrina response was going on, there were widespread reports of murder, rape, robberies and break-ins. What I understood from that program, is that in the aftermath of Katrina, crime, such as murder rate, actually went down, not up. To top it all off, media was reporting rumors, not news.

Emergency medical personnel at the scene later reported that they treated lots of cases of dehydration, exposure and people missing their medications, but NO injuries related to physical/sexual violence. To put this in perspective, one of the reports at the time, mentioned that the pharmacy of Charity hospital was robbed by a gang of armed marauders who stole narcotics. Chief medical doctor of Charity hospital in New Orleans who was interviewed on this program, mentioned that he first heard about the pharmacy robbery on the radio while he was talking to the pharmacist at the hospital pharmacy!

To get back to the article about Death squads and Jericho. I think that "medium"-term disasters (weeks to month), will not last long enough to produce Jericho-like or Iraq-like scenarios. Am I worried about Death squads in the long run? Yes. But for them to be formed there needs to be a relatively long-term disaster (month to years), something like a nuclear war, a sudden global warming, or a "revolution" of some sort. An all-out nuclear war is highly unlikely in our days. A nuclear terrorist attack on one of the cities may happen, but not a Cold War style total annihilation.
Now global warming and "revolution" are different stories...

I guess what I am trying to say is that people, me included, tend to exagerate and imagine things. We should learn from history and facts:

"Some maintain that after an atomic attack America would degenerate into anarchy an every- man-for-himself struggle for existence. They forget the history of great human catastrophes and the self- sacrificing strengths most human beings are capable of displaying. After a massive nuclear attack starvation would afflict some areas, but America's grain-producing regions still would have an abundance of uncontaminated food. History indicates that Americans in the food-rich areas would help the starving. Like the heroic Russians who drove food trucks to starving Leningrad through bursting Nazi bombs and shells.7 many Americans would risk radiation and other dangers to bring truckloads of grain and other necessities to their starving countrymen. Surely, an essential part of psychological preparations for surviving a modern war is a well- founded assurance that many citizens of a strong society will struggle to help each other and will work together with little regard for danger and loss."
Above quote taken from Nuclear War Survival skills

Definitely agree with them making it look too easy. They should be looking pretty grimy by now or if not then they should show how they are heating water over a wood stove & jerry rigging a shower, etc.

but that is TV! <img src="/images/graemlins/smirk.gif" alt="" />

I have found the show to be introducing a somewhat TABOO subject to the general population in a dramatic format, slipping little bits of practical information in here and there, much as a Dean Ing novel (ie: You will Survive Doomsday) does. It IS too little, too late, but anything that gets the general population to wake up from their "zombie-like stupor" is, to me, a positive contribution to the American society, at large.

Any society requires order. Without it society cannot function. Normally that operates by what is generally termed "Rule of Law". If a situation occures in which ROL is no longer able to operate, it follows that Ordinary Decent Citizens (yes, I capitalised that deliberatly because that is a title that should be worn with pride) must either band together and be prepared to impose that order, or be prey for those individuals who consider their fellow man to be, shall we say, dinner.
Villigante or Posse Commatus is a logical way to deal with the situation.
If a "Bad Guy" does move in and try to take over by a process of violence and intimidation, then measured force becomes your only realistic option. Bribing them to go away does not work. Danegeld does not get rid of the Dane. The certainty that he will get hurt - or killed- will.
If you do choose to hang him, be certain that he gets a fair trial first. That is very much the first step back to ROL. You do not want the alteratives.

Well put. Last nights showed rocked with all the gun fighting!

Everyone has heard of lynching in its most terrifying and malevolent form but the name actually comes from a fellow who came home after the Civil War to find no law enforcement in town. No sheriff, no judges no marshall to take prisoners to. Just a lot of scared people being terrorized by various forms of crime. So he organized people together, arrested criminals, tried them and metted out a variety of punishments including, but not restricted to, hanging. Law and order were restored. But because of a few people angry about being punished Judge Lynch went down in infamy. Unfortunately his name is now synonimous with racial murder.

I don't think societies need men in black masks executing people in their beds, but an ad hoc court backed up by a stocks and gallows, maybe so.

Vigilantism usually gets a bad rap but it is sometimes necessary.

The Battle of Athens, TN

A Mozambique triple-tap and a Christian burial.

I only watchewd this program once, and keep missing it since. It response to Washington fighting cleanly;
HE may have, for the most part, fought honorably. But, people took things into their own hands. Look what happened in New York during that time. There were midnight raids against Loyalists, kidnaping & killing them, as well as burning Loyalist businesses. To the point where the fires got out of control, causing more damage than expected. I recently read a book about Washington's march & fight through Trenton, NJ, and it was enlightening, to say the least. Washington, according to what the author wrote, was VERY concerned about the quality of his troops, with their penchant for vigilantism and constant desertions. Unfortunately, I have forgotten the name of the book. But, it is rife with stories of how the patriots treated Loyalists, and "suspected" Loyalists.