Marsh - You have your own excellent reasoning. That people can take horrific situations and survive them, perhaps even prosper after a fashion merely reinforces the reality that people adapt quickly. It's in their very nature or they would never have made it this far. However, there are categories of survivors. 1) the violent >opportunist - this one takes through violence that which is desired as the mood strikes. I call this the "Survivor Seeking Instant Gratification". 2) the down-to-earther - this one (man/woman) maintains the honest work ethic of the past and works for what little/much is produced. I call this the Surviving Pioneer". 3) the whiner - this one begs or cons survival needs from those who honestly engages in work and supporting those who can't support themselves. I call this one the "Manipulating Survivor". A very astute and humorous friend refers to them as the Predator, the Prey, and the Bottom Feeder. These categories are all around us every day. They're nothing new. Their prevalence after any future devastating catastrophy is moot. The Bottom Feeders will survive only in small numbers. I feel it will be a work or not eat type of world. The Predators will do what they do best - murder and mayhem (mostly of whiners and the honest workers. The Prey, our pioneer stock, will have to protect everything they have all the time, plus themselves from both the other categories. I know this sounds cynical, but history delineates these groups and the history hasn't changed much in thousands of years. Financial realities will come down to who has what of value and who's willing to trade or kill for it. Because of one basic truth. Without a strong government to give meaning to conventional monies, barter and "hard" currencies will prevail as a medium of exchange. "Money" may literally come the trees in the form of food, lumber, firewood, and the like. Those who have skills to use to make a real living in the form of production will be highly sought after as providers, teachers, helpers, healers, mid-wives, and the like. In the US, the average American can consider themselves cannon fodder or worse. The elderly are a fantastic resource, but fragile. The children are a resource drain (cruel but true) and also the only potential for a better world later. I think what disturbs me the most is that, by percentage, few in this country can do anything for themselves. Somebody else does it for them. Whatever "it" is. When there is no one to do these things, to delivery the product (except on a small personal scale), to make decisions for them,they become a part of Category Three. Or worse yet, Category One. With few/no skills, they cannot become Category 2. And unfortunately, that is the smallest of the three groups. Think about it.

>Claudette

-- Claudette Young (laclaud@cybertrails.com), August 31, 1999

Answers

I think you will find that the "prey" has a bit of predator,lurking in the background. Anyone who considers me prey will quickly become compost in my garden.

-- Daryll (twincrk@hotmail.com), September 01, 1999.

"A man's character is his destiny." (I believe this is a proverb.)

Perhaps what you say is true. Perhaps the ratio of predator/prey/bottom feeder belies the destiny of man's character as a whole.

As for me, my homestead is called "Tara."

-- marsh (armstrng@sisqtel.net), September 01, 1999.

Tara?

-- Daryll (twincrk@hotmail.com), September 01, 1999.

"It's the land, Katie Scarlet..." "As God is my witness, I will never be hungry again..."

(Tara was the home plantation in Gone With The Wind. Guess ya gotta be a chick.....)

Fiddledeedee

-- marsh (armstrng@sisqtel.net), September 01, 1999.

As a pioneer society matures, it rids itself of the more violent preditors. This essential function was often by a vigilence committee. Perhaps we will see vigilante action if things get out of hand. Unfortunately, if there is no law (or very corrupt law), vigilante action may be the way to reestablish law.

-- Mad Monk (madmonk@hawaiian.net), September 02, 1999.

Mad Monk has brought up an excellent point. Contrary to the bad rap that vigilante committees have gotten due to a few well-publicized bad examples, they performed a much needed function in society.

I read a good bit about them several years ago, and they weren't lynch mobs - they were generally very well organized and well disciplined groups who recognized that the predators could not be tolerated in a civilized society. They took careful and measured action against those who violated the most basic and ancient rules of civilized behavior. I need to go back and find that information again.

-- Stephen McGehee (scm@adjutant.com), September 02, 1999.