Editor’s Note: The following article from Survivor Mike at The Home for Survivaldetails strategies for community building before and after an SHTF event. While many preppers hesitate to bring any newcomers, especially neighbors they may not know, into their preparedness circle or even preparedness conversation, as Mike suggests, making friends and plans now may be our saving grace when things go sour. Operational Security is, of course, a key consideration, but so too is how you’ll handle a post-SHTF world, especially if it’s just you and your immediate family. While we’ve found it difficult to get neighbors or even family on board with preparedness planning, opening a dialogue and getting to know your neighbors is in our best interest. As we’ve learned from several post-collapse books and resources, communities and groups that band together often have a better chance of surviving than do road warriors or those who want to stand their ground alone when looters or gangs make a move on their homes and supplies. The alternatives to not building a community could and will likely be deadly, as rather than having friends and colleagues to lean on, they instead turn on you to gain access to your supplies. This is an important conversation to have, and Survivor Mike brings to light some key talking points.
You’re living in your suburban home. CNN has just said that the stock market is dropping for the ninth day in a row and people are now racing to their banks to empty their accounts. Couple this with an unstable euro, an unstable Middle East, and a worldwide economic recession and you get the start of the shit hitting the fan. How does your neighborhood react to this? Who in your neighborhood do you trust?
Now take that a step further and imagine a state of civil unrest. Homes nearby are being looted and undesirables are now common in your neighborhood. You have a weapon, but the occupants of your home include you, your wife, and your two small children. You have a front door, a backdoor, and the garage door. How do you cover all three much less the first floor windows?
What I’ve described above is the situation you will be faced with when the SHTF. So, do you need to build a community of liked-minded folks when the shit hits the fan? I believe there are 10 reasons why building a community is key when it all goes down.
1) Strength in Numbers
Being in a suburban area, I tend to worry about what will happen if looters run amok. I imagine when the SHTF, criminals will likely run in gangs. Those gangs will target individual homes for looting and potentially seek to oust the folks living there. They would target homes with a small number of occupants to make their raids that much easier.
So, to avoid being in their crosshairs, it would be optimal to be viewed as a large group. These criminals will have quite a few homes to choose from when things get tough and there is no sense in being an easy target. Remember, giving the perception of a large force is enough to deter those with bad intentions.
There are an awful lot of comments on the SHTF site so I wanted to address concerns to those who check in on NC Renegade. The idea of more hands to do the tasks is good except that in this situation, I have experienced most folks around me would not only not be helpful, they would be a drag. The TV show survivor may seem like fluff but it is real when you watch the dynamics. The group always gets together and gets rid of the strongest people, those who will keep them alive in the real world. They do that out of fear. It’s also true in real life when civility breaks down. The people are going to gang up on what they perceive as the leader. I wonder how many are willing to shoot their neighbor when they start to organize and attack. One Second After was a perfect example when everyone knew one person was stealing but they couldn’t bring themselves to kill him. This is reality. Pol Pot had his army of teenagers find all the intelligent people and kill them. In their mind if you wore glasses, you were intelligent.
Here’s my personal thoughts. If, in fact, gangs start roaming neighborhoods, they will be no different than car thieves. They will choose the easiest targets. I have no problem and have a vantage point in my neighborhood that, if they start down my street, I will take just enough time to determine who their leader is then I will kill him. I can’t be positive, certainly, but from my experience with bullies, if the leader is taken out, they will scatter and reform to find easier targets. At least that is my plan. Wish me luck. In fact, we all need a lot of luck in the near future. And we all need to weigh every scenario and decide for ourselves our best method of action.
Unfortunately, I believe the dynamic will be much more complicated, and will start before the gangs organize and begin looting in earnest -- there are enemies of Liberty in your neighborhood right now, as there are in mine…they are nearly everywhere, unfortunately. In a collapse, they will be the “community organizers” who will be trying to sell everyone in the neighborhood on the idea that “everything should be shared equally”, and that “everyone should work together, for the common good.”
Ask yourself this, “Do I have the stones and the skills to eliminate the enemies of liberty in my AO, and do I have the political/social skills to manage the fallout from doing so?”
My advise would be this --
1. Quickly and quietly eliminate the most dangerous among your neighborhood enemies -- those with hearts for gossip and egos for leadership. Let the blame go to the looters and low-lifes
2. Without acknowledging that you did the deed, use this event as the immediate reason to bring together the 5 or 6 most conservative men in the neighborhood, and have a CLOSED “community summit” with them to address security and any other immediate issues. Within this group, select a “Council Leader”
3. Follow this up immediately with a public meeting which your newly assembled council will lead -- make sure that you do NOT give the remaining enemies in your community time to regroup from their loss of leadership…from their perspective this is a power struggle, plain and simple -- your job is to win it and put the question to rest
4. Immediately put pressure on the enemies and useful idiots to behave and start adapting to life without uncle sugar -- so long as things remain manageable, they will conform for the most part…that is what they do best
5. Mantain confidence of authority -- divide and assign responsibilities to the most competent of the conservative folks, and make it clear that, within their area of expertise, the responsibility to lead is theirs…the entire group provides input when/where possible, but the leadership makes final decissions. Period. This is NOT a DEMOCRACY…
6. In a world WROL, there are only two real punishments -- exile and death. Of the two, use exile with the greater caution, as a spiteful exillee can give critical intel to the OPFOR. If a family member steals, assaults, or gives intel to OPFOR, then the whole family pays the price, unless a member of their family turns them in for the crime -- each family has the responsibility to police itself -- the council will judge on that basis. In a small community which is struggling to survive, recidivism is simply not an option, therefore harsh punishments must be delivered for first offenses…NO EXCEPTIONS. Make this clear, repeatedly, and be firm in your justice…
7. Know who your peacemakers are, and give them direction and encouragement to head off inter-personal issues before gossip takes root or tempers flare.
8. Further undermine the collectivists within your community by selecting one who has a hunger for a position of authority, and giving him the responsibility of being the mouthpiece of your council. In this way the lefties will burn out one of their own with their whining and complaining, rather than burning out a clear-headed and useful council leader.