I think this could be a much deeper topic than just the folks who can't live w/o FB or who can't face a future without tv or video games. What about the folks who are on serious doses of antidepressants. When those run out, things are gonna get extremely grim for them. There are also the folks who are addicted to various stimulants/depressants. They're gonna go thru living hell trying to get through the detox times. From what I've heard, suicide is a VERY real option then. And the schizophrenics who are on serious meds. They're gonna do what the "voices" tell them to do. And tons of other folks who are dependent on daily doses of meds for stuff like diabetes, thyroid problems, heck, even prostate stuff (ever NOT been able to pee for days??). Then there's gonna be the folks who get sick....no Dr's, no antibiotics, no nothing to help. Think they might choose a "quick" way out rather than lingering for days or weeks? Tough topic. Lots of bad stuff to think about. Kajun
So, SHTF and people come to the realization that society and life as we know it has changed and not for the better. This raises some questions like; How many people do you think will just give up as opposed to trying to survive? Should we try to stop them if they are trying to kill themselves? If someone in your group mentions suicide or giving up what do you do?[/quote] Back during the 'Die Ins' and cruise missile paranoia, I had fellow service members say, if the U.S. gets nuked, they wanted to die in the first blast. I was incredulous to say the least. I figured then, after talking to a lot of people, that about 10% will give up. 5% will starve because of food prejudices. 15% will go, clinically snake shit. 5% percent will become predators. Only about 1-2% will have any kind of long term preparations to rely on. The rest? I suppose that the nearly 50% left will just muddle through and hope in the good old government to save their bacon. Most of them would gladly become slaves and the ones that don't will probably die. That's in a huge SHF. It's all pretty scary though, thinking about masses of sheeple wandering about. The same 5% as before would soon grow fangs and become wolves and that's creepy as H-ll to me. If a member of our group was suicidal, they'd be on buddy watch for at least a week and everyone else would be apprised of the situation. We would all offer encouragement and pray that they got through it okay (We've considered that situation). In times of severe stress suicidal predelictions go on the rise. In a doomsday scenario the loss of family, possesions, stability and eventually hope, would probably take out...only God knows how many. Not trying to sound cold trying to stop if they have already took the actions needed to complete it could get you hurt for trying to help. As for it being a person in the group thats a tough one, you have to think what if I stop him and then next week he was to snap and kill the half the group or the total group. Could one depend on that person knowing they have already broke, would that person become a burden on the group.[/quote] I don't know how I'm going to come off here, hopefully with much respect, but I'll take a shot. One of the biggest longterm dangers to our society will be the loss of cultural distinctives and ethical norms. If someone is a danger to the group they should be in lockdown and a decision made after a reasonable amount of time lapsed. That amount of time, I have to admit, is subjective. I know that there will be people that are a burden to the group however, even our hunter gatherer ancestors who lived every day on the margins, took care of their sick, injured and elderly. You certainly don't want to sacrifice anyones life by not taking an inside threat seriously but we, as a group, have chosen to make allowances for a certain number of 'charity cases'. Tough times make for hard decisions, no doubt. Infanticide as well as senicide have been very rarely practiced by primitive cultures. Even the Eskimo who are characterized as leaving granny out on the ice flow, with a small fire and a few fish, when she couldn't chew hides anymore, were intensely reluctant to sacrifice one of their own, though it was, in the most extreme cases done. I just hope that we never face a situation so acutely desperate that we are forced to make that kind of decision.
