andy said:
maybe, but it AINT likely.

youve never SEEN REAL shtf conditions, anyway. Nobody has, in fact. shtf means paper money is asswipe, no power in the lines, and IT AINT COMING BACK ON, no fuel for the vehicles, no water in the pipes, etc. THAT will be so stressful that most will go insane, suididal, mass homicidal, etc, within mere days. they CAN'T do without their caffeine, fatty foods, nicotine, sugar, MTV, music, etc.
Andy,
The following is my opinion, based upon what I get out of your posts. It is nothing more and nothing less:
You apparently, as I see it, have no idea what comprises a real life SHTF scenario. So my educated guess is that when you actually are faced with one, you will likely perish or piss your panties. You compare a SHTF scenario with your own melodramatic fantasies that actually amount to TEOTWAWKI (the end of the world as we know it). It makes me wonder if you have molded yourself after the Peter Sellers character Dr. Strangelove in the movie Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned To Stop Worrying And Love The Bomb. Dr. Strangelove was the one who repeatedly tried to get the president and the rest of the boys in charge down (with 5 or is it 10 girls to each man) into the salt mines for the next 50 years or so after the doomsday device goes off. Or have you molded yourself after Brigadier General Jack D. Ripper, another character in that movie. Is it the water man? Please tell us so we will all know?
While a catastrophe something along those lines would definitely be a SHTF scenario, it is more appropriately called a TEOTWAWKI situation. While all TEOTWAWKI scenarios are SHTF scenarios, not all SHTF scenarios are TEOTWAWKI. Many SHTF scenarios are much less catastrophic. TEOTWAWKI type of a thing has not been, is not, and will not be the only type of SHTF scenario that any or all of us may face in our lifetimes. Give it a break man and join reality on this one.
For you to say that no one has ever seen SHTF situations is, in my opinion, absolutely ridiculous, let me explain what I think: To imagine for a moment that the Jews in the Nazi death camps and Nazi controlled ghettos during WWII were not experiencing a SHTF scenario is in my mind absurd. To think that when that plane, quite some years ago, crashed into the mountainside down in South America (was it in Chile?) with that soccer team aboard, and those people wound up surviving by eating the flesh of others who had perished was not a SHTF scenario, well that is as I see it preposterous. To say that to suddenly see thousands upon thousands of the advancing Mongolian Horde bearing down upon your position as they rode at full gallop intent upon killing their enemy (of which you were one) is not a SHTF scenario is in my estimation kooky. To say that having your arm caught and smashed under a boulder, and there is no hope of getting help before you die, so you have to saw off your own arm is not a SHTF situation is in my opinion crazy. To say that if someone assaults you out of the blue, and is intent on killing you, and has a deadly weapon is not a SHTF state is in my view moronic.
Apparently though you would fail to see any of these as being SHTF because they are temporary (as per another post in another thread that you wrote recently). Well all of the SHTF scenarios of which you can think are temporary. Some last longer than others, but that is not what makes it such a SHTF predicament. SHTF means that very bad things suddenly are blown your way, and you have to deal with them fast not to get covered by the S part of SHTF. You, on the other hand, seemingly always want to make this an end of the world type of fantastic adventure in which apparently by your own thinking you will be the only one capable of surviving. I figure (and this is my opinion) there is a reason for this, one that is psychological in its nature. To state it plainly it, as I see it, probably has to do with an inability on your part to accept yourself as being good enough. Therefore, my guess is that, there is a need for you to make everyone else look bad, and to push your own image to the utmost regardless of any little bit of actual abilities, or more likely regardless of your lack of the abilities of which you brag. In doing so you seek the esteem of others, but all you mostly wind up probably getting is other people who are pissed off at you and who think you are a jerk, and who realize that you probably do not have, probably never have had, and probably never will have the abilities of which you brag.
My guess is that the more you boast, the more certain are the others of your insecurity and inabilities, thus the more insecure you become, and therefore the more you find yourself needing to brag and the more you find yourself needing to put others down! This last bit about having some limited skills and needing to boast about them is borne out by you incessant return to boasting about your claimed skills as a match target shooter. The part about your need to put others down is evidenced by that recurring theme throughout many if not most of your posts on these forums. The idea of you actually lacking the abilities of which you brag is made clear again and again by the level of, what I believe is, gross incompetence that you exhibit when you write about tactical situations. The idea that you need to brag about things in which you lack skills is evidenced by your repeatedly posting on subjects in which the mainstream of knowledge by recognized experts, and the knowledge of otherwise experienced people in these forums, on those subjects is, in my opinion, in direct opposition to your postings. The idea that this just pisses people off, and that they choose for the great part not to believe you and rather think of you as a jerk is borne out by all of the responses you have received that show those feelings toward you from others. The hypothesis that you will need to repeat this whole process and brag even more will probably, as I see it, be held to the light of truth when you continue to, in my opinion carry on in the same exact circular fashion of: feeling insecure, boasting of your limited skills, bragging of skills you actually don't possess to make yourself seem better than you truly believe you are, putting other people down to make you feel superior, feeling a burst of self esteem, being slammed by other forum members who believe you to be full of
Brown
Smelly stuff and who support their arguments with data, being humiliated and therefor losing self esteem, once again feeling insecure, whereby the process starts anew.
The above, and the following, of course are only my opinion - but I would be willing to bet it is pretty darned close to what is really going on. Take it or leave it, for what it is worth to you. For you, my guess is that all of what you have been doing on these forums amounts to little more than :headbang:! For us, the other forum users, I think your postings herein these forums have been a combination of a minor :;puke02: irritant, a minor :laugh: amusement, and pitiful :sobstory: example of a man who, in my lay opinion, needs help, and some friends. Most of all though, I think you are an example of a man who needs to develop the ability to accept the fact that many others are at least as good as are you, if not better, before you can actually experience honestly earned self esteem. You can get what you are looking for here, or anywhere, by honsetly changing your attitude for the better and keeping it that way. In the end, as it has been all along, the choice is yours alone. If you make the right one then others (not all because some don't forgive or forget, but enough) will welcome you and hold you in good regard - not for who you were, and not for who you claimed to be, but for the man you will become, for who you truly are at the moment they realize you have honestly changed your attitude for the better and are making yourself stay that way.
Bye the way, don't take me wrong, I am not getting soft in regard to you. As your attitude is now, I would just as soon puke :;puke02: down your throat as I would try to be nice to or accepting of you. If you really do change though, maybe I would be one of them who would show you some acceptance, but I am none to sure of that with the state of current affairs. Man you have a lot of changing to do as far as I am concerned and it would be a tough sell for you to convince others that you have changed - but I imagine since you are human that there is hope.