© Michael Jastremski for openphoto.net
A common concern among rural people in a grid-down situation is the concept of marauding urbanites swarming through the countryside looting and pillaging — the so-called Golden Horde. I addressed this issue on my blog a few months ago when a reader noted, “You can hide yourself, but not your garden. Are you going to take your beef herd into your house with you? In any long-term crisis situation, your cattle and garden will be indefensible and therefore gone in a matter of months. You cannot protect them from a determined large, armed group.”
This reader respectfully listed what he termed a “huge blind spot” among rural preppers. “As an urbanite, I know that millions and millions of people will head for the less populated areas of this country. They will travel in large groups for safety and they will be armed to the teeth. They will not worry about ‘Will the locals welcome you?’ They will do whatever it takes to survive, which likely will include murdering ‘the locals’ for their resources. You cannot hide your garden and livestock and produce them at the same time. It wouldn’t take a very large group for you to be outnumbered and then either pinned down inside while all your outdoor food is stolen, or overrun completely. What then? It seems to me that any prepper scenario only works if you’re willing to kill others to survive, and even then only until the canned goods hold out. The minute you have to plant and tend a garden, you (and your food) will be sitting ducks. I realize this post must sound really hostile, but it isn’t meant to be. I’m just curious about whether preppers think about these eventualities, and what’s the plan then?”
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