3-day rule

[pirate]

Read somewhere a while back that there was a theory that it would only take 3 days for society to fall apart. I wish I could remember the name of the theory, or who it was by. But how true do you guys think this is? I am reminded of Katrina and such that I think it's pretty darn possible. Thoughts?

[helomech]

Society, no, but certain people within the society yes. Just look at the past and you can see it. The hoodlums seem to want to riot at the drop of a hat, but others in the same area help each other.

Katrina is a perfect example. The projects where horrible, but other parts of the city where not bad, and the towns outside the city that where hit much worse everyone banded together. I have not heard of one case of shooting at law enforcement outside of the areas like the 5th ward, and those are actually small areas.

[bacpacker]

I would tend to agree. Mainly due to the fact that most grocery stores don't have any more stock than that on hand. If shipments stopped, gas stations probably don't have any more than that either. By the time these realizations start sinking in, the three days will be up and shit will go downhill faster than what it had up to that point.

[Echo2]

9 meals from anarchy

[Foulball]

Amount of food on hand in stores. With the logistics system we use here in the U.S. the phrase "Just in Time" is a correct and scary observation.

[pirate]

I mean it is a scary thing to think about. I would love to be fully prepped and ready, but three days even four days is to quick to beleive there is always some last minute items your gonna want or need and when the shtf something you didn't foresee needing until the moment something happens.

[Sniper-T]

That's why I keep cash on hand, mostly small bills. Extras, last minutes, and just because it may still be on the shelf items. a couple days into an event, you'll know how severe it is going to be, and what 'extras' you'll need/want. If credit card readers/debit machines are down, can you still buy stuff?

[Stormfeather]

Society, no, but certain people within the society yes. Just look at the past and you can see it. The hoodlums seem to want to riot at the drop of a hat, but others in the same area help each other.

Katrina is a perfect example. The projects where horrible, but other parts of the city where not bad, and the towns outside the city that where hit much worse everyone banded together. I have not heard of one case of shooting at law enforcement outside of the areas like the 5th ward, and those are actually small areas.


Katrina was a good example of how easily a society can quickly drop into anarchy when there is no govt there to bail them out. I was in NOLA as a federalized peace officer the day prior to the levee breaking to 3 months afterwards, and can tell you one thing from personal experience, it was horrible all the way around. There was a multitude of documented cases of law enforcement being shot at, I was one of them, I know from personal experience. It happened all thru-out Jefferson parish in almost every ward except down by the college and downtown by the casino (Bourbon street area) My cruiser after one incident had 27 bullet holes in it, and that was a almost typical night. I wont even get into details about how many times I would hit a barbell workout plate hung by fishing line strung up on a response route. Suffice it to say, a 5 lb weight slamming thru your windshield at 55-65 mph is never a fun thing.

[helomech]

Katrina was a good example of how easily a society can quickly drop into anarchy when there is no govt there to bail them out. I was in NOLA as a federalized peace officer the day prior to the levee breaking to 3 months afterwards, and can tell you one thing from personal experience, it was horrible all the way around. There was a multitude of documented cases of law enforcement being shot at, I was one of them, I know from personal experience. It happened all thru-out Jefferson parish in almost every ward except down by the college and downtown by the casino (Bourbon street area) My cruiser after one incident had 27 bullet holes in it, and that was a almost typical night.

Not once did I say that police where not shot at, I know it happened. You missed my point entirely. That kind of anarchy would not take place in the smaller towns, the people will and have put a stop to it. The problem lies with the people in these government communities. I have seen in many hurricanes the civilians take it upon themselves to protect their areas. Many communities banded together and no looting took place in these towns.

I lived there up until 6 years ago. All the incidents you are talking about are all the bad neighbor hoods. That stuff did not happen in the better neighbor hoods, or even the poor areas outside the city. I lived my whole life just south west of the city, we had been flooded many times (I think 11 times in the previous 10 years) Not once did shooting at police take place. The problems lie in the inner city bad neighbor hoods, no where else. To say society breaks down because .1% of the population are scum, is the same as blaming all gun owners on the colorado shooting. Society did not break down the worthless in our society just took advantage of the lack of law enforcement.

I noticed you said in every ward there was problems. You have backed my point. For the people that don't know what a Ward is, it is government housing. The area's where people actually owned their homes where peaceful.

[Stormfeather]

I must have misread/misinterpreted your post then.

[helomech]

I must have misread/misinterpreted your post then.

Here is my exact post. I said the projects where horrible (meaning all the wards) the 5th ward just being the most heard of. I bet you never got shot at outside of the city, and you know that the entire area not just New Orleans was flooded.

The projects where horrible, but other parts of the city where not bad, and the towns outside the city that where hit much worse everyone banded together. I have not heard of one case of shooting at law enforcement outside of the areas like the 5th ward, and those are actually small areas.

[Kodiak]

There are many communities will ban together and take care of each other and there are many communities that will not. But there is one common denominator that will dictate how long people will stand together and that is food. When the food runs out people will do whatever they have to do to survive, and if you don't believe that pick up a history book.

In the TV show, After Armageddon (which was discussed in another thread), one of the experts made the statement that society is nine meals away from anarchy.