Stay away from my hole

I caught a documentary yesterday about a bunch of folks who have underground bomb shelters. All of them are fully prepared for when "it" happens. They have stockpiled food, weapons, and medications. They have backup batteries, lighting, and chemical toilets. In short these folks are prepared for a single, sudden event that will transform our world. For some it is nuclear war for others a global pandemic and one even mumbled about aliens and meteors. The common thread is that all of them are preparing for a sudden, cataclysmic discontinuity. Whenever "it" happens they will scramble down their shelter, lock the blast door behind them, and presumably live for weeks or years until the food runs out or the accumulating methane vapors overrun their olfactory cells.

Most of these shelters are smack dab in the middle of American suburbia. They're surrounded by people, schools, cars, highways, and strip malls. It occurred to me while watching that the odds of an instantaneous event that will radically and permanently change our world are exceedingly small. Even if such an event were to occur, if you were smack dab in the middle of "it", why on earth would you want to stay there? Anyone in their right mind is going to move themselves to a place unaffected or less severely affected by "it". Living down a smelly hole in the midst of suburbia for months on end seems an odd survival gambit even if "it" were to occur.

But what of the more likely scenario that "it" is not a discontinuous process? What if "it" is a slow slide to food and energy shortages, economic decline, and increasingly desperate folks?
What if "it" takes years to occur? How are these folks going to draw a line in the sand as the kickoff signal to scurry down their holes? And if "it" is a slow process it's likely these folks will be the sole residents of their cul-de-sac, the others having long left the scene. It might be easier and just as safe to live in the house rather than down a smelly hole in the back yard.

The current apparent decline is rolling forward more as a set of slow waves. They will ebb and flow with the direction always subtly towards more desperation and chaos. The smartest way to live in the midst of a slow crash is to do things as you always have. Plant your garden, drive your car a little less each month, downsize to a fuel efficient one when you can, take a job closer to home or start a home based business, spend the weekends on your family farm or whatever country retreat you have to go to. Buy the bulk foods you cannot grow piecemeal and gradually build up enough to feed yourself and your family for many years. In short blend in, keep a cool head, and quietly redirect your lifestyle into something that is not dependent on Wallmart and that job in the city with its 80-mile daily commute. If you need a hole nearby just in case a sudden "it" happens well so be it. I think the odds of needing a well stocked suburban hidey hole are slim and the odds that you want to be living in one if "it" occurs even slimmer still.