Co-operation or Die?

[MaryN]

I am going to enter a plea for co-operation after a SHTF scenario. Let me tell you the story of my own little scenario. Many years ago, I lived for a couple of years on a tiny little island in the middle of the Pacific Ocean. We were there because my Father had been posted there.

It was one of a ring of islands stuck right out in the enormous Pacific Ocean - idyllic? Yes, and for a young girl it was a paradise. No school, just sun, sea, sand and days spent amusing myself. Sounds lovely, right? It was.

For the natives, however, it was an exercise in daily survival. They lived in huts, thatched with palm leaves and built on slightly elevated blocks (to keep the crawling beasties out. There was no agricultural land to speak of - food was provided by catching fish; keeping poultry and a few pigs; and of course coconuts, bananas and such growing things.

The point is, there was no room for going it alone. Villagers banded together to build nets and canoes to fish with - many hands landed bigger catches than could be brought in alone. Catches were shared and bartered for other things. There was no room for error. No supermarket down the road to trot down to - what you caught or grew was what you had. When a pig was killed it was party-time - and those folks knew how to party. The toddy came out and many heads were aching the next morning (I was too young to drink, but the roast pork was fantastic!).

There were arguments and a few feuds, and there was a prison on the island - you could hear the prisoners singing at night - but serious crime was very unusual.

It was a very simple life, and, looking back on it, an exercise in co-operation between community. Without that mutual interest in survival, those people would not have been able to survive. Even water collection was organised - there was no ground water on a number of the islands. Looking back, life was tenuous, but the goodwill and co-operation between the people made things work. I have fond memories.

[Straight Shooter]

I think it would become a natural process....people banding together, many hands make light work, but time scale .......would depend on how desperate people are, as preppers we plan for food stock,water,growing food and tending animals this will take us a fair way ...BUT....in the end we will all have to work for each other.

[T-oddity]

I'm all for co-operation, but in our modern western society we are surrounded by individuals who are self centred and self serving with an attitude of have it now and instant gratification, with very little regard for others or consequences for the future, who will take what they can and sod the rest. I think post SHTF it will take some time before we modern humans figure out why our ancestors banded together into small communities and it will be difficult to know who you can rely on and trust. I'm very fortunate has I already have family and good friends who are like minded and would naturally gravitate together to help each other in an event and we are already in an informal way prepping together as a group, but unless it something you do before an event I think it is going to be far harder to do post SHTF.

[bigpaul]

maybe at a later date a long time past SHTF this will happen, but immediately WTSHTF its going to be everyone for themselves, batten down the hatches and hunker down and just try and survive.

[Lightspeed]

Agreeing with BP here.

If there is a specific SHTF event, it'll be a matter of laying low and remaining self sufficient for as long as possible.

But what if its a slow, creeping decline? Maybe co operation within communities would come about naturally?

Co operation is still alive and well in small communities here, even today. For example, yesterday I was discussing my new roof plans with nearest neighbour. He immediately offered me keys to his tractor, and a trailer for removal of debris. Two more tractor boys from the hamlet called by to offer their help this morning. Word travels quickly here. None of them wanted paying for their help and none of them wanted to salvage old tiles or anything like that. It was just supportive co operation with a person who lives among them. ( there are only 27 dwellings in the hamlet and probably only15 of them are full time inhabited.) I am more and more certain that this particular local community will pull together if faced with a full on SHTF situation.... and I consider myself very lucky for this.

[bigpaul]

I am sure that because your settlement is smaller everyone will pull together, however this will not be the case everywhere.

[TOF]

I think this is a good reason to know and get on with your neighbours. Community spirit is strong in my area of town. Most of the folk in my street would come together, the two 'iffy' families would be ejected in short order. At the allotments it's even stronger, if anything were to happen I can see a few of the old boys organising security and getting everyone pulling together. I've already had one of them sound me out for barter and pooling our growing resources. This Ukraine business has a few of them jittery.

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Meant to add, the very fact of being an 'iffy family' or a known loner in a community would make your acceptance more difficult after an event.

[Mortblanc]

Dolphins, whales, apes, chimps and most humans have had the group success thing figured out for millions of years.

http://www.theguardian.com/science/2014/...gh-norfolk

Note that at the bottom of the article they list a number of finds scattered through the ages from just a few thousand years back to the time when humans were just starting their exploration on two legs. In every case they found the fossilized footprints of a GROUP or an obvious family.

It often fascinates me that this subject is so popular in GB. Many of you live in villages that pre-date recorded history and have family names that have been in that village for millennia and reach back into antiquity.

You have survived through cooperation throughout eternity, while the cantankerous SOB that got banished to the woods because he could not "get along", or proved himself a danger to the group, was soon dead and forgotten.

[MaryN]

MB, we are now an overcrowded little island and much of the community spirit has dissipated, along with the communities that inspired it. Too much immigration has watered down our sense of self and community, and as a result many people could not now say "where they come from". I think the tide is starting to turn as folks realise what they have lost - community spirit and actually caring about your family, friends and neighbours is better than gold in my opinion. I hope that in a really serious societal breakdown we will rediscover that - if we don't then there isn't much left to live for.