why cities will become lawless shortly after major event

[CodeGreen]

You're very correct - life in the Highlands isn't very easy. Crofting was - and is - little more than subsistence living, and the Blackhouses are grim and far removed from the creature comforts we have come to expect and enjoy.

But, here's the thing. Nowhere will be easy to live WTSHTF! The loss of abundant inexpensive energy will transform food production and most other aspects of our lifestyles. We'll be dropped back to a pre-Industrial Revolution lifestyle until such time as we can start to bootstrap ourselves up again.

The things the Highlands have going for them - low population density, low cost to establish a retreat, plentiful water, potential wind power, and peat as a fuel source. But only low to moderate fertility on the land (I think, haven't researched soil types, crop yields per acre, etc). A tough climate, but no worse than we experience in the 'American Redoubt' - indeed, probably better. We have searingly hot summers and yards of snow in the winters.

I would have said that the local population in the Highlands are a hardy and self-sufficient lot, but then I look with surprise and dismay at the exploding growth of government services in Scotland and what seems to be a wholesale retreat away from the concepts of self-sufficiency and self-reliance, much more so than in England. The 'hardy' Scots seem to be redefining themselves.