The Dangers of Rebuilding Society

[Jace]

I'm not sure if any other members have been to China, however having lived here for over a decade, I have seen first hand what happens when society breaks down. If you look at the mindset of the generation that grew up or lived through the various campaigns (Cultural Revolution etc), which all ended in millions of deaths through famine and violence, you can see how that has shaped the mindset of everyone over the age of 50 or so.

People of this age are mostly loath to help anyone outside of their own family or locational group. There is wide suspicion and discrimination against anyone who isn't from their local area (who are blamed for all ills), while people refuse to line up or wait in turn for anything (I guess due to fighting for food when younger). This is dissipating a little now though, as the younger generation are trying to get their parents to realise things have changed, but you can see many people are still haunted by what happened and don't believe that things really are different.

While the situation is obviously different from what may happen now in the UK or US etc, I think that that deep-down distrust of others will come out pretty quickly WTSHTF, and will see family groups or small villages being the biggest "civilisations" for many years after a total breakdown.