What if we were forced back to the dark ages?

[Searush]

An entertaining thread. As an MBA with technical, hunting & cooking skills I reckon I could cope. I have skinned, or boned, gutted & cooked a range of animals & fish. At home I have 3/4 acre that kept me self-sufficient in fruit & veg until I realised supermarkets were cheaper & easier. Got a copy of Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall to help me preserve surplusses when the freezer dies. Plenty of pigeons, rats & squirrels (and cats) about that I could trap or shoot with my spring powered air rifle. I could soon knock up a mould for making pellets & there is scrap lead around. Fire making is no problem, even without matches, I have a spark blade & tinder is easy enough to gather or make. I already have a copy of "Wild Food" to check what is & is not edible.

The boat is 2-3 hours away by car so that could be an issue but once on it, water from streams, wood fuel from the shore would be quite practical as I have a barrel barbie on board for heating & cooking.

However, I am not as active as I used to be & might fall prey to wandering human predators. But I reckon that any male capable of providing for himself & others is likely to gain a few hangers on - some of whom will have useful skills & others may be grateful young ladies . . .

I shall just set up the strapping lads as bodyguards & the young ladies as bed warmers. Providing I can just keep the two groups apart . . .

The accountancy side of the MBA might not help much, but the planning & people skills should.

 

[Slow_boat]

The answers easy;

Form a comittee, then a steering group, run a computer model, then a focus group, then set performance indicators, bring in management consultants and a design team............

Or could we be talking of returning to a world where management gives way to leadership and things actually get done?

 

[AngusMcDoon]

I reckon it's not if this all happens, it's when. I believe Malthus was right about the eventual outcome, if not the timing. Exponential population growth and finite resources? Sounds very much like this...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Malthusian_catastrophe

 

[Slow_boat]

I reckon it's not if this all happens, it's when. I believe Malthus was right about the eventual outcome, if not the timing. Exponential population growth and finite resources? Sounds very much like this...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Malthusian_catastrophe

And when it does happen practical skills, self reliance and leadership may count for more than beurocracy, 'networking' and management, so no bad thing there.

What was the name of the race of management consultants, telephone sanitisers and hairdressers in the Hitchhikers Guide series whose planet was about to be eaten by an inter-galactic goat?

 

[ColdFusion]

And when it does happen practical skills, self reliance and leadership may count for more than beurocracy...

What about spelling skills?

 

[arfa]

Gordon Bennett! We've all come over a bit apocolyptic haven't we ?
given food stocks of around 15 days if you haven sorted this you are stuffed.
history tells us that over population get's corrected by war or disease (think Spanish flu). War tends to be a result of a fight over scarce resources, disease a function of over crowding (swine flu + bird flu ).
given it's a grim scenario and the prize is to hang out with the Swiss, I Will keep sailing only for pleasure!

 

[sarabande]

Golgafrinchams, SB.

 

[prv]

given it's a grim scenario and the prize is to hang out with the Swiss,

Hey, I've "hung out" with a Swiss, it wasn't so bad. Although he did keep coming to the pub (as a student) dressed very smartly and carrying a small leather briefcase.

The Police gave him a lift home from the centre of Coventry one evening, as they thought his appearance invited being knifed just for "looking posh".

Pete

 

[Slow_boat]

What about spelling skills?

Not a practical skill, so not necessary.

One of the worse things about the dark ages, in fact what gave them their name, was the domination of superstition and religion over reason. In the west, we're only just managing to fight out of that. We don't want to be pushed backwards.

 

[ColdFusion]

In times of crisis desperate people 'find god' in the absence of anything else (including themselves) to believe in. The more astute realise that god ain't there for them, and get on with trying to make things better, or survive.

 

[DavenHelen]

...

i could live with mod cons but healthcare would be the biggie i reckon.

As my Dad says, he has 2 weeks without Dialysis....

 

[Slow_boat]

In times of crisis desperate people 'find god' in the absence of anything else (including themselves) to believe in. The more astute realise that god ain't there for them, and get on with trying to make things better, or survive.

........and get burned at the stake or hung or stoned to death for their troubles.

 

[cliffordpope]

Assume your diesel will run out, .

Your diesel would be stolen, but nothing would run out. The murderous few who remained would seize enough stocks of diesel, tinned food, weapons, medicines, etc to last 50 years.

 

[Angele]

Blimey, this really is a depressing thread.

I'll lock myself in my cellar (with corkscrew) and hope that I have sufficient time to drink my way through its contents before someone breaks in and murders me.

 

[arfa]

Trouble is whilst you are locked in your basement with your Swiss companions, their idea of fun is "a" glass of wine whilst "everyone has some fun"

 

[Norman_E]

And yes, yotties might well fare better - but only among those who can already light a fire and would truly be willing to eat the family dog or cat before the neighbours did.....

Sod the dog and cat, there is much more meat on the neighbours!
In addition a good dog is a handy survival tool, warning of dangers and defending its master.

 

[HannahB]

What about the Zombies?!?

There are well established groundrules to surviving apocalypse, zombie/mass infection, plague, knife-wielding maniacs and Mel Gibson!

If you want an objective measure of the success of your contingency planning, try this. http://www.randomhouse.com/crown/worldwarz/index2.php

As for roaming gangs, infighting and ego will reduce their chances of operating effectively as evidenced in Lord of the Flies and City of God.

So, don't get evacuated with the others, never say 'I'll be right back', always go for a head shot and stick with the black guy.

Anthony Burgess does a lovely dystopian exposition in The Wanting Seed and The Bed-Sitting Room should clear up any big ideas about a brave new world.

I just hope we get invaded by the Swiss!

 

[Wandering Star]

if I could find and identify the ores (I'd probably struggle with the latter)

But what use would identifying the ores be if your bote has been destroyed?

Cheers, Brian.

 

[xxyyzz]

Right, that settles it then, the trick is obviously to whack anyone who might be a threat. There's a few I'd have to whack purely for enjoyment as well of course.

I doubt anyone in a management position will last long enough to apply their invaluable MBA.

 

[reginaldon]

Just picked up on this thread after a luxurious holiday cruising the Norwegian fjords - from time to time thinking of the hundreds of thousands if not millions who would not have eaten that day - even a well-ordered society of 5M like Norway would be pushed, with masses of income now from oil and all its power being HEP.
Been reading 'Quest by Canoe' by Alister Dunnett again after 60+ years, now edited and renamed 'The Canoe Boys' all relevent in a well-ordered society, but this and my childhood diet of 'Scouting for Boys' not a great deal of use in a massively over-populated country, when law & order break down, my SAS Survival handbook could be of some use.
A modest township like ours surrounded on three sides by countryside and on the other by the sea could never subsist, when one travels to the vast conurbations like Manchester & Gtr M/cr , Bradford (I visited both late last year) Liverpool, Birmingham, the mind boggles, The populations of hospitals, nursing homes etc. prisons et al would soon be rotting, before the feral thugs had started - literally millions of rotting, unburied corpses. The country could not support 10% of its present population and they would be further reduced by disease.
Any with land would be targeted. By the time I got to my wee boat in the harbour It would have been taken and soon to be wrecked. When I visited Romania in 1990, homes in the country had high walls to keep out the Roma, who were outlaws in that country, unlike the Roma in Slovakia, most of whom were settled and some of whom were professionals.
As an octogenarian I could look back on my life and thank God for it, childhood, hiking, camping, NS in the RN,16 years banking in the NW, including Banking centre of M/cr and SE, 22 years teaching, including much canoeing and 16 years pastoring.
I think the best thing most could do is to get ready to meet their Maker!