Then and now.

Then: flintlock muskets and rifles, pistols, swords and ‘hawks, cannon firing sabot, chain, shot; pretty much anything that would fit in the barrel with the wadding, but not explosive shells(those come later in history).

Now: small arm repeating weapons, some semi, many selective fire, or fully automatic. Range of calibers from pencil thin to the size of your forearm depending on nature, from troop carbine to single fire rockets with explosive warheads. Then you get into ‘technicals’: vehicle mounted crew served weaponry, to tracked artillery and other armor, plus airborn menaces of forms that cover the field from hummingbird like to the fastest raptor, the eagle. All of which carry heavy ordinance and large caliber automatic weapons in various sizes and configurations.

But those are only the tools. Between then and now, the human shape hasn’t changed in any remarkable way. Average height and weight may be a touch higher, but that has more to do with available resources from birth than any real genetic shift. Whats really different, IMO, is the mental state. THEN: people were more self sufficient and resilient. They had to be. Near the cities not as much but further out where there was zero infrastructure and hostile natives, ya had to be harder and more resourcful.

NOW: I would be surprised to find 10 people out of a hundred that could make a fire from scratch without depending on a bic lighter. I would be even more surprised to find five out of that hundred who could figure out expedient shelter in adverse conditions (even a simple debris hut). There might be 1 in 1000 that could be tossed in the middle of nowhere with only a knife and the clothes on back that could go a week. One in 5000 for a month. (And some of my circle are whispering that I am being generous in my estimates)

Whats my point? We are the pampered pets compared to those that fought in the founding of this nation. Is it any wonder that we are getting pushed around by a group fueled by nothing but greed, hungry for power and never sated?

Simple question so you can assess your own position. If you woke up tomorrow and the power was out, and strangely enough, nothing electrical worked at all (cars wont start, generators wont run, etc), and this was world wide with no relief known; how would you react? Its only hypothetical (and not a new scenario for post apocalyptic pron writers) but one that thinking on helps you assess your weak areas before you need them. Will we need the skills neccesary to overcome in that situation? Who the hell knows. Likely? No, but thats not the point. The point is; We are not as ready for the hard times as those that created the country were. WE NEED TO RECOVER that which we lost and to do so is going to require that hard and resourcful spirit. Sadly, for many, its far too late to get up to speed, but there will be some that can do it.

Like a friend said to me yesterday: “hard times a-comin’. Hard like ain’t bin seen in ova a hunerd year ”

Get your shit right, stock up what ya can, and as Intrepid says, ‘head on a swivel’. Find who you can trust, and trust me on this, its gonna be so much harder cuz many of us are beyond trust of newbies. (You can thank the paranoid ranting of DHS warnings. And thirty plus years of FIBBY infiltration and stings.) Educate yourself, take a class if you can find one, build a skill and get damned good at it: it may be the only thing that makes you worth something to a group.