SHTFblog.com - are YOU ready?

Ha!

After how I ended yesterday’s post,
you came here expecting a Jericho post,
didn’t you?

Expect the unexpected here.

Instead you get . . . . .

“Mr. Potato Head and Tribalism”

This is a little on the unconventional side, but whatever. You can handle it. If you wanted conventional you wouldn’t come here. For me to churn out post after post of raw survival material . . . . well. Rawles already has that niche. Me, I just try and kick it tee-ought-wah-key (TEOTWAWKI) style.

Onward!

I came home from work tonight . . . or “last night” by the time you’re reading this . . . and as I’m going about my evening duties I’m wondering what I’ll write for a post. Before I know it a few ideas are ruminating in my dome, so I sit down to write.

Then my daughter comes to the desk wanting to play “choo choo trains”. Being a multi-tasking master I start picking away at a post while providing train voices and working the line. Play Doh comes out and Thomas the Tank Engine wants to make cookies out of the Play Doh and he wants Mr. Potato Head’s help. Mr. Potato Head didn’t have any arms at this point, so we found his limbs and made cookies. He never got any hair (nuclear fallout).

I then introduce a very small, brown, plastic snake to the play scene; and the snake says, “Psssssss, I want some cookies, too.”

My daughter, playing the role of Thomas, says, “No snake, there’s only enough for my friends.”

There wasn’t a lot of Play Doh, and there were a lot of trains hungry for cookies. The snake slithers away and then I realized - I have a post right here! I got the camera out (note the “cookies” - note Betty):

“No snake, there’s only enough for my friends.”

Sup with that? Limited food resources, a stranger enter the scene, and my daughter turns him away. An instinctual response to a survival-like situation?

Tri-bal-ism
noun
A strong feeling of identity with and loyalty to one’s tribe or group.

WTSHTF people will immediately gravitate toward their tribe. You know this. If the shit went down right now - the first thing you’d think about is connecting with your immediate family. Next would be extended family and friends. In a TEOTWAWKI situation, you’d then look for people that can strengthen your tribe.

WTSHTF are YOU going hand cookies to strangers? No, not unless the pecking order above has first been met. I googled “tribalism survival” and found this somewhat interesting blog post. Here is a relevant quote:

Tribalism is programmed into our species as a survival strategy: humans began as small bands of hunter-gatherers. It’s not an accident that in many indigenous cultures, the name of their tribe is the word for “people,” the assumption being that nontribal members fall outside of that definition.

Your post-doomsday tribe will fluctuate depending on circumstances. Family comes first, friends come second, and the rest depends on the turn of events.

- Ranger Man

BTW: There was an anonymous comment on yesterday’s post that I’ll respond to here.

The comment:
The missle down the chimney was a PR stunt. A question for you ranger, are you for real? Or is Ranger man just a web name?

My open response:
The “down the chimney” was an embellishment - clearly (or maybe not so clearly). As to your question - am I for real? Errrr, no. I’m a computer generating automated posts and responses.

Huh?

I can only assume that you’re asking whether I’m some sort of Airborne “Ranger” - ? Not sure what you mean, but if that’s the case - no. “Ranger” was a nickname given to me in college for my interest in forests, mountains, and outdoor skills. Think more along the lines of a forest ranger rather than Army ranger.

I think you made an assumption. And yes - it’s a web name. My real name is not “Ranger Man”. Otherwise I’d go by “Mr. Man” (which would be kinda cool).

Is “Anonymous” your real name or is that a web name?

Thanks for the comment (and post material)!