If The Grid Goes Down, Most Millennials Wouldn’t Be Far Behind The majority of them lack even the simplest knowledge and skills needed to survive.
by Capt. William E. Simpson December 30, 2016
If we traveled into any big city in America and tested the knowledge and skills of average people on the street who grew up with the Internet, we would learn that the majority of them don’t have even the simplest knowledge or skills needed to survive for a couple of weeks in the wilderness, let alone for months or years. They likely couldn’t survive even a week without any technology in the wilderness.
Today, we find that most of the people who grew up with the Internet believe all they need or want to know about almost anything can be found on the Internet using a handy electrically powered device, such as a smartphone. And they have become largely dependent upon the Internet for their knowledge base, as opposed to memorizing key information, as was the paradigm of the past.
The result is that many people of the Internet generation have a very limited understanding of science and little to no applicable skills related to the sciences.
This also applies to the world around them and is evidenced by the fact that most cannot correctly answer even the simplest questions, as seen in on-street interviews conducted by Mark Dice and others.
The foregoing isn’t about berating anyone; it’s to showcase how ill prepared these people are for any kind of life without the Internet and the support of the government and business in order to just stay alive in the cities of today.
On the other hand, most people who lead rural lifestyles far from the cities by necessity are able to provide for their own needs on a regular basis. They have the skills and knowledge that give them the unique ability to live in a sustainable manner in remote areas. But these people make up about only about 10 percent of the total population. The other 90 percent of Americans live in the cities and suburban areas.
Prior to the advent of the Internet (pre-1990), people had to learn skills and memorize knowledge, but that has changed. For instance, how many people do you know personally who can rebuild the engine or the transmission of your car, other than a professional mechanic? How many people can milk a cow or a goat, make fire with just the things found in nature, identify any of the stars in the sky overhead or navigate through the wilderness without a compass or GPS? Not many, I would guess.
Of course there are many other skills that would be necessary for survival without technology during a long-term national crisis, such as during the aftermath of a collapse of the national energy grid. And cities would be the most hostile of places to attempt any sort of survival, even on a short-term basis.
Few people realize that if the national energy grid collapses, it could be a very long time before the grid is re-energized — if ever. We could face a pre-Industrial Revolution period (“dark age”) in America that lasts for decades.
Adding to the complexities of attempting to repair and re-energize the grid are some critical facts that are easily overlooked.
The key power transformers that would be damaged on the national grid, for which there are no spares lying around, take months to custom-build and are made overseas. Under ideal circumstances (with power) these building-sized transformers can require months to install if you have the highly skilled people and supporting logistics available at each of the dozens of damaged sites. But many of these people would likely succumb to all of the chaos and carnage post-collapse, resulting in the loss of the relatively very few technical personnel with the know-how to re-energize the grid.
It wasn’t too long ago when many people had a host of practical personal skills accompanied by a wealth of memorized knowledge that was available to them without the need for a device to access the Internet to “look stuff up,” a crutch that is heavily relied upon today. Other than the local library, the human brain was the storehouse of knowledge, and numerous practical skills were taught from seventh grade through high school.
For instance, classes in gardening, first aid, electronics, metal and wood shop, drafting, welding and auto shop were commonly provided up through the Grade 12 prior to 1990. The Cub Scouts and Boy Scouts provided hands-on training in all the woodsman skills, which are hard to find today. The 4-H and the Future Farmers of America taught American youth critical agricultural and animal production skills. These skills are now rarities in today’s American technocratic society, where at least 81 percent of Americans live in cities.
If we envision a post-disaster America in which there is no electrical grid, then the ramifications of that are grim at best. Without power, society loses almost everything it has come to depend upon, and in the process the thin veneer of civility peels away, revealing the savageries of the human survival instinct. Without power, there is obviously no light or ventilation in any building, there is no fresh water coming out of the pipes, no functional sewage systems, no functioning hospitals, no refrigeration, no fuel, no transportation systems, no Internet or cellphones, and only very limited short-wave radio communications. How would the masses of people survive? The simple answer from the people who have studied this issue in great deal is that most would not.
The sad fact is that an estimated 90 percent of Americans would perish within 12 months of a large-scale electromagnetic pulse attack, solar event or computer hack on the national energy grid. So the question arises: Who would be surviving?
I have not written this article to scare people; what’s the point in that? I have written this to help Americans to wake up to the fact that if they fail to prepare properly now while it’s possible, they could be facing a very ugly situation in the near future. Make no mistake: Things could be far worse than I have described.
The government has done little to prepare Americans for this very real possibility.
In the aftermath of such a grid-down national disaster, after it had taken its full toll upon the population, there would be very few people left alive with a deep well of knowledge and complex skill sets. And because of their knowledge of many things unknown to others, it might very well be that these individuals would become the last wizards.
All of that said, I’m not one to just showcase the risks without offering a solution, or in this case, a survival strategy. Here is an article I wrote that provides strategies and tactics that would allow some people to vastly increase their odds of surviving such upheaval.
http://archive.myoutdoorbuddy.com/columnist/Captain-William-E-Simpson-Articles.php?art=10079 Bliss is not derived through ignorance; it comes from being aware and prepared.
