The country is in a dark mood. Hot on the heels of a rash of teen dystopia movies like Hunger Games, Divergent and Maze Runner comes the second installment of Independence Day and The Fifth Wave (above). Given the overwhelming firepower of our aspiring alien overlords (and the apparent need for survivors to tour the scorched earth), I’m not sure any of my guns would offer much in way of resistance. Still, the ability to shoot bits of lead at supersonic speeds is at least psychologically comforting. While I’ll resist the urge to sing “I’m a prepper,” I’d like to know: are you ready for the end of the world as we know it?

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92 COMMENTS

  2. While I don’t consider myself a prepper. I do believe that in the unlikely event of some sort of teotwawki event, that I should have a rifle and sidearm and LBE equipment for every member of my immediate family.
    But this may just be an excuse for me to buy more weapons, ammo, and magazines.

    • We’re of the same mind set. I buy more guns and ammo every week and say it’s for when shit hits the fan. You now, because 12 Glocks are necessary for when that happens 🙂

  3. I recommend “Out of the Dark” by David Weber. We get conquered by advanced aliens, but our small arms cause them enough trouble that they decide conquering us was a big mistake.

    • Ya i always figured that if any aliens did invade the race of beings who have been fighting wars with each other since the begining of there existence would most likely come out on top.

        • OK “modern/civilized man……” Zulus, Apaches etc all pretty much a sad face for the tribal savages.

      • Any aliens that have the technology to travel at speeds at or exceeding light speed (which they would need in order to get here in a timely manner), would kick our asses. Using a football analogy: NFL champions vs. the third string of the local elementary school team.

        • The entire scenario of an alien species physically attacking Earth is nothing but fiction. All one need do is nudge any one of the nicely sized boulders in our solar system towards us and wait patiently for the inevitable outcome. Resistance is futile.

    • Yeah… Except [SPOILER] that the plot was not going so great until the last section of the book where we find out exactly the role of our friends from Eastern Europe play in the overall story. That’s when it got into outright wackiness territory.

      I much prefer the Live Free or Die by John Ringo for your sci-fi alien fix or Under a Graveyard Sky by the same author for your “zombie” fix.

      Weber writes a decent space opera, but his understanding of ground combat is more than a bit lacking. (Not that his space opera series was all that great as tactics and ideas quickly gave way to a silly version of the Lensman Arms Race with Moar Missuls)

      • If you haven’t run into it yet, look up Mutineer’s Moon It’s one of Weber’s early ones, and a whole lot of fun. The sequels, not so much unfortunately.

    • “Out of the Dark” is easily Weber’s worse book. Check out the reviews on Amazon. His fans were traumatized when they read it

  4. I think the farther one lives away from a big city, the less one needs to stock up.
    I’m well prepared for small to medium events, but long term? Like a year or more?
    No. I don’t think you can prepare for a really long term event like that.

    • What you can do is make sure you know how to provide water, food, shelter, and fire for yourself/your family from the landscape. If you live somewhere that makes it hard or impossible to do that, then yeah, you can’t really prepare for the long term, because you just can’t accumulate enough food and water (nor keep possession of it).

    • Perhaps the biggest issue is simply getting away from said city when the disaster hits. Without a decent early warning you’ll be stuck with all the other people trying to get out at the same time.

      Heck, even with decent early warning lots of people won’t believe it, don’t have the ability to leave quickly (e.g. NYC residents without cars), or for some other reason choose or are forced to wait until it gets bad. I’m thinking of Katrina as I type this.

  5. I look forward to learning how all these beautiful people remain beautiful in an end of the world scenario.
    Also, who keeps cutting the lawns?

    • The Mexicans. Donald was not able to convince the Mex. gov’t to pay for the wall after all so it never got built; go figure.

      • Nope if Trump actually gets elected I’d imagine the Mexicans would happily build anything possible to keep the guy out. So it will be all the red blooded Irish and Germans with names like Carlos Hernandez with the famed Celtic/Saxon brown skin that work at Trumps golf courses and hotels and have newly printed ID’s that will take care of such things.

  6. Depends. Any aliens advanced enough to get here are likely also advanced enough to wipe us out at the blink of an eye. Consider also first contact between the Europeans and the Americans. Disease, if their biology is remotely related to ours, is also a major factor.
    Now, for an earth-bound apocalypse I’m just dandy presuming I survive the initial event.

    • +1. When you get down to it all our defense technology amounts to superior ways to through rocks and make big fires. Don’t get me wrong it’s cool stuff and we have developed in the last few hundred years but…

    • What if the aliens have radically different discovery and advancement cycles than us.
      Getting out of the light speed spacecraft and trying to make us all surrender with a bit of broken glass tied to a pole.

      Or they do what every empire in history has done with Afghanistan with us, look upon their conquest and seriously ask themselves “WTF did we bother with this ****hole for?” Pack up and leave.

    • The disease thing does cut both ways, they might cook up some bad pathogens to unleash on us, but aliens advanced enough to get here would likely have wiped out disease that might plague them, and thus made themselves even more susceptible to our bugs. H.G. Wells may have gotten that point exactly right.

    • Think about it for a moment.

      Yes, any interstellar drive capable of making fast transits without breaking physics (as we know it) would require an immense amount of energy, and implies extraordinary energy storage density. So you likely could demolish a world once you got there.

      But why do this? It’s easier, energetically, to get metals from asteroids. If you want to extract pre-refined rare metals from an industrialized civilization then taking a planet makes some sense … But then you can’t do too much damage or you lose the benefit.

      Which leads to the “Defiance” scenario, I suppose. It really depends as much on the invaders’ abilities and natural luck in biology, as it would on physics, if the intent is extermination without obliteration of the useful stuff.

      • They are already here: hiding in plain sight disguised as Hungarian physicists.

        Paraphrase of Leo Szilard’s answer when quizzed on “why we haven’t seen any spacemen”.

  7. Don’t know about the rest of the world. Every channel is talking, or worse showing Trump. So I believe the end is near for the USA. IMHO.

  8. Sure I’m ready. I watched “Signs,” so I stocked up on Super Soakers and a lawnmower to screw up their crop circles. Because after traveling to Earth through millions of miles of trackless space, they need crop circles to find their way around once they reach Terra Firma.

  9. What we modern Americans think of as SHTF was every-day, normal living to our ancestors. Their skills got them food on the table they built, in the home they built, and got up every morning to do it all again.

    This movie genre will run its course and flame out

    • One can only hope.

      I’m quite sick of Teen Paranormal Romance, and Teen Dystopia Salvation. But then this happens after any hugely successful movie. Look at all the movies “based on beloved childhood stories” (that nobody I knew, at least, had ever heard of) in the wake of the first Harry Potter film.

  10. Why must every type of article have a sponsor before it? Did DeSantis come up with this question or is another type of advertising necessary. The terrible auto play adds were not enough?

    • Two of our features — Quote of the Day and Question of the Day — have corporate sponsors (Blue Force Gear and DeSantis Gun Hide). Neither company has any influence or foreknowledge of their– I mean our content.

      Ad Blockers are a thing. We’ve introduced these sponsorships to protect our revenue. We view them as non-intrusive ways to put our advertisers’ names in front of our audience. And we really like their products and customer service. They are both great companies.

      We are STILL working on eliminating the autoplay audio on the ads. Given the way ads feed into our site it’s a real struggle. Thank you for your patience and we WILL fix it.

      • FWIW, I for one like the sponsorship approach. And, recognizing you need to keep the lights on and bring home the kibble, thanks for trying a less annoying and bandwidth-gobbling approach. Since I usually read TTAG on my phone, that last bit matters from both speed and data limit standpoints.

      • The “sponsored post” seems to be an ideal way to allow companies to reach TTAG readers without cluttering up the pages or slowing our browsers. In the long run, sponsoring good content will help the sponsors, TTAG and the AI. It’s a great idea.

  11. All you need is a butter knife. Buy a few gallons of cleaner and wash the gear off. FOOD AND WATER is the biggest issue. Not what holster or weapon you have. Think of the early settlers of ANYWHERE. What was the main problem? Was it herds of wild rabid bears? Mutant Zombie Bikers? Wild Indians? Nope it was food and clean water with medical/dental following right behind. Sure you need a firearm. Like the high-tech 12ga double barrel or high-tech revolver.When I see people posting about this stuff I always have the “daydream sequence” from a Christmas Story pop into my head. Picturing guys in tacticool garb ( w/helmets)with m249’s causally shooting the guns out of BG’s hands in short controlled bursts thereby saving the virtue of the bikini clad blonde. Whereas the truth is much more labor intensive and boring. Just imange going camping with only what you can carry for the rest of your life and you pretty much have the whole thing in a nutshell.

    • Oh also, the Movie “The Road” pretty much covers this in detail,(the book is even more depressing) even adding the angles of suicide and cannibalism. As far as films go this is prob the most realistic, not the usual hollywood fare. (The main character uses a revolver,(HA!) and later has to whittle bullets to make it look fully loaded.)
      .

      • I agree, The Road was very good, especially the book. It’s probably one of the most continually depressing and bleak books I have read.

    • Wow, what a buzz-kill. Btw, in my day-dream sequence the modelS are wearing French Maid outfits, not bikinis. Hey, it could happen.

      • She hasn’t started already? I got a laugh out of that. I haven’t read the series in years–my daughter stole my copies.

    • WOW… Great minds and all that… I didn’t see your post before I hit the “post comment” button. Apologies, it was not my intention to try and steal your thunder… Carry on Mark N…

    • Yes. It’s like “The Moon is Down” meets “The Man in High Castle,” with aliens instead of Nazis. Altogether, not a bad effort.

  15. “I’d like to know: are you ready for the end of the world as we know it?”
    Not completely, but way better than any of my neighbors!
    At least for three months anyway…

  16. We’re from North California and south Alabama
    And little towns all around this land
    And we can skin a buck; we can run a trotline
    And a country boy can survive
    Country folks can survive

    • My answer to RF’s question is similar.
      “But I live back in the woods you see, with the woman and the kids and the dogs and me.”

      • See that flat,hard thing with the painted lines on it outside your property? Those things are called roads, and they’re everywhere.

        Millions of refugees will be using those roads.

        • Walking very slowly and eating each other as they go.

          I’m a hundred miles from civilization (if you can call it that).

          I expect it to take about a week or maybe ten days for the few who make it this far to come straggling in. If there was a quarter million at the start, I’d say less than a thousand will make it this far. Likely far less.

          The ones who don’t try to take from us we’ll probably help.

          The ones who will try to take from us are part of the reason why we’ve got all the guns and ammo in the first place.

        • Coolhand. 150 years ago folks with no roads, support or hope of help if things went awry crossed our country afoot with little more than a compass and the sun to guide them.

          And there weren’t millions of them. By the time the survivors get to you they will be a hardened, experience army that have murdered, raped and likely indulged in cannabilism. With looted and abandoned armor and artillery.

          Pray that the lights stay on and the trucks keep feeding the cities.

  17. I’ve got plenty of towels…

    “More importantly, a towel has immense psychological value. For some reason, if a strag (strag: nonhitchhiker) discovers that a hitchhiker has his towel with him, he will automatically assume that he is also in possession of a toothbrush, washcloth, soap, tin of biscuits, flask, compass, map, ball of string, gnat spray, wet-weather gear, space suit etc., etc. Furthermore, the strag will then happily lend the hitchhiker any of these or a dozen other items that the hitchhiker might accidentally have “lost.” What the strag will think is that any man who can hitch the length and breadth of the Galaxy, rough it, slum it, struggle against terrible odds, win through and still knows where his towel is, is clearly a man to be reckoned with.”

    –The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy

    Seriously though… We’ve prepped food, water, shelter and firearms to hold out a few months (and have a solid extraction plan) but above all else we’re spiritually ready for whatever this world can throw at us. IMHO.. If you’re not ready spiritually your “Kit” is not complete… I’ll leave it to you to figure out how that applies to you and yours… God Bless…

  18. If it means I get to hang out with Chloe Grace Moretz, then I welcome the end of the world as we know it.

    • I was just getting ready to say that. lol

      Hell, I might START the end of the world if that was the end result. 😉

  19. Infinite supply of food (organic farm with livestock) – check
    Infinite supply of water (60,000 gallons stored plus rainwater collection) – check
    Medical supplies to rival the best field surgical clinics? – check
    Weapons and ammunition (thousands and thousands of rounds for dozens and dozens of guns) – check

    I have all of those things, and none of them are the key. The key is will, experience and training.

    • I hate to be a buzzkill, but…

      Back in the early 1970’s my grandad told stories about The Great Depression.

      Since he had rifles and shotguns, I asked him if he hunted when times got lean. He kinda chuckled, and said that since nearly everybody else was doing the same thing, nearly all the game in the woods had been hunted out.

      Something to keep in mind, those who think hunting can sustain you in times of real crisis…

  20. Am I ready for the End Of The World? Nope, not at all.

    Am I ready for a few weeks of trouble (social disturbance, terrorist attack, storms or other weather events)? Yes.

    I primary concern has been the more likely scenarios of short-term instability which are also easier to prepare for. If the zombies began walking the earth tomorrow I probably wouldn’t survive too long but I would have a heck of a good time before the munchers caught me.

    • Heh. Yup.

      Couple weeks, I’m good. More than that, not so much. But that’s the way it is.

      Since I live in the city, anything more isn’t really practical. The year of food in the garage isn’t really helpful when the starving looters come to burn you out. And in that kind of situation, oh yes, there will be starving looters. Even worse, the starving looters could be my neighbors, or the families across the boulevard. I’m surrounded by miles and miles of people.

      Having a large cache of supplies really only goes so far. Guns and ammo are meaningless after a point. Have to sleep sometime, only two people in the house, even then couldn’t well handle a two front attack. Make it messy, sure. Costly even. But not stop it.

      So, my plan is to have enough to sit tight until the National Guard comes, or whoever, to shuffle us off to another state or FEMA trailers. Have some stuff for the neighbors if necessary. Assuming a localize disaster, that’s not unreasonable. Our local area is a wreck, but the rest of the country is mobilizing aid to help us out.

      If we have some kind of national, all at once, EMP style event, well, all bets are off. All plans are off. Stay calm and work the problem from that point.

  21. I just need to find the airport Hig and Bangley are at and hope they let me stay.

    – The Dog Stars (thanks TTAG for the recommendation)

    • Neat book.

      Thanks to it, I look at every runway with suspicion of a cable strung across it…

  22. Every day is TEOTWAWKI, our governments are spending our futures into oblivion and society is tearing at the seams as evidenced by Ferguson and many other places. Common courtesies and civil discourse have all but disappeared and our kids are being indoctrinated into the liberal agenda. There is still much good in the world but we are definitely headed in a dangerous direction so we all need to prepare accordingly.

    • Hardly. that’s just what governments and people do. We are hardly tearing apart at the seams. People riot. They aways have. Society is still here. Governments use their power in negative ways. They always have. Society is still here. People are still polite enough. “Polite” is incredibly subjective to your opinion anyway. All of that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t be prepared for as much as you can. But society is as stable as its ever been.

  23. Wouldn’t it just be easier for an alien species to go out into the solar system, and give a nice push to a random asteroid of sufficient size, putting it on a collision course with the Earth, within six months to 5 years, and killing us all on impact?

    Or how about, aliens realize that humans have no ability to get any sufficiently large force off the Earth, and then they just decide to ignore us completely much the same way we ignore ants in Africa and use the resources of this solar system for themselves?

    • That second bit. There are hundreds of billions of stars and planets in our galaxy alone. Why should they care about what we have when they can take from any of the empty ones littering the galaxy. There’s nothing special about earth when it comes to material resources.

  24. Christians need 5 months of food or equivalent for the “can’t buy without the ‘mark'” period in the Great Trib but nobody else does, since they’re not going to need it.

    • Where did you get that figure? By my recollection of scripture, the Great Trib is a total of 7 years and no clear timeline of when the mark is implemented.

  25. I am prepared for any possible short term event as long as outside air is breathable.

    The problem with having enough resources to survive a long term societal collapse is that your day-to-day activities and your substantial stockpile of resources will be obvious and make you extremely vulnerable to raiders who have managed to survive as well.

    What good is a 20 acre self-sustaining homestead (complete with crops and livestock) when raiders can steal your crops and livestock at night while you sleep or during the day when you are inside your shelter or on the other side of your homestead tending your animals/crops? And what good is having a firearm for every member of your family when a raiding crew snipes you one at a time or surrounds your shelter and burns you out?

    Having resources and a homestead to survive long term societal collapse isn’t any good unless you have a small army on guard 24/7.

  27. No, I’m not ready, and neither are you(whoever you are). You haven’t planned for what’s going to be thrown you’re way, you’ve only planned for what you can think off. And don’t forget that if your strategy is hunkering down, trust me you’ll be forced to flee. If your strategy is bugging out, your vehicle will get riddled with holes. Whatever can go wrong is going to, so trust me you’ll have to improvise.

  28. Am I ready? I believe In the immanent return of Jesus Christ and plan on going with HIM. Pretty much all scripture fulfilled. Not worried about interstellar aliens. Moose-lims and Bernie/hildebeast/Trump types not withstanding. I’ve got a few preps going but nowhere near enough guns. So be it…

  29. I’m good for a few days where I am, while basic infrastructure and services are restored. Or to hoof it to local extended-family assembly site, for an improved “shelter in place.”

    More than that, and I’m done. I never was a viable life form without some of the capabilities of the modern world. At this point, if civilization collapses I’m dead in a couple months to years regardless of what I might personally do or prep for. Ruggedly surviving off the efforts of my own hands ain’t in the cards any more. Indeed, I gotta hope some recombinant DNA / personalized medicine / cellular or organ therapies come along if I’m gonna make three score and ten.

    And here I thought I was gonna live forever…

  30. I’m realistic but also don’t live my life in a code red attitude. Within the next 12 months my husband & I will be living on 6 acres in a rural area of Texas Hill Country with a Windmill & water tank with electric/solar backup. Some Spanish goats for milk, cheese, and bar-b-que, .we have lot of mesquite trees on both sides of our road to have mesquite coals. Fire place with a blower, plenty of long dead oak trees for fire wood. Deer on the property, Will have a kitchen garden for vegetables for canning. There is catfish in the river we back to. Husband is planning a small grape vineyard. Thinking of maybe getting some chickens. We have a large collection of handguns, shotguns and rifles. and years of ammo for each caliber. We also have immediate family up the road from us, that have Longhorn cattle. Also have shotguns and handguns. They are like political bent. We will be as self reliant as our parents and grandparents were.

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