Could you handle living in a rougher, tougher society?

[fuckingcoldshowers]

Thinking about this as it's freezing where I am, and thanking my lucky stars we can stick the heating on.

I would be 100% shit in a tougher world. Anything from the grinding hardship of WW2 to dystopias like The Walking Dead. I'd be so shit I mean, actually I wouldn't survive in the first place but if the universe was having a laugh and I did make it past the initial event, I'd be rubbish. I mean, obviously it would be very scary and devastating, but the sheer MISERY of it all would sap my motivation to survive, I reckon.

I can't think straight when I'm really hungry. Also, hanger would lead to some sort of stupid spat with the wrong person.

I'm also terrible without decent sleep. After enough sleep deprivation I'd give up.

Finally - even if fed and sleeping I cannot deal with no nice, clean shower or bathing facilities. I'd be SO CRANKY feeling grubby and dishevelled all the time, traipsing around trying to survive.

Could you adapt well and cope cheerfully without these basics after the apocalypse?

I've lived in places where power cuts and water shortages were routine, and where we had to heat water using a coal boiler. And at times the coal ran short.

I can grow veg, and also load and fire, so my odds would be reasonable.

I couldn't do it in an urban environment, though. That would finish me off.

@uhtredsonofuhtred1 I’ve sometimes wondered how on earth our ancestors survived even for a few decades. People would’ve routinely died just from catching a cold that turned into pneumonia due to lack of adequate food and heating. Not to mention infected cuts/ sores and as for the state of people’s teeth…🤢
I don’t think that I’d last long after an apocalypse, tbh, although I can grow veg like @EdithStourton.

I would be blind as I wear contact lenses and would probs lose my glasses running from a zombie. So I would then just die.

Not if you had to fight your way through herds of zombies though!

That's how I grew up. I miss it desperately sometimes. As I walked sedately to my responsible job this morning, I felt a desperate pang to escape, almost a physical pull away from my nice, comfy life to something closer to the world around me. More wild. It drives me to destraction occasionally, but mostly I am uncaringly unobservant of, or very grateful for, my gas and electricity and lazy life.

@Mammyloveswine this was genuinely one of the driving forces behind me getting laser treatment for my short sightedness.

I grew up on a very old farm and there was ice on the inside of windows when we got up in the morning and lino on the floor, it was freezing in winter. We never had things like cold meat in the fridge, there was basically butter, sometimes cheese and some milk, no soft drinks or anything. it was all we knew and until I went to friends houses when I was 10/11 and discovered not everyone lived like we did it was our normal.

I know you’re talking about dystopian events but many families still live with no heating and have very little food.

I think that since my first thought when considering how i would fare in an apocalypse is always regarding how expertly i could layer my fabulous clothes, and how they'd last a good few years, pretty much sums just how quickly i would die.... perhaps for my clothes.

Nope - useless in a crisis - a combination of cold & hangry would be distinctly not fun.

@uhtredsonofuhtred1 people in the Middle Ages in Northern Europe washed regularly- most people washed everyday. It’s apparently a myth that people were smelly and unclean. They had soap, water and kept their clothing as clean as they could as cleanliness was next to godliness. There’s an episode about this on the Betwixt the sheets podcast.

However they probably did smell of smoke. I spent time with an indigenous community and the smell of smoke was pervasive due to open fires- but I’m sure they were used to it.

Well yes depends on the threat. I'd be useless with predators... wouldn't even try to run. I'm pretty short and fat so would probably cope for a long time without food. Mentally I'd probably crumble early whatever the situation!

I grew up in a house like that too.
Don't think I could go back there, I'd be gone in no time in a walking dead scenario, I'm too slow and weak.

I’m a spoilt brat, I spend all of the walking dead thinking ‘I’d just shoot myself at this point’. No electricity, no food, no tv, there’s books but if you relax enough to read one you might get your face bitten off, no music, no heating, no proper sleep. SO MUCH WALKING. No thanks.

I probably could in a way. However if you live near (like within 50 miles) of a nuclear power plant and don't know it's been powered down. You've only got about 48 hours anyway.

@Togomalone A Time Travellers Guide to Medieval England is good on this.

People did indeed wash. They would often use pieces of wet linen to rub their bodies clean.

This really made me laugh - this would be me too …. Definitely done for if I lost my glasses!

We are not used to it. If you are born in to it then your expectations and skills differ.

What would scare me is that society is a thin veneer and people would literally kill each other for resources if there were no consequences.

Do you work solely with people who are voluntarily homeless??

If not, presumably they didn’t think they could do that unless they had to?

I thought the OP’s point was what would happen if you found yourself in that situ - not ‘would you love it?’ 😆

I'd be fine. I'm from sturdy peasant stock and would happily revert. I'd fight anyone for a mangel wurzel.

I grew up in the North East in the 1980’s, so I think I’d probably be fine 🤣

Don’t forget that WW2 actually improved a lot of people’s health and access to quality food.

We have very cold temperatures currently in Canada, especially out west. I often thought of those prairie pioneer mums and how they ever managed when a baby woke up with poop all up their backs in the middle of the night.

Thank goodness for modern conveniences.

I'd do great with the make do and mend stuff.

Otoh, I'd be the last one to know about someone doing a black market trade in anything, so there would be more than the average amount of making do for me. Also the mending.

I have some skills that mean a feral community might find it more useful to keep me alive and fed than to eat me.

I wonder if men would capture women and let them live, but kill the rival men….

I know I would fight tooth and nail to protect my dc and I would do anything I had to.

I’ve thought about this probably more than is healthy or reasonable, and I actually think I’d be alright. Unless, as others have said, I lost my specs. Then I’d be fooked.

Might be time to book that laser surgery!