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?

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

To a degree, yes. I could, and have, coped with physical circumstances much worse than my current ones. I can cope with a degree of constant cold (around 10 degrees inside). I can carry on with normal tasks if I don't have enough food.

I camp regularly without mains electricity, small tent, compost loos, intermittent hot showers, single burner gas stove set up.

Obviously we are all going to have our limits though!

I though you meant rough area, so came on to say I was born in Medway, so yes, yes I could 😆

A few years ago, I’d have said I would do quite well, but I’m no longer fit enough. I lived somewhere inhospitable until recently and only managed because I had two fit sons living with me. I also had skills that would have been useful and would have enabled bartering for food, but I’m likely too feeble to be properly useful now. I am tenacious and mentally strong and I used to think I would like to return to a more primitive lifestyle, but not any more. Gas central heating, a house without draughts and good internet are now my gold standard!

I sometimes imagine (when I occasionally think about the need to get fir again) that during an apocalypse I'm my 17 year old self again that can run and stay up for 48 hours straight and live in air and adrenalin. In real life where the fuck would I be running? If my lovely people weren't with me what would be the point?

In reality I'm nearly 50, haven't run more than 5 metres in about 2 years, need to loo too frequently to be hiding out anywhere,t

Just gather together all the booze and drugs and have 1 last great big blowout I reckon. That would finish me off probably

I would be concerned about potential violence, apart from anything else.
R a ts[and I cant even hardlt stand typing that out] would give me horror as well.

Honestly it’s really depressing to think that in an apocalypse, if I survived all the obvious threats that eventually something really dull like anemia would take me out.

i would also be fucked if my glasses broke.

apocalyptic films and tv shows also seem to say you need the ability to both climb and dangle holding your own weight which I would simply fail within 0.2 seconds and fall into the hoard of zombies.

If we are talking surviving after a global event like a nuclear war, no I wouldn’t survive. It really is when the feral rats would come into their own. I wound need to be in the centre of the blast.

I have one of those body types that stores fat easily. I’m built to survive anything but man I’d moan. Poor DH. He’d have to listen to me, he is also skinny so it wouldn’t be for long but he has decent survival skills so who knows. The kids would survive maybe the weak link is the youngest. Our middle daughter would survive anything she is shrewd our eldest would have caused the apocalypse.

Love it

I’m pretty feral and I have a few survival skills, so I’d probably give it a go. I’d look to get away from people as much as possible (I’m already fairly rural), but I’d have no qualms sticking an arrow in someone’s face if they were a threat to my existence.

wouldn’t enjoy being out in the cold though.

DH had to travel a few hours away last year and although l took snacks, l was really hungry, he said he couldn't believe the change in my personality - hangry would be an understatement.
So it's a hard no from me!

I'm a scout leader. I've camped in the snow. Gone days without washing. Cooked over open fires. I've got skills and knowledge.

I wouldn't enjoy living like that but could cope.

Oh hell no...

The first wave of soldiers/zombies or anything..i would probably go to run, run out of breath, trip over and stab myself in the face with a stick.
If i wasnt patient zero, id be the one the neighbour pushes into the horde to get away lol.

But surviving the initial event in something like WW2 or the current wars going on worldwide is largely luck. If a bomb falls on you you die. If it doesn’t, you probably don’t die. Why do you think you are any more likely not to survive than anybody else? What makes you so special that you’re any more guaranteed a death than any other person? Whether you live or die would be a roll of the dice, just as it is for the majority of ordinary people.

I could tough most things out except biting cold . It's freezing here tonight , minus temps and thank god I can afford heating . I cannot imagine the abject misery of living on the streets in these temps

I'd be lost without glasses too.
But booking Lazer just incase of the apocalypse made me laugh. Can you imagine the small talk, So Seagrassbasket, what made you want Lazer? Oh just in case of the Zombie apocalypse, I'd like to stand a chance at surviving.

I'd be like Barbs in The Upside Down.

I’m totally lost in fantasy books and stories at the minute and could only dream of being kidnapped to a far away land….
But then I’d instantly die. So, yeah I’d not fare very well if my chocolate disappeared and my heating stopped for more than a day or two 😂

i got really nervous during the supply chain shortages during covid. I had trouble getting things like toothpaste and shampoo that are safe to use. I worried about getting allergen safe version of meds that I need to stay alive. sometimes my supplies of those dwindled far too low.

without that supply chain, I can’t survive.

Not a chance I’d make it. I think I’d take some tablets and have a hot bath, and slip away if I saw the writing on the wall (assuming the zombies/ virus/ insert apocalyptic event didn’t carry me off first!)

Well without my heart medication I would probably not last a week anyway, but without my HRT I'd be so full of rage within a couple of days I'd be picking fights I had no hope of winning and would be probably be murdered before the heart attack got me.

Yes, as long as there were still books and I didn’t get any more dental infections. The lack of antibiotics would be my main concern, I think.

I fantasise about living through the breakdown of society a lot and I think it would suit me. There is so much about modern life that I hate. Work for instance. The routine of it. How it steals our time and energy. The pointlessness of most jobs and how distant the goals and objectives of our working lives are from our primal needs and motivations. I would trade in the daily comforts we get from maintaining such a rigid and lifeless existence. I know I would be happier and more satisfied with a life where I had to hunt, gather or grow my own food. I like the accomplishment of completing small tasks and learning new things - learning how to build something, or grow something. Things that are tangible and real. I think people would be more interesting in such times too - I suspect there would be a lot less boring small talk required (‘what are you doing on the weekend’, ‘how was your Christmas’).

All in all, I’m not sure what we have built as a civilisation has been worth it. I mean, I appreciate the medical advances we have made (particularly contraception) but other than that I am not sure there is much from modern life I would like to keep.

Topically there are a lot of
people that are experiencing this right now. The survival instinct would kick in, you think you can’t do it because you’ve never been exposed to
anything like it but your body and mentally would switch pretty quickly.

Interestingly this is actually not true. The average life expectancy was low; but it was just skewed because of high infant and child mortality. If you made it through childhood; you had a pretty good chance of living a relatively long life.

😂