Nine meals away from anarchy

All of us like theories, formulas, neat little grids where we can understand life better. Well, most people anyway. Like the Rule of 3s, for instance. Or the 7 Ps of Wilderness Survival. Or the ABC of CPR. Acronyms and easy-to-remember phrases make life easier to comprehend and address. Maybe even look away from sometimes. This is another one of them.

We may not want to hear it, we may not want to believe it, we may not accept that we could be a part of the experiment, but that will not change the fact that all of us are living barely nine meals away from anarchy.

We live in a cocooned culture largely where pretty much everything we need is either a click of a button away or at best a drive down to the market. There is food on the shelves, gas in the station, electricity at the flick of a switch, a doctor on call, fine restaurants to dine in, parks for the children, theatres for movies and 24x7 television spanning news, sports and entertainment. And for everything that goes wrong, there is the Government to blame.

Heard of that guy called Maslow? The one who designed the Hierarchy of Needs? Well, he was a psychologist, who in 1943 released a paper titled "A Theory of Human Motivation" and is studied even today after nearly a century. He described a 5-tiered hierarchy of needs, starting from physiological and going up to the spiritual. He propounded that humans go up the "need" ladder more or less chronologically. A higher need becomes less important unless a lower, more fundamental one is not fulfilled.

In the present chaotic and largely unpredictable world, let us put Maslow's theory to the test. Let us assume a major civil disturbance breaks out. Or maybe a war comes visiting (does anyone doubt that we are this close to another war?). Or the oil prices shoot up resulting in an economic collapse. Or the truckers go on strike and the highways are blissfully empty.

The first thing that would happen is that an emergency will be declared by the Government and life and liberty as we know it will cease to exist. With no goods being moved by trucks and trains, petrol stations will run out of gas, store shelves will become empty, the grid will be shut down, provisions will disappear and we will begin to understand the term TEOTWAWKI or The End Of The World As We Know It.

How many loaves of bread did you buy the last time you went shopping?

Or eggs? How many kilos of potatos? How many cartons of cereals do you have stored? If there is an infant in the house, do you have extra formula when the current one runs out? How much rice is there in your house? Chance are that every time you go to the market you shop just about enough to last a day or two. Maybe things like jam and butter for a week. When was the last time you bought bottled water for your home? Biscuits? Cookies? Coffee?

What you have stored will probably last you about two or three days. Knowing the current situation in the city, you will probably ration what you have. But they will run out. Soon. And that's where the phrase become startlingly relevant. You will probably be looking at an empty refrigerator (if the electricity is still running) in a day or two. If the grid is down, probably a lot sooner.

Talking of infants in the house, how desperate will you be hearing the child cry out in hunger?

That is the beginning of anarchy. And you will unfortunately not be alone. A lot of people out there will be facing the same predicament and will be out on the streets looking to find whatever they can to bring home to the crying child and the other hungry members of the family. Imagine a scene where a store with its shutters halfway down is still stocking the last bit of provisions. How many people will fight for that one loaf of bread? Money will cease to have any meaning and it will become the survival of the fittest. The weaklings will be left by the wayside and the one wielding the stick will prevail. Windows will be broken, homes will get vandalised, shops looted of everything, leaving the city ravaged in its skeletal remains.

In the wilderness you can diplomatically call it foraging for food and resources. But in the city this will soon amount to looting.

This has happened before and it will happen again. Stock up now. Do not spend your entire salary on prepping and buying ready-to-eat meals. Spend a little bit every other day. Soon you will have enough to hopefully last you the crisis. Certainly you will be protected well after the nine meals beyond which all hell will break lose and anarchy will prevail. If you want to join the anarchist, go ahead and disregard basic prepping needs. However, if you want to be the provider for your family, now is the time to start.

Remember, even as you read this, you are just nine meals away from anarchy.

Watch the video from some insights about impending anarchy that can prevail very soon in your life.