TEOTWAWKI, Can You Handle it ?

My good friend  Stephen did a post the other day showing a picture of a girl doing laundry during the great  depression. My first thought was she was how different people are today, I doubt any of us would be ironing, we would just be content to have clean clothes.
I had done a post a while back on what maybe to expect from TEOTWAWKI (you can read it here ) and was reminded a few days ago when Patrice over at Rural Revolution had a piece called "Be Careful What You Wish For" , she did a good job of making us think of what may be to come. I think one thing that is underestimated in a survival situation will be mental stress. There are people who get stressed out now if their hair is the wrong color or their favorite restaurant is out of chicken strips or their car has a flat tire or their boss wants them to work on Saturday. If you get stressed out now do you think you could really handle TEOTWAWKI.
We can learn a lot from history, when we read about WWI and WWII or the great depression, or communist Russia or Cuba we need to take note. We can speculate about what may happen but one thing is an undeniable fact, we cannot sustain our current level of spending in this country, if it keeps up we will have a collapse. The biggest difference between then and now is we have an entitlement class today who will not  accept their need to work on their own to survive neither will there be any means for them to survive, they will resort to riots, looting, killing and stealing to get what they want.
Martial law will almost be a certainty in most city's and towns, rural areas will for the most part have to set up some kind of similar structure among themselves using existing police forces.
 After Katrina, New Orleans had the government to bail them out....who will bail the whole country out ?????
You think things can get stressful now just wait till you have to deal with what could happen in TEOTWAWKI.

 Everything you enjoy now to make you and your children's life enjoyable will be gone.
All fast food places will cease to exist, there will be no grocery store or mall. Food will be bartered on the black market. You will not be eating, frozen pizza or Little Debbie cakes, you will not have to choose between Coke, Pepsi or store brand soda because there will be none of them. You will not pick up your kids favorite cereal. You will not be buying paper towels, toilet paper or toothpaste. You will not get a new car when you need it, either you fix what you have or ride a bike or walk. (also see Cuba, all their cars are from the 1950's) Gas will be scarce or non-existent, there will be no Sunday drives, date nights with the wife or running the kids to their games. There will be no birthday celebration at your favorite restaurant. You will not swing by Dunkin Donuts for a coffee and snack. There will be no taking the family out for ice cream on a warm summer evening. You will not be going to the movies anymore, you will not relax with a stroll on the beach or the city park.
There will be no cell phones or internet. If they do still exist you wont use them for fear of being traced.
If you have to bug out forget everything you left behind including you home. If you bug in or live in the country be prepared to feed the people who find out you have food or be prepared to defend yourself against them, this also means there will be no trips to Wal Mart to pick up a box of 12 gauge or 9mm ammo. There will be no gun stores either. Your paper money will be worthless along with your coins unless they have silver or gold content. (also see Germany during the great depression)

You will probably have no electricity so expect no heat or A/C. learn to sleep while you are hot or cold  while listening to you child cry because they are hungry. You will grieve because you cant provide for your family like you have in the past. You will cry because you will never know what happened to your mother, father, aunt, grand child, sister or brother.

You won't kick your feet up on a Sunday afternoon and watch sports, the stadiums will be growing weeds in the field, the stands will be silent. If there is TV or radio it will be propaganda or information from the government  telling you where to get a ride to the nearest "survival camp" or when they will be delivering beans and rice to your city (but there will only be enough to feed a small percentage of the population so you can fight for it)
OK, I can hear some say "I am a prepper I can stock up on food and lie low, I can wait it out"  I say good for you, you will be pleased when the bottom falls out and the earth is purged of all the less than desirable people. You should be pleased that all the dregs and leaches of society are gone, I understand that reasoning and I agree we can't keep up our giveaway society. What will you do however when you wife is sick and needs antibiotics to stay alive, what will you do if your child or even yourself gets diabetes and needs insulin to live, how will your family cope without you. What will you do when your son or daughter or grandchild is crying because they are dying from an infection, will you help hold them down while someone amputates their arm or leg. What will you do when your young children or older parents or yourself have teeth that are rotten and causing extreme pain? will you be able to pull it for them or let someone else try, will you hold your hands over your ears to block out the screams? Will you give in to your spouse crying and begging you to take your terminally sick grandchild to the FEMA camp to turn yourself in with the slight hope they will get some kind of treatment? Will you be able to look into your child or wife's eyes for the rest of your life and see the pain of the tough decisions you had to make?
Does any of this seem far-fetched ?  Think over the last 5 or 10 years, how many times have either you or someone in your family had to go to a hospital or doctor to get life saving treatment or medicine? I dare say the stress will drive many to suicide and rest assured the pain and suffering you endure will be long forgotten in the years to come much like the much of the suffering experienced by civilizations past. I hope and pray it does not take total collapse to set us back on the right path. I have seen pain and suffering in war torn countries and I hope we never see that type of suffering here. My point here is to hopefully get some to think how we need to solve our problems as quickly as possible but I don't know if it's possible..... We have and generations to cause all this and it may take generations to solve it. 

Welcome to Camp FEMA, we're here to help.

TEOTWAWKI may be the 'reset button' our country needs but it will come at a very high cost and it will leave those of us who survive rubbing our heads wondering if it is or was worth it. I for one don't want to see it come to that.