It's a near miracle that nuclear war has so far been avoided.
-Noam Chomsky
Let's imagine for a few minutes that the ongoing-global-currency war and proxy wars somehow, unexpectedly, blow up into a world war directly involving you, wherever it is that you live. Specifically, imagine that one side is able to achieve surprise, and as you sit at your desk, today, the power and all telecommunications go out without warning. Within 15 minutes, everyone notices a large amount of what is obviously military aircraft activity, evidenced by sonic booms, and soon there are several very bright flashes on the horizon in the direction of the closest military base [2].
The odds of this actually happening are not zero.
You may very well survive a nuclear war. Did you know that there have been over 500 above-ground detonations of nuclear weapons. [3]
As an exercise, please consider the following questions:
How do you think most others around you would react?
Do you already have a plan that you would implement for this type of scenario?
What immediate action(s) would you take?
What are the three most likely perils you might face?
What is the thing you could do, now, to most improve your chance of surviving each of these three perils?
Here are my responses.
How do you think most others around you would react? I believe the amount of panic in any major American city, like mine, would be absolutely hellacious, literally, and streets would become impassable to cars almost immediately. Many people would either become catatonic with disbelief, die of a heart attack, or quickly progress from fear to the emotion that most know best, anger. People would resort to any and all measures to try to get out of the cities.
Do you already have a plan that you would implement for this type of scenario? Yes.
What immediate action(s) would you take? I would ride a motorcycle (very quickly) on train tracks, or other previously reconnoitered route, to one of several pre-planned rally points that have a bomb and fallout shelter.
What are the three most likely perils you might face? 1) Nuclear weapon blast or fallout 2) Lack of drinking water 3) Starvation
What is the thing you could do, now, to most improve your chance of surviving each of these three perils? 1) Remember the excellent information in this goofy dude's videos. [4] 2) Have water stored at shelter 3) Have food stored at shelter.
Do you even know where to find a fallout shelter? How quickly can you get to one? Will you be able to get in?
Si vis pacem, para bellum.