Sunday, December 19, 2010

The Golden Horde ~ By Patrice Lewis

How are "Black Friday" shopping days and survival preparation for disasters (natural or man made) related? In this column, Patrice ties it all together. The emphasis is on being a "Prepper," which means being prepared for whatever might happen. There are so many good reasons for acting responsibly before something happens, and not depending on someone else or the government to be there for you should everything go down the tubes. Patrice will fill you in on that in this column.

Patrice has written about this subject a few times before. Please check the related articles below. I think you will see that Patrice knows what she is talking about, because she is prepared!
... yet we have thoughtless and unprepared friends, relatives and strangers – most of whom are better off financially than we are – who are doing nothing. But they will blithely come knocking at our door when times get tough and expect us to cheerfully and freely share everything. The reality is, we cannot feed them all.

~ Patrice Lewis, from "Don't come knocking on my door"

RELATED ARTICLES


The Golden Horde
PATRICE LEWIS

By Patrice Lewis

December 18, 2010 ~ 1:00 am Eastern

© 2010


For some reason I didn't see the parallels. Black Friday came and went and I heard the typical stories of camp-outs, record crowds at store fronts, sprints for the best deals and all the usual stuff.

But it wasn't until no fewer than four readers independently sent me their thoughts as well as YouTube clips to illustrate their points that the similarities were driven home: Black Friday shoppers could well resemble the so-called "Golden Horde" of desperate people sweeping store shelves bare during an emergency.


Video provided by kamrani1990 ~ November 26, 2010

For those unfamiliar with the term, the Golden Horde referred to a vast army of Mongols which swept into Eastern Europe in the 13th century, pillaging and destroying as it went. In modern "Prepper" lingo, it refers to the potential thousands of unprepared urbanites who would be forced to flee cities in a disaster. The actions of the two different types of hordes might well be the same, with one difference: the Mongols were disciplined and well-led.

In one appalling video, the camera caught a pregnant shopper who was knocked to the ground as crowds surged into a store. How the hapless woman avoided being trampled I don't know, because people were stampeding past her with barely a glance and certainly without caring.


Video provided by kopret ~ July 17, 2007

We live a long ways away from big stores, so I've never had the inclination or interest to participate in Black Friday events, particularly the kind that requires camping out for three days in advance. (This year in north Idaho, it was zero degrees on Black Friday, and the thought of sleeping outdoors to snag a $50 laptop seemed ludicrous.) But it wasn't the camping I found disturbing; it was the animal-like behavior shown by the crowds once the store doors opened. They were heedless of fallen shoppers, preferring to surge ahead in order to snatch and growl and snap and bite over a coveted piece of merchandise.

While I recognize that most people participate in these activities in the spirit of good fun and the thrill of the chase – NOT because they're desperate for a Tickle-Me-Elmo or whatever – the videos disturbed me because of how fast the joie de vivre can turn ugly and animalistic when someone is thwarted.

As any survivor of Hurricane Katrina can attest, similar conduct occurs when disaster strikes. Behavior born of fear and desperation strips away the laughably thin veneer of civilization, and subhuman animal instincts rise to the surface. It's been said that Americans are no longer morally equipped to handle an economic collapse. If people will threaten to kill over that last Cabbage Patch doll, what will they do over that last gallon of milk? (Emphasis my own)

READ FULL STORY at WorldNetDaily.com

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