Rosie. 22. American.

From an anthropomorphic standpoint, humans are best at only two things:

 1. our unlimited imagination. Which lets us invent new ways to kill/gather for survival, solve problems, ect. ect.

2. our capacity to rationalize the most horrific of actions as a coping mechanism. (which is human speak for instituting cultural tribalism as a means of survival.)

the fact that the dude can’t cook, nor wash his butt crack is irrelevant, when all he has to do is kill everyone else around him/her for resources. higher forms of thought, such as logic, reasoning, compassion, and creativity…all the hallmarks of what we consider civilization, or civilized behavior, are repressed or forgotten until the crisis has passed. 

I possess the capacity for higher thought. I reason. I feel. I love. Can fathom the wonders of creation and everything in it, and dream of miraculous things….

….But throw me in a survival situation, where there are no options for a peaceful comfortable life, hostility from every corner imaginable, and the option is either kill, or be killed, and even the most civilized, rational, caring human being will become the proverbial devil itself just to survive. 

so yeah…jimbob buttcrack, with no training, no home skills, and a will to live, can become a one man lord humongous all by themselves.

there is one simple truth that has existed since the time the first human descended from the trees and roamed the land.

“A single person is smart, can reason, can understand the complexities of the universe and all it contains. A group of people are panicky, dumb, and stupid.” 

In a no win survival situation, a lone survivor has a greater chance of living, than in a group of survivors hoarding resources. Not because they are smarter than the herd, but because they are unencumbered by the trappings of society. No social power struggles, no risk of betrayal by members of the group, no worry of a partner/spouse/friend. They just simply go on, taking what they can to survive, eliminating threats, and trying to build a life that makes sense to them without all the burden. 

The clearest real world scenario I can offer to help you better understand my position would be the Vietnam war (or “conflict” if you want to be all PC about it)

American troops, on foreign soil, dying not from large scale trained military forces opposed against them….but by single attackers, often snipers in trees, or individual VC units laying out poop snares, bouncing betty’s, or single ambushes. Basically guerilla warfare on an epic scale. That’s the power of one individual against a group.

Most modern preppers are training for a large scale engagement with police/military/civilian forces, and expecting the worst case scenario to be a full on raid by a much larger, well armed, group of people. What they never take into account is the sheer damage one person can do when properly motivated (hunger is a very good motivator). A protracted siege, over a long period of time, can decimate a much larger force. Either from reducing the combatants over time individually, or from a breakdown within the group dynamic as they bicker amongst themselves. A good 90% of all those preppers will either die from an overwhelming force at the offset for their resources, or from a individual, or pair of individuals, that will engage in a protracted attrition action against that well armed and provisioned group long after the ammo has been spent….no matter how much they train. bullets won’t last forever.