MZBs: Are you prepared?

[moabmic]

MZB!  Those three letters are enough to put a healthy dose of doom-enriched fear into any well prepped doomer right?  It took me a while just to learn what those letters meant; when I did finally look them up in the acronym appendix of the doomer's bible I was silent.  Mutant-Zombie-Bikers?  What kind of fantasy freak group was I associating myself with?  I just disliked the term because I couldn't get over the strange thoughts being conjured up in my head of a pack of deranged bikers on dirt bikes, old Harley's, quads, you name it with bleeding flesh and hollowed eyes all coming to attack us after a collapse.  We would be all snug and happy in our doomsteads and BOLs but these MZBs would seek us out to destroy us.  So yeah, I just couldn't deal with the term and didn't care for it much because it was too abstract and unrealistic. 

As time went on and my doomerish view of the world became more and more into focus I kept revisiting the MZB concept.  What if the zombie in them didn't refer to some ghoulish character but rather someone who had lost everything and gained the 100 yard stare?  Someone who has lost all sense of purpose but still feels the need to move forward?  What if the mutant part referred to the transformation some unprepared over-suburbanized schmuck goes through as they realize everything they had worked for, all their competing with the Jones', all their mass consuming waste was all for naught and now had nowhere to go, nothing to live off of, and no knowledge of how to begin to survive?  What if the biker part didn’t represent the biker gangs of today but rather the same misguided victim of suburbia taking their hobby bike with the last bit of gas and hitting the road in search of food for their overweight, weak, and defenseless family to never return?  What if a MZB is simply a former misguided suburbia rat who is now discovering what it means to live and is angry at himself, angry at the world, and especially angry at those who are living a more comfortable post-collapse existence because they were prepared?

As we move closer to the point where a total societal breakdown occurs one way or another it will become very apparent who is prepared and who isn’t.  My head has been filled with fantasies that when the day comes when anarchy dominates over civilized life that those who weren’t prepared would be begging for help, doing anything they could to survive, but for the most part not resorting to violence.  I stand corrected.
A casual dinner visit with some close friends was my point of awakening to how ugly everything will be.  We were having beers and discussing how we keep getting warning article after warning article but nothing ever happens.  Something commonly discussed here.  We are tired of the warnings; we are tired of prepping for something that will never come; we are starting to not believe that there will be a collapse.  At this point the brother of my friends comes in.  He had been a former employee of mine during a construction project five years ago.  During that there had been a conflict whereas he thought he was owed more for his efforts than we had paid him (bonus pay).  Over the years it had seemed this rift had healed.  He joined the conversation and then boldly stated, “if there is a day like you guys describe then I’ll just hit the road and take whatever the f*** I want.  I’ll finally get to get back all that the rich f***s  like you have taken from me!  F*** you rich bastards!  You guys have only gotten ahead because of the sweat from people like me!  The day you describe when payback will finally be here!”

We just sat there stunned!  I had never considered myself rich.  I had started my business with maxing out one credit card, buying used salvage equip and rehabbing it, and sold off all my furniture to buy opening inventory.  I worked over 80 hours a week for the first several years  while working another full time job.  For all of the risk, hard work, and sacrifice for 10 years we make a nice comfortable living; my friends I was visiting had worked equally hard towards becoming a professor.  All this time my friends brother was partying, in and out of jail, playing, playing, playing but now as he has nothing and we are comfortable there is an incredible anger and rage within him!  Behold the birth of a MZB!

I don’t know why but that moment brought together a flood of memories over the past few years of isolated events that I put no thought into.  Working in the garden while a pickup truck of loud and obviously drunk guys driving by along the irrigation ditch road, as I looked up they flipped us off yelling obscenities; being threatened by employees that were being fired; being flipped off and cussed at by the low rider crowd (Bienvendos a Nuevo Mexico).  All of a sudden what I thought were isolated incidents of angry individuals not to be taken seriously  transformed into everything I thought that MZBs could never be.

The day is coming when the collapse does occur and that day will represent freedom by all those who have not prepared and those who have not been fortunate to make it.  That day will represent the day that they can begin exchanging their anger for all the pieces we prepared ones have carefully put away safe and sound.  There will be no begging for help by those angry hordes; we will be the ones begging for mercy as we give up all we worked so hard for and thoughtfully put away.  These people who you see now at the bar at 5, those people you see wasting their few dollars on the bread and circus shows like Nascar races, football games, strip clubs, malls; those people that have invested more money into their vehicles than their vehicles are worth with stereos, chromed rims, oversized exhausts, etc.;  it is these people that are the ones who we will be fearing.  They have been undergoing a professional training in instant gratification and the day of collapse will be the moment when the supermall of mass instant gratification opens its doors:  That supermall will the homes of the prepared.

Are you ready for that day?  I know I’m not.  I have plenty of supplies, firearms and ammo, water, fuel, you name it but I am not ready to defend it from masses of the angry hordes staking claims on all we have worked for.  The day I saw the rage in my friends face I realized I wasn’t ready.  I had considered needing to defend myself from some abstract threat as foreign and vague as the term MutantZombieBiker; I hadn’t considered needing to defend myself from what I bet is 85% of the mass population.

What happens when collapse comes and total anarchy let’s go and you are one out of 10 families who is prepared and able to be comfortable.  My 6+months of food, water, fuel, ammo will be taken by force and I will only be hoping that my family isn’t brutalized.   Take a piece of paper; make a grid of 3 dots by 3 dots.  The dot in the center is you; the dots surrounding you are your unprepared neighbors who have always waved hello but who now realize you have what they need and are pissed off that you unfairly sacrificed your wages and effort to be prepared while they partied and played.  You will not hold these people off at bay whether you are surrounded by 10 acres or are smack in the middle of suburbia.  The only way you stand a chance is to begin converting those surrounding dots into equally prepared families who will stand strong with you.  The problem is that each one of those families will have friends or families who will ultimately not have any preps and will come to claim their share and consequently part of your stores.

In the past year I have moved from NM to a smaller CO town.  I was on the verge of making a decision on buying a property.  One is 40 acres right on the edge of town but with a running water source and good farmable land.  The other is 5 acres and a nice house with greenhouses shops, a creek, and several outbuildings where a doomer could survive so easily but is right in town.  The third is 40 acres on the backside of a mountain overlooking town and has no running water, is completely undeveloped, 4wd access, and surrounded by eight other 40 acre parcels.  One realization I had, is that those unprepared masses ,  are inherently lazy; they are unprepared because they refused to put in the extra effort to become prepared.  It is the ant vs. grasshopper fable in the classic sense except the grasshopper will be armed and will outnumber the ant 1:10.  By being on either of the first two locations I will be easily accessible by all but the absolute laziest ones.  The running water on those two properties will also attract people.  I have decided on the remote 40 acres (:30 4wd drive but only a :15 mt bike ride from town). 

It will be a lot harder to make an ideal doomstead but there won’t be any running water for people to follow, it will take a lot of physical effort, my preps will be hidden and the surrounding 40 acres properties are owned by similar doomer folks.  Let the MZBs come because the advantage will be belonged to me.  It is impractical to live there full time with kids in school and businesses to run but as part of the plan we will live in a plain, old small, non-fancy, house in town; I realize that by living in a home equal to what I can afford I make myself and family a target.  By living in the smallest home we can fit in and having zero preps visible we can let our friends and family wonder why we live so insanely modest.  On weekends and days when we have time we stay at the retreat home which will be 100% off grid and will contain everything needed to be self sufficient for a minimum of 6 months.

There is an unfathomable amount of anger and bitterness in all of our communities.  Other terms thrown out that evening in the conversation were that people who were prepped are “elitists”, “better than others”, “you can only prep if you are a rich f***”, “we [bro & his buddies] can’t wait to show who will be the new boss in town”, “a new sheriff will be in town”; you all get the drift.  The Mutant Zombie Bikers are alive and well and I know I have grossly underestimated their threat.  Have you?

[♥RÉĎRËÅMÊŖ♥]

yes it seems i have.

Thank you for writing that. It was an amazing read. You know i am not stupid..... but i have recognized that my own view of the world is strongly affected by the way I look at people. I don't look at people in the 'fuck you' mentality. I don't think i will ever. If that is how the world is going to go forward..... then i guess i won't be part of that world.

But you know...... it is almost IMPOSSIBLE for me to imagine.

[moabmic]

I don't look at people in the 'fuck you' mentality. I don't think i will ever. If that is how the world is going to go forward..... then i guess i won't be part of that world.

But you know...... it is almost IMPOSSIBLE for me to imagine.

Neither do I...but, after seeing that outpouring of rage I realize how naive I have been.  I have always worked as hard because I enjoy it and I enjoy not worrying by being prepared.  I honestly never considered that I would be despised for working hard and being prepared but so many I believe now look at those of us who have prepped as having taken more than we are allowed and that we "owe them" for their not being prepared.  I always planned on sharing with others in need but I don't believe we will be given the chance to share; it will be taken from us.  Very sad...

[EyesWideOpen]

No Moabmic, I've not underestimated at all.

Now you don't either, and so now you are, sadly, truly:

A Doomer.

[Brill]

Thats a good description of how 'consumers' become MZBs.

If only the MZBs could target Goldman Sax employees, we could all be better off! ;-)

In many ways, the fellow you describe is like an 'angry young male' (AYM).  As such, I doubt he has a plan. 

I am optimistic that these MZBs and AYMs will not be smart enough to target anyone they can not see easily, and in all likelihood they will target each other.

You may have problems with disgruntled former employees who KNOW you have food and KNOW where you are, but the hordes of MZBs will go to the McMansions behind the gates first.  Who knows how many of them will survive long enough to work their way to the edge of town?

[theozarker]

I know their are low-lifes who never did anything to help themselves, are bitter and probably see the coming doom (if they see it at all) as a chance to "get even".  But I don't think that's 85% of the people.  More like2-5% with the rest along a continuum that ranges from ultra rich, "I've got mine, so fuck you" types to "the widow's mite" types who will share what little they have with anyone who needs it more than they do.  In my experience, most people who are truly desperate are decent people who've become afraid and dangerous because they think they are out of options.  Talk them down, give them some options and most will take them and "try again".   Maybe I'm a fool, but I just don't see the world as divided into us and them most of the time - even when things get pretty horrendous.  Just my HO.

Linda

[zenobia]

moabmic - 

Great lesson here and lots to consider.

I would add that it isn't just MZBs who resent you for what you have worked for and earned with your acceptance of risk and your hard work.  There are people right here on LATOC who truly believe, as your former worker/brother of your friends did, that you only got what you had on the toil of the people you hired. YOU had nothing to do with it because you didn't WORK!  And they aren't just the ones in the bars and watching NASCAR - they're the ones sitting in university towns congratulating themselves on their political ideologies/correctness/sensitivity to "the oppressed peoples of the world", in cushy jobs, in urban hipster coffee shops, etc.

I'm not really as worried about the MZB as I am of the "principled socially conscious idealogue" who will FORCE you to share what you have after TSHTF because "it's the right thing to do".  I personally worry more about the fascist on the one side and the socialist/communist on the other side.  BOTH sides will also take what you have - one (the fascist) will take for themselves and the other (the socialist/communist) will take "for the people" (which really means their own elites).

Few people appreciate hard work.  Most people feel entitled, either personally or politically or both.  Just my opinions.

[EyesWideOpen]

Good point Zenobia, we need to beware the post-crash community organizer too. Have you seen OH's thread featuring her? It's funny, and true.

[bobd]

moabmic - 

Great lesson here and lots to consider.

I would add that it isn't just MZBs who resent you for what you have worked for and earned with your acceptance of risk and your hard work.  There are people right here on LATOC who truly believe, as your former worker/brother of your friends did, that you only got what you had on the toil of the people you hired. YOU had nothing to do with it because you didn't WORK!  And they aren't just the ones in the bars and watching NASCAR - they're the ones sitting in university towns congratulating themselves on their political ideologies/correctness/sensitivity to "the oppressed peoples of the world", in cushy jobs, in urban hipster coffee shops, etc.

I'm not really as worried about the MZB as I am of the "principled socially conscious idealogue" who will FORCE you to share what you have after TSHTF because "it's the right thing to do".  I personally worry more about the fascist on the one side and the socialist/communist on the other side.  BOTH sides will also take what you have - one (the fascist) will take for themselves and the other (the socialist/communist) will take "for the people" (which really means their own elites).

Few people appreciate hard work.  Most people feel entitled, either personally or politically or both.  Just my opinions.

You took the words right out of my mouth Zenobia.

[annapurna]

moabmic - 

Great lesson here and lots to consider.

I would add that it isn't just MZBs who resent you for what you have worked for and earned with your acceptance of risk and your hard work.  There are people right here on LATOC who truly believe, as your former worker/brother of your friends did, that you only got what you had on the toil of the people you hired. YOU had nothing to do with it because you didn't WORK!  And they aren't just the ones in the bars and watching NASCAR - they're the ones sitting in university towns congratulating themselves on their political ideologies/correctness/sensitivity to "the oppressed peoples of the world", in cushy jobs, in urban hipster coffee shops, etc.

I'm not really as worried about the MZB as I am of the "principled socially conscious idealogue" who will FORCE you to share what you have after TSHTF because "it's the right thing to do".  I personally worry more about the fascist on the one side and the socialist/communist on the other side.  BOTH sides will also take what you have - one (the fascist) will take for themselves and the other (the socialist/communist) will take "for the people" (which really means their own elites).

Few people appreciate hard work.  Most people feel entitled, either personally or politically or both.  Just my opinions.

So are you saying that the person working 2 or 3 minimum wage jobs yet (because of increased COL vs. stagnant wages) barely makes enough to keep a roof over their head is not a hard worker?? Or someone who puts just as much sweat into building a business as the OP but whose idea wasn't successful? Not everyone can be as lucky as Bill Gates or the inventor of the Pet Rock yet that does not mean they are slackers who don't deserve better than a basement apartment shared with 6 other people and a lotto ticket once a week as a hope for a better life. People who had the luck to stumble upon a good idea saying 'if only you worked as hard as me you would be rich too' are like a supermodel saying the secret to beauty is enough sleep and 8 glasses of water per day.

[kopperhead]

dear lord...another one of those threads that makes me look into the abyss of souls i see daily...and want to puke forthwith.

i seriously don't know whether to go throw more lead at that target....or just check the ones i got put back for each of us the day they storm the bunker doors.

not today.

i just can't, today.

i feel you, moabmic.  i know.  

shit's gettin deep.

[zenobia]

So annapurna, you think it would be ok to go and TAKE everything or anything of Moabmic's because you deserve it?  Or would you TAKE it from him for someone YOU think DESERVES it more?  You are exactly the kind of person I am talking about. 

We aren't talking about sharing with the unfortunate here - an important distinction.  I'd share what I could with someone truly unfortunate.   In this thread Moabmic is talking about  the SELF-ENTITLED TAKING what they THINK they DESERVE because they are JEALOUS.  So, which camp do YOU fall into, annapurna?

I know lots of poor doomers working hard with tiny incomes who prep as much as they can.  They too sacrifice.  So, are their preps fair game for you annapurna?  Are you the one who thinks you should decide who is more DESERVING?

Don't preach to me.  I've worked three minimum wage jobs at the same time to put a roof over my head and feed and educate my children.  Don't tell me that I don't know what hard work is.  I do.  AND it should be rewarded.  I've got two adult children living with me right now because one can't find a decent paying job and is waiting to get into the military, despite a college education, and the second because I can't afford to send him to college this year.  I have another son who works a minimum wage IN A FAMILY BUSINESS and lives in a boarding house.  I have a fourth child who will be going to community college next year and living with his father.

Luck has TONS to do with making a big buck in this world.  I see it all around me - learn the lesson that LIFE IS NOT FAIR.  I watched my father work 7 days a week on his businesses.  It was HIS risk and HIS money and HIS ideas.  He did not have a college education or inherited money.  HE came up with the idea.  HE got lucky with a profitable business concept and he never paid anyone but his kids minimum wage.  And you know what?  I don't envy him or want what he has - I didn't EARN it.

[Abhaha]

In the past year I have moved from NM to a smaller CO town.  I was on the verge of making a decision on buying a property.  One is 40 acres right on the edge of town but with a running water source and good farmable land.  The other is 5 acres and a nice house with greenhouses shops, a creek, and several outbuildings where a doomer could survive so easily but is right in town.  The third is 40 acres on the backside of a mountain overlooking town and has no running water, is completely undeveloped, 4wd access, and surrounded by eight other 40 acre parcels.  One realization I had, is that those unprepared masses ,  are inherently lazy; they are unprepared because they refused to put in the extra effort to become prepared.  It is the ant vs. grasshopper fable in the classic sense except the grasshopper will be armed and will outnumber the ant 1:10.  By being on either of the first two locations I will be easily accessible by all but the absolute laziest ones.  The running water on those two properties will also attract people.  I have decided on the remote 40 acres (:30 4wd drive but only a :15 mt bike ride from town). 

It will be a lot harder to make an ideal doomstead but there won’t be any running water for people to follow, it will take a lot of physical effort, my preps will be hidden and the surrounding 40 acres properties are owned by similar doomer folks.  Let the MZBs come because the advantage will be belonged to me.  It is impractical to live there full time with kids in school and businesses to run but as part of the plan we will live in a plain, old small, non-fancy, house in town; I realize that by living in a home equal to what I can afford I make myself and family a target.  By living in the smallest home we can fit in and having zero preps visible we can let our friends and family wonder why we live so insanely modest.  On weekends and days when we have time we stay at the retreat home which will be 100% off grid and will contain everything needed to be self sufficient for a minimum of 6 months.

A lot of the unprepared aren't necessarily lazy, it just simply is that taking reality straight up is terrifying....like one of my sisters. We went to the wedding of her oldest son two years ago. She is a teacher who has worked for a school district in Florida all her life and while I was there she was saying how she wanted to work just a few more years to make sure her retirement would be substantial enough that she would never have to work again once she quit.

I almost fell over. I knew it was never going to play out the way she thought--not ever. She is 56. People have a hard time imagining that the future may not be at all like the past.

As to your shock--always remember that people you know are not necessarily just like you in their thinking--they are not necessarily going to do the "decent thing" you would do in a given situation. DO NOT PROJECT WHO YOU ARE ON TO SOMEONE ELSE. They are not you. Be alert to who they really are outside of your idea of them (or what you would want to believe about them). This goes for both the positive or negative things you may imagine. Know too that this kind of clear headedness TAKES DISCIPLINE.

As to hiding your preps--one of the ways you can hide them "in plain sight" is to plan a permaculture setup. Plant nut trees and honey locust trees and other kinds of crops that are "a stash"--but they are in plain sight. It is just that many people will not recognise them as food. Before grain crops were grown in Europe, the average peasant ate chestnuts which are high in protein and carbs.

[theozarker]

I guess what I don't see, and maybe one of you can point it out to me, is how all these facist/socialist/resentful lazy guy MZBs are going to come after you en masse way out there in the boonies.  Most of them couldn't walk 10 blocks to find food here in the city if their lives depended on it - especially if they're already weak from hunger.   And those who are well fed enough and could afford to keep their bikes full of gas for their raids after TSHTF are not likely to be among those out looking for food.  They're more likely to be the ones who have already prepped in some way and are hunkering down.

As for life in the cities and towns, I'm pretty sure that unless things are so quick that all government - federal, state and local - collapses all at once, there will be some form of law enforcement, whether it's martial law or neighborhood posses.   It may not be pretty, but people will form groups to protect themselves within neighborhoods, if nothing else.

I still say, if you have to be afraid of someone, it's probably more likely to be hungry neighbors who come, either to beg or to rob, than it is roving bands of MZBs - which is why it's important to know your neighbors and be prepared to work together for the long term like most of us do right now for shorter term catastrophes.

Call me crazy, but that's my HO.

Linda

[zenobia]

Linda, I think Moabmic is basically talking about neighbors/locals/etc.  But he and I aren't talking about the ones who will help you.  And EWO is also right IMO about the "community organizer" which is something of the same thing I am talking about.  And there are doomers who would not think twice about taking from others what they think they deserve - people have said as much on here and elsewhere.

You are right (as usual!) about knowing your neighbors and working together with the ones you CAN work with.