Saving yourself, if not the future Pt. 1 - Prognostication

For the savvy among the world it's becoming obvious that the night of our civilization is nigh. With consumer gasoline prices predicted at a high for the next 10 years things are in shaky territory. Reserves are so low that one more major hit to any of the major production centers around the world (Argentina, Gulf of Mexico, Middle East, you know, places that have never seen a day of turmoil...) will double, if not triple, the cost of consumer fuel and make it unavailable in outlying areas where the cost of driving the truck out to the station would negate the value of the gasoline. Anything that relies on trade and transport will begin to rise in cost over the next while. Divisive actions from ultra-individualist groups and foreign terrorists will, independent of each other (this isn't conspiracy theory), put a combined weight on governments and neighborhoods that will sever our social structure. As trade and transport decreases areas become more and more isolated, higher levels of government, and government in general, lose the ability to govern. This combined with an in-bred paranoia of government (thanks to terrorists) and and unwillingness to cooperate and compromise (thanks to individualists) will create a powder keg waiting to go off. When the day comes that the economy finally buckles under the weight of high fuel costs over an under-cut service/product economy (people not buying Big Macs is bad for a growth-based service economy) and the grocery stores just don't open because there's no food for them to sell then people will turn to a mob/clan rule (rioting, looting, burning) in a scarily short amount of time. When the economy died in the 30's the culture was still very much one of community and family, religion and government, so people turned to those things. Our current society is very self-centered, with family alienation, broken homes, distrust of religion, distrust of government, and lack-of-community being almost standard (Hispanic and Asian neighborhoods will handle the crisis differently, and generally better as to them blood is still thicker than water).

The day of the great destruction will actually be fairly calm. Most people will still have food in the pantry and water and electricity will still be running. A week later hell will open on earth as people panic. People will form mobs, start looting and rioting. Government and police will still try and exert their power, but this will cave quickly as communication between branches breaks down. Some areas will wind up under military rule, while others will descend into total chaos as police and soldiers join the riots. Large groups of people will begin to exodus in two directions: towards the cities and away from the cities. Some will believe that the city is where safety, civilization, people, and support is, so will head inward. Others will see the cities as a death trap of human misery and panic, a concrete prison without food or clean water so will head outward towards farms. Farmers will be a mixed bag, some willing to take in people knowing that labour will be needed to operate the farms, others paranoid and resentful of invaders. A week or two after that thousands will be infected with disease as routine cleanliness becomes impossible when water shuts off, bodies left undisposed of begin to rot, and human waste piles up. Three months after the crash millions will be dead of thirst, starvation, rioting, murder, despair, exposure, and disease. A year later 3/4 of the world population will be dead. When the population has been fractioned and people have spread out then rebuilding efforts will start as the communities that have formed, or survived, begin to branch out and gather resources and stabilize life.

So, the question on my mind, how does one prepare to survive those three months to a year? Some places, the more impoverished/less industrialized will fare better (a relative term) because they will lose less (psychological impact is what kills the most) and some places (Amish come to mind) won't notice much of anything, though if they're within seven days walk along a major cross-country artery they will have to deal with the influx of people. The more heavily advanced/densely populated areas will obviously see the greatest impact as their every-day lives rely on trade and transport for support.