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Ah yes, my gun and my gold will protect me against the organised army out to raid for food. That's what I meant -- people get organised very quickly. In Rwanda

Ah yes, my gun and my gold will protect me against the organised army out to raid for food. That's what I meant -- people get organised very quickly. In Rwanda, people quickly formed armies and militias, the same in Ethiopia, Columbia, and literally every other time this has happened before. One guy is not gonna accomplish much. Civil war is also, by most measures, the least likely outcome. Usually civil war causes the breakdown, not the other way around. Usually it's really a deterioration of state capacity that leads to a powerless central government (see Venezuela, Yemen, Syria), or repeated coups that lead to unstable governance (all of west africa basically). Things are mostly stable, by and large.

true_religion 3y ago
You’re pointing out yourself the usefulness of being one guy with a gun. Once you need to form a militia, you bring your gun and join your neighbors. That way you can actually resist the army. They will do more than just raid for food. They raid for people: conscription, slavery, and “comfort”.
tibbydudeza 3y ago
In South Africa we strict gun laws - getting a 9mm sidearm is difficult enough - don't bother with something like an AR-15. But we have per capita probably the largest number armed private security companies - what happened when we had unrest in one of provinces - the owners of these companies formed self defense groups where they lived with their staff and had AK'47/AR-15 and stuff not available to normal citizens. Our suburbs are still racially segregated so they turned around those folks who did not fit the profile. They kept the looters out - but some got out of control and shot up innocent people that was in the wrong place at the wrong time. The army was eventually mobilized and the sight of soldiers and wheeled APC's convinced them it is was time to go home now that the professionals were here.
brutus1213 3y ago
Thankfully haven't experienced it but my parents and relatives were in challenging situations during some parts of their lives. The point of Gold (as I was taught) is not to store your hoard of wealth but to facilitate getting out.

true_religion 3y ago

You’re pointing out yourself the usefulness of being one guy with a gun. Once you need to form a militia, you bring your gun and join your neighbors. That way you can actually resist the army. They will do more than just raid for food. They raid for people: conscription, slavery, and “comfort”.

tibbydudeza 3y ago

In South Africa we strict gun laws - getting a 9mm sidearm is difficult enough - don't bother with something like an AR-15. But we have per capita probably the largest number armed private security companies - what happened when we had unrest in one of provinces - the owners of these companies formed self defense groups where they lived with their staff and had AK'47/AR-15 and stuff not available to normal citizens. Our suburbs are still racially segregated so they turned around those folks who did not fit the profile. They kept the looters out - but some got out of control and shot up innocent people that was in the wrong place at the wrong time. The army was eventually mobilized and the sight of soldiers and wheeled APC's convinced them it is was time to go home now that the professionals were here.

brutus1213 3y ago

Thankfully haven't experienced it but my parents and relatives were in challenging situations during some parts of their lives. The point of Gold (as I was taught) is not to store your hoard of wealth but to facilitate getting out.