"5 Reasons Why Bugging IN Is Smart"

An article from the Survival Mom.Basically, it comes down to knowing your neighbors and surroundings, and being where your resources are. She writes:

I have seen many articles and posts about bugging out should some major disaster happen. These writers go on and on about having Bug Out Bags (BOBs) and heading to their Bug Out Location (BOL) to hide away until it is safe. I can imagine several reasons why having a bug out plan is a good idea but honestly, it should be a last resort. 

If your immediate home is not threatened, staying put and “bugging in” should be the first option for several reasons. Ultimately, it is up to you to decide whether or not to hunker down or Bug Out, but consider the following reasons for staying in, at least at first.

The reasons she mentions are (1) higher security (based on being in a familiar, prepared environment), (2) knowledge of the neighborhood, (3) knowledge of surrounding terrain, (4) more supplies and resources, and (5) people who love you will look there first.

In a similar vein, I saw this guest article at the Survivalist Blog suggesting that if you haven't bugged out (i.e., relocated to a rural retreat) already, but are relying on bugging out when an emergency is upon you, you are probably going to suffer a horrible fate. The author writes:

The purpose of this particular dissertation is to scare the crap out of you, and thus move you off the pot. Time is short, and the storm clouds are gathering over the Middle East. Our southern border is a free-for-all, drug cartels and gangs have a viable presence in virtually every major American city, and the poser-in-chief thinks he was elected king and is doing everything he can think of to dismantle this country. 

And you think you’re ready to bug out? 

Having even the best bug out bag, while putting you a few steps ahead of the herd, is still only a few steps. There are at least a million more. Have you thought about them?
If you’re still living in town, with some vague notion that you’re going to “bug out“, then the answer is “No, I haven’t really thought this through”. I will be very blunt here; the following tells you how you’re probably going to die. Oh, and if you bought a big screen TV or any type of sports tickets (money you should have spent on ammo or food) in the last six months, please stop reading and put your head back in the sand, as this article won’t make any sense to you.

The author takes a worse case scenario to illustrate the worst that could happen to you if your survival plan is trying to get out of Dodge when TEOTWAWKI hits. These include (1) neighbors or other survivors attacking you when you least suspect it to get your supplies, (2) blocked roads due to traffic jams, or road blocks set up by gangs or government authorities, and (3) if you successfully escape the city, being shot when you approach someone that has already moved out of the city and prepared.

Long time readers know that I'm not a big fan of the bugging out scenario. Obviously, there are times you will have to leave your home/retreat--fires, floods, tornadoes, chemical spills, and so on, may require immediate evacuation. But in most cases, I agree with the Survivor Mom that there are too many advantages to sheltering in place to abandon it and risk some of the dangers that the Survivalist Blog article mentions--blocked roads, gangs and looters, etc.--trying to get to some other location, or, worse, some undetermined place of refuge.

The Survivalist Blog article suggests that cities will become uninhabitable. However, as discussed many times in these pages, there is little historical precedent for this in many cases; whereas there is plenty of evidence of what easy prey you become in remote farmsteads. In addition, there is a considerable amount of poverty in rural America (see also here) with the concomitant crime and dependency on welfare. I'm not saying that living in a large city is the best plan either. Obviously, living in or around "the Projects" in a large city would be a mistake. But suburbs and medium sized cities may be preferable to either rural or large urban centers.

However, there is something else that the Survivalist Blog article raises that needs to be addressed. The author writes that, even if you somehow make it out of town:

You creep around the checkpoint and head into the wilderness/country/mountains/open range where folks have been “prepping” (dammit, there’s that word again) for years. You stagger into a driveway in the dark. You have nothing to offer. You need food and water, your feet are bleeding, you’re covered in snot and brains. You have no weapon, no supplies, and whatever else you might be, you are not prepared, or welcome, or invited. 

And I, or someone else who has spent years “prepping”, shoots you in the face.

This same attitude often shows up on survival fiction. (See, e.g., my review of "A Distant Eden"). I understand that some people may feel that they cannot or will not be able to offer charity in a disaster scenario. There may be situations where you have to use lethal force to protect you and your family. But is there really ever going to be a need to shoot an unarmed person begging for food? If preppers revert to that behavior they have become the very thing that they hate. To quote the Lord:

35 For whosoever will save his life shall lose it; but whosoever shall lose his life for my sake and the gospel’s, the same shall save it. 

 36 For what shall it profit a man, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul?

 Mark 8:35-36. LDS readers may want to review Chapter 9 of Moroni concerning what happened when the Nephites became as depraved and bloodthirsty as their enemies.