Security as a post-SHTF occupation

As I mentioned in a post last week, I recently asked MD Creekmore over at thesurvivalistblog.net about his ideas on what JW,R calls an "Iron Age profession" (that is, how you will earn a living should our world move to a simpler, less technologically-dependent state. JW,R meant the term tongue-in-cheek, not suggesting a real return to the Iron Age, merely how we would all make a living if it turns out that the world no longer needs computer programmers or stock analysts).

Mr. Creekmore and a surprising number of his readers listed "security" as a vocation they will pursue (the job of "pimp" had more takers, but I didn't notice anyone volunteering to be a "ho"), meaning, I suppose, that they will come to your house and guard your stuff in exchange for food or barter items. Besides standing around with an M-4, "security" in this context would probably also include some consulting advice, such as where to put fence or an OP/LP, and the use of radios and setting up a guard rotation.

I'm certainly not belittling the security profession. It is probably far more complicated than I know. But I do have some problems with it being a job in a TEOTWAKI world:

• Most importantly, who is going to be looking after your stuff while you are guarding mine? Your family? Do you really want to leave your family at home to defend themselves from looters while you are at my house defending me from the same looters?
• Whose gear and munitions are you going to be using? Will you really risk your neck and your stock of probably irreplaceble ammunition taking care of someone else?
• Can you really make enough "money" to make this a worthwhile use of your time? Wouldn't your time be better spent growing and guarding your own garden than taking home a few cantaloupes from my garden?
• Are you expecting to stand guard all day and then go home to your own bed at night like a 9-to-5 job? If you plan to make your way as a security professional on someone else's homestead, why bother to set up your own preparations or BOL at all?

In the TEOTWAWKI world I am talking about (think A World Made by Hand by JHK), I suppose there will be some self-sufficient communities, probably based around existing apartment complexes or subdivisions that are already fenced or otherwise secured, that might have need of a professional security service. This might be the best fit for future security professionals like Mr. Creekmore and his readers. Most of the rest of us will live on farms where such security services will most likely not be needed for the following reasons:

• Every farmer I ever met, including myself, had at least a shotgun, and few qualms about using it.
• Most farms will also have four-legged security (or in the case of geese or guineas, two-winged security). I would bet that your average Jack Russell terrior knows more instinctivly about security than just about any human ever born.
• Farms will become hubs for extended families, or at least survival "clans," which will handle all their own security, even if we don't know all the right vocabulary for it (OPSEC will probably be better known as "put that damn fire out!" or "keep your voice down, you idiot!")
• I certainly would consider paying for someone to stand guard on my farm should the situation warrant, but I won't pay someone to do the job part time. If you want to work for me in a security capacity then you will live on my farm and be on 24 hour call, besides pulling regular guard duty, and will also do your part hauling water and pulling weeds just like the rest of us when I need you to.

I can see a real need for extra security if you operate a roadside produce stand or attend a farmers' market after TEOTWAWKI. Perhaps this is what MDC is talking about, along with providing security at the apartment complexes described above. But can you really make a living looking after other people instead of your own?

Pray for Israel,

Gallowglass