Two minutes to midnight

I don't think it will happen, the whole doomsday clock is just a political tool, nothing more than a joke really.

Still, there are two "assets" that will be inherently valuable in an apocalypse should one happen, the skills to survive and the will to kill other people. You'll need to be able to at the very least hunt and forage for food and will almost certainly have to kill other people to keep what's yours, and perhaps even take what's theirs to survive and protect your family. I know I can survive on my own. I've hunted, gutted and cooked rabbits, pigeons and pheasants before and I have an air rifle and crossbow (which it's illegal to hunt with, but then if civilisation has collapsed law won't really matter), I know what plants in the wild I can and can't eat, I have reasonable medical knowledge etc. What I don't know is if I'm capable of killing to protect friends and family. I suspect I probably am, just because I suspect that we all are when push comes to shove, it wouldn't be pleasant, but for most of human history most people have been capable of killing and I very much doubt we're deep down, in an us or them situation, any different.

I can't see the actual act of taking a human life to protect others as being particularly difficult in that sort of extreme situation - I certainly don't think the morality of it would keep me awake at night. What I don't think I could cope with is the gross-factor, it's bound to be messy and I don't think I could cope with that. Yeuch!!  

I can't see the actual act of taking a human life to protect others as being particularly difficult in that sort of extreme situation - I certainly don't think the morality of it would keep me awake at night. What I don't think I could cope with is the gross-factor, it's bound to be messy and I don't think I could cope with that. Yeuch!!  

Loving the sardonic wit.

I've bored people unconscious, according to my (then) teenage children. It wasn't in self defence. I'm not even sorry, I'll probably do it again. I'm probably doing it right now!  

In my case I know how to and have successfully choked someone unconscious (in self defense), if you punch someone in the throat they will be incapacitated (don't punch them in the head, you'll just fracture knuckles or break fingers), bull whips are very effective if you can use one. I have a crossbow which is powerful enough to go through someone so that would incapacitate fairly well. 

The thing is if you get involved into physical violence you'll probably get injured evening you "win", you're better off winning before it even starts.

Disambiguating Cynosure said:

very many and a-plenty, of methods towards incapacitating

This sounds like one of your areas of expertise? Could you be persuaded to enumerate some so that we can get the gist?

(By complete coincidence, I am replying to the same person twice within one hour. Bah...)

...Greetings from myself again to all who may read. I am glad that someone else adresses *that* particular Topic before myself.

I did want to say that, there are very many and a-plenty, of methods towards incapacitating a person without actually finishing them off.

...Yet in a "Survival Situation", I myself would never ever KILL anything that I later did not intend to EAT. (Eating, no matter what the thing is...)

...Make of that what you will...!