Immediate Steps to Restoring Social Order

Immediate Steps to Restoring Social Order While this website is concerned about the The Reconstruction of Society AFTER DOOMSDAY and how to achieve a better world than the one that has just collapsed the immediate concern after Doomsday is going to be with restoring social order.
The immediate aftermath of a world-wide nuclear war, or any other Doomsday scenario of that magnitude will be total confusion, chaos and a trend towards anarchy. There will be disaster in almost every local community no matter how far it is located from the blast and firestorm effects of nuclear weapons or whatever else has precipitated Doomsday. Most likely there will be no distributed electrical power, extremely limited and not immediately irreplaceable supplies of food and fuel, and very limited means of communication, and no help coming from anywhere else anyway.
In these circumstances there will most often be looting of the few remaining supplies from stores. Medical and other services will be impossible to maintain. For a more graphic illustration of what may be expected you may be interested in reading the author's

"You Will Survive Doomsday" (Myth #01).

  The very first order of the day will be the necessity for:


Restoration of Security Moving masses of refugees, semi-organized mobs such as motorcycle gangs or groups who are able to mutually identify on some racial or other basis, along with mass escapes from penal institutions, will add to confusion and hazard for personal safety.
The first order of business, of any entities who wish to establish a system of justice and order, will be that of security. There is the possibility that previous police and military units may simply go renegade but if they can be called upon to provide service their identity will be helpful in gaining respect for their enforcement. You will probably be very fortunate if you have any security - even martial law.

Martial Law: Military Police Internment/Resettlement Operations

This is the complete 234 page 2001 Field Manual from the Headquarters of the Department of the Army on Military Police Internment and Resettlement Operations.
 

Martial Law: Domestic Support Operations

This is the full 1993 Field Manual in .pdf format from the Headquarters of the Department of the Army and the US Marine Corps. Of particular interest may be Chapter 9-5 in regards to operation Garden Plot. In our off-line library we maintain a number of other manuals dealing with lines of authorization and other such matters.
 
 

The essential requirement is always security and this is why it is necessary to extend the social perimeters as far as possible. Live and let live, will not work - if the other fellow does not agree. No matter how well armed and organized an individual family or small collective might be - they cannot withstand unending repeated assaults nor the attack of a significantly larger force. This is just a fact of life. The three choices are to conquer, cooperate, collaborate - or die in the effort. The preferred choice is cooperate. If one or a community is attacked by a vicious renegade gang that has no inclination to cooperate and which offers no benefits in collaboration (such as protection) then the only choice is between conquering or dying in the effort, where otherwise they will be pillaged, raped and murdered anyway.


Humanitarian and Refugee Services The second order of business, after security, will be that of shelter, especially in the winter time. Such public and private buildings that can be commandeered will need to be utilized. Food and fuel will then become the nagging problems. Any significant stocks must be immediately commandeered and protected. Those who are able to provide for these essentials, perhaps by some collective effort, can then begin to widen their horizons as to providing for the largest collective good.
Refugees:
Another major concern following a Doomsday scenario may be that of dealing with a large number of refugees. The following are several pieces of information addressing that subject. There is no telling how applicable, or inapplicable the information may be, because there may not be external resources or expertise to draw upon.
Many of the problems applying to refugees may equally apply to all of us, because we may all be refugees in a sense, as the food distribution and water supplies breakdown.
I feel that the three major challenges that will face all survivors are in order:

(1) Nuclear radiation
(2) Security
(3) Shelter and Food supply
(4) Clean water and sewage handling
(5) Threat of Pandemic
Camps: Standards for Building Refugee Camps


This UN paper is based upon experience and gives considerations that should be taken into account wherever possible. After a nuclear holocaust, a compounding problem for many areas will be a shortage of supplies and no outside source for them. I noted in this manual three particularly good pieces of advice. (1) Administrative personnel need a separate place to meet. (2) Storage and distribution need to be in separate locations. (3) Camps need to be organized into separate self-governing units. Personally, I feel that friction between groups will be lessened if divisions along ethnic / cultural / religious lines are avoided.

Food: Red Cross Mass Feeding Manual

94 pages. While some information in this manual may be beneficial I suspect that those trying to do mass feeding will face substantial challenges in getting supplies. 
 


 
Water: Water Fixed Supply

 
69 pages.
Water: Water Field Supply
159 pages. 

Sanitation: Field Waste Management
58 pages. 

Sanitation: Field Hygiene and Sanitation


This is the 161 page 2000 Marine Corps Field Manual. Health and hygiene from a community perspective, rather than the individual perspective. Everything from maintaining community kitchens to showers, toilets, and so forth. Refugee handling centers, camps and facilities along with emergency medical facilities may find some application of principles listed here.
 

Toilets: Unsewered Toilets


As a sub-issue to public health this is a 40 page booklet from the Ontario Ministry of the Environment. 
 

Medical Care

Medical: Post Nuclear Medicine
This is a link to separate page in this section where I discuss post nuclear medicine. Among what may be important information presented there is that dealing with the medical response to both internal and external radiocontamination and dealing with pandemics. The broader, greater, and longer term medical response is dealt with in the Recovery section.

Salvaging Operations The size of marauding renegade, or not so renegade, forces that may be allied against initially forming cooperative and collective communities - may be very great and may increase overtime. Once again, the best solution is to increase through cooperation the size and perimeters of the collective community. If given the opportunity to submit to the authority of some entity that already has in place or has achieved a superior degree of organization, along with the resources to maintain it, then that is the most reasonable and rapid choice - providing that entity is sufficiently altruistic towards one's essential values.
One of the first potential resources will be that of salvaging and protecting the assets that remain. Initially, this particularly applies to food, fuel, and medicines. However, any controlling entity will do well to as quickly as possible establish protocols for dealing with looters and vandals. Regarding the latter, there will arise a destructive mindset that must be controlled immediately in order to prevent detrimental destruction that can thus be avoided. On the other hand, salvaging needs to be quickly legitimately authorized, organized, coordinated, controlled, collected and cataloged. This will be an excellent use of what would be otherwise unemployed manpower and a redirection of energies that could otherwise be put to detrimental purposes. The old saying - "the devil finds work for idle hands".

Rescue: Basic Rescue Skills
This 43 page booklet covers basic rescue skills, which may be a continuing necessity for some period of time.
Death: Mass body disposal

This is a link to another page where I deal with problems of mass body disposal.