People living in cities are used to a broad net of safety, convenience, and comfort. 60% (on average) of the world population, according to recent estimates, live in cities. More in developed/developing nations (around 80%, as in the U.S.) and less in poorer ones (30 to 40%). 

Cities provide a high level of stability and predictability. Cities also offer freedom, jobs, and a great variety of consumables, education, culture, and entertainment. This concentration of people, infrastructure, goods, services, and activities allows society's fast advancement, the economy's growth, and technology development.

Life within The Grid

We preppers and survivalists call this "The Grid." It encompasses everything we see and use in civilization: plentiful, readily available food and clean water; transportation and communication; light, shelter, sanitation, climate control; law and order; hospitals, schools, stores, offices. All run by energy that seems to flow like magic.

Over the long term, comfort and convenience can be addictive and make us dependent.

We take it for granted and forget how to live without those things. We become soft, compliant, complacent, and alienated by the culture of convenience. If you're a prepper or want to become one, you know it's important to aim instead for awareness, resiliency, and independence.

I understand that most of us are busy trying to make ends meet. Even with everything The Grid provides, it can be a lifestyle of more struggle, insecurity, indignity, and danger. We must accept, even be grateful, that things are as they are. It's OK to take advantage and enjoy what cities and The Grid can provide. No one should feel guilty for that. But that shouldn't prevent us from being conscious about the fragilities of this system, either. 

Beyond local and regional threats, there is always the possibility of a global crisis.