Escaping The Uprisings

There is so much news today about revolutions rising up to overthrow governments — primarily in the Middle East. Tunisia, Egypt, Yemen, Libya, Syria,…who's next? People are dying, getting abducted by government or rebel factions (sometimes never to be heard from again), women are being molested and raped under the guise of one faction of another claiming to be attempting to establish or maintain order. Children are being recruited (because who would suspect a child of being an enemy?) and indoctrinated to become soldiers for one side or another. It's a mess, and it's only going to get messier.

I don't want to get into a political discussion of the why's and wherefores. I have my opinions, and I'm sure you do, too. But that's not why this blog site exists. We're only here to talk about how to "Get Out Alive." That means, first of all, avoiding threatening situations such as uprisings.

You don't have to travel to the Middle East to find yourself in the midst of a violent uprising. Downtown Seattle will do, when there's something going on that attracts organized anarchists to bus themselves in from out of town to stage a "spontaneous" demonstration so the "voice of the people" can be heard. It's ludicrous that anyone would pretend to believe that these things are:

1. spontaneous
2. the voice of local people
3. non-violent (and if there is any violence, it's caused by the police) 

Trust me, they are anything but. In actual fact, uprisings are;

1. well planned
2. well organized by "community organizers"
3. well funded from behind the scenes to accomplish a specific agenda
4. populated with "rent-a-rioters" from out of town posing as freedom fighters
5. bent on property destruction
6. bent on costing taxpayers as much as possible to clean up the mess
7. bent on creating chaos
8. bent on violence
9. politically motivated
10. intended to intimidate the peaceful public

If you happen to find yourself caught up in one of these events, the best course of action is to try to determine the direction of movement. There is always movement of the mass of people. Figure out where it's going, and do your best to move perpendicular to it. Head in a direction that is at a right angle to the direction of movement. The reason for this is that if you simply turn around and run 180 degrees away from the demonstration, you'll probably get caught up in one of two things:

1. more rioters racing in from the rear to catch up with the main group
2. police sweeping in from behind

If you maintain some semblance of situational awareness in the days leading up to the revolution/riot/demonstration, you should not be surprised by it. There will be rumblings in the street, rumors, anticipation of something that is about to happen. When that occurs, take the initiative and get out of town ahead of time. Don't wait until the riots start, or you probably won't be able to escape the area.