Lone Wolf vs Community

It's a volatile question in the preparedness community these days; which is the best strategy in developing a preparedness plan for the apocalypse ; going it all lone wolf style or forming a community of trusted friends and family to deal with disruptive events. Most seasoned preppers shun the lone wolf strategy, calling it reckless and unsustainable. Other lone wolf preppers don't say much about it....they're lone wolves after all and want to do their own thing. I'm not so quick to discount the lone wolf strategy and thought I'd lay out some pros and cons regarding both strategies, comparing the merits and advantages of each.

Compare and Contrast

• Raw Selfishness - Winner; Lone Wolf. 
• LW - Picky eaters. Kids or the elderly in the group. People who complain it's too hot or cold while sleeping on the ground, etc... The lone wolf only has to deal with his or her own tolerance for discomfort. They can eat whatever the can muscle through, sleep where ever they can hole up, and run away whenever they wish. 
• Community -  problems, conflicts, and issues all rise within communities. Get more than 2 people together and there will be complaining, arguing, bickering, even violence. A lone wolf doesn't have to tend with any of this. 
• Security - Winner; Community. 
• LW - while it's true a lone wolf can better employ stealth and concealing tactics, there's really no replacement for having someone watch your back while you sleep or standing guard over your person and your gear. The lone wolf does get additional cred for mobility, though.
• Community - however, advantage of a single person's mobility can be overran by more eyes and ears, say, when a community group is rolling
  through an abandoned warehouse and can watch each others' backs. A group of survivors can also take differing sleep schedules, allowing for watches overnight and throughout the day. One big thing to be said here, if you don't trust the members in your community, this advantage is lost to the lone wolf strategy and quickly.

• Search and Scavenging - Winner; Community. 
• LW - only so much ground can be covered by one person. 
• Community - The more eyes and ears involved during a search the more resources that can be found. A community group of four or more would be able to split into groups of two and cover a lot more ground.

• Resource Use - Winner: Lone Wolf. 
• LW - it's true that the Loner may not be able to effectively search as well as a group of scavengers, but what resources are found can be carefully rationed by one individual, for his or her own needs. Food and water, and even medications can be consumed only based on the individual's parameters.
• Community - a group of survivors, it's assumed, would have a central, safe base of operation. Resources found while searching and scavenging can be pooled here and doled out among the survivors as needed. A lone wolf will only usually only be able to carry found resources, or it would be seriously difficult to maintain security of found-resources should the LW cache a hoard somewhere.

• 
  Medical - Winner; Community. 
• LW - There's not much of an advantage a lone wolf would have if they became sick or injured. Their best bet would be to hole up somewhere in hopes of recovery.
• Community - Having more people in a group greatly increases the odds that one of them will have at least rudimentary medical knowledge. If someone in the group gets hurt, too, two people could fashion a make-shift stretcher and haul the wounded back to camp, as another example.

• Morale - Winner; Community. 
• LW - The only advantage a lone wolf has here is threat of lack of cooperation within a community that can occur between different personality types. That threat can lead to internal battles over politics, religion, and more. 
• Community - Even for introverts, being alone all the time is wearing from a psychological perspective. In long term apocalyptic scenario, having people to talk to, laugh with, love, or even argue with can be refreshing and help to keep spirits up.

• Short Term Survivability - Winner; Lone Wolf. 
• LW - When faced with an immediate threat it can be next to impossible to keep a group of people all safe and together while fending off...whatever it is (tornado? Zombies?) Going back to the "Selfish" quality above, the lone wolf only concerns themselves with...themselves. The ability to focus solely on escaping or sheltering just for oneself cannot be underestimated. 
• Community - But....

• Overall Survivability and Sustainability - Winner; Community.
• LW - The lone wolf can live off of luck and the idea of running away to fight another day, but eventually that luck is bound to run out during the apocalypse. 
• Community - ...the resource and knowledge pool that can be acquired by a community of people prepared takes the cake regarding long term survivability. Even in a simple disruptive weather event it's critical for the loner to find friends and family necessary for that long term survival.

The Victor - Community

Prepping within a community, even a small group of 4 or 6, greatly increases the odds of survival and recovery in a disaster event. That-said there are times when going lone wolf, temporarily, may be necessary for immediate survival. Think being in your car on a county road when a tornado knocks you into the ditch, stranded with no help. There are clear cases where a person has only their wits, skill, and immediate resources to survive, but the need for those individuals to reconnect to a group is urgent, especially for the long term.

Of course this list is not 100% comprehensive. There are clear advantages and disadvantages to each, but overall having a community of like-minded people near to you who you can count on when disaster strikes has more pluses than trekking alone.

Peace.