David,

I am not advocating that everyone start stocking up on remote farm real estate, precious metals, guns & ammo, and rice & beans

You are correct that political pressure is indeed applied through the media and that responsible governments do conduct contingency planning. As you are aware there is ferocious multi-spectrum pressure being brought to bear, upon Germany in particular, to have the ECB fire up the printing presses (even more than currently ) using the Federal Reserve model.

Zone euro : un nouveau pacte de stabilit l'tude, LEMONDE.FR avec AFP | 26.11.11 | 19h34 Mis jour le 27.11.11 | 16h36

Interroge sur le sujet dimanche sur Canal +, la ministre du budget franais, Valrie Pcresse, n'a pas confirm l'information, voquant toutefois un pacte pour renforcer la discipline budgtaire, avec de "vraies sanctions", mais qui s'appliquerait tous les pays de l'eurozone. Par ailleurs, l'Elyse a fermement rejet toute volont de confrer des "pouvoirs supranationaux" la Commission europenne. "On veut pouvoir discuter des moyens d'avoir des pouvoirs plus intrusifs de Bruxelles pour surveiller un pays comme la Grce", a nuanc la prsidence, faisant valoir que "mme l'Allemagne ne demandait pas de donner la Commission des pouvoirs supranationaux".
Thinking the unthinkable on a euro break-up, November 27, 2011 4:20 pm by Gavyn Davies, Financial Times, www.ft.com

It has suddenly become respectable to ask the question: what would happen if the euro broke up? Last weeks rise in German bond yields signals that a euro break up is being taken more seriously by investors. I am told that London law firms are allocating large amounts of time to examining the validity, following a break-up, of cross-border contracts written in euros. And, to judge from my own inbox, asset managers are beginning to ask about the economics of how it could occur.
Take flight from Europes policy food fight, By Bill Gross, MARKETS INSIGHT November 15, 2011 4:53 pm, Financial Times, www.ft.com

The investment message to be taken from this policy food fight is that sovereign credit is a legitimate risk spread from now until the twelfth of never.
The European Unions imposed fiscal solution is to clean up your act, but, in the process, to impose years of deflationary relative wage policies on a rather spoiled southern citizenry. Perhaps they will stand for it, perhaps they wont. But, as time winds on, a rather permanent credit spread of damaging proportions threatens these economies with higher bond market yields, increasing rather than decreasing debt to GDP levels. Sovereign creditworthiness and potential default become greater downside probabilities, indicating a greater likelihood of significant losses.
Perhaps the time is drawing nearer for the judicious use of long straddle strategies?