"Preppers" vs Being Prepared

[Canaan The Tribeless]

So one of the sub-cultures that has emerged in the last several years is the "prepper" community. The group, normally self-identified as Preppers, focuses a lot of time and resources to the goal of becoming ultimately prepared to survive in the midst of imminent "Shit Hits The Fan" scenarios. These include economic collapse, civil war, infrastructure collapse, meteor strike... basically anything that loosely resembles an apocalypse. They boast huge arsenals of every kind of weapon with thousands of rounds to feed through them, underground bunkers, years of food, camouflage clothing and tactical military surplus vehicles, night-vision goggles, flak vests, etc. The ultimate survivors.
 

I believe there is a distinct difference between being a Prepper and being prepared, and it is attitude.
 

The Prepper dreams of the day he gets to use all his cool shit. To him, the normality of a functioning infrastructure is just a temporary illusion filled with sheep who will all die soon enough. He likens fellow humans to zombies that he has to defend his bomb-shelter from. He has grand visions of bugging out into the woods and being a hyper-sufficient military survivalist. Misguided and naive.
 

The problem is that many of these people have never spent more than a few days in the woods. A good portion of them are not military trained nor are they in any sort of shape to be skillfully evading or battling these "zombies" that they anticipate. They also don't realize that it's not going to be as romantic or cool as they see in the movies. Tactical camouflage shit just draws MORE attention to them which makes life harder. Ammo is fucking heavy and fear is a killer.
 

Now I fully believe that being prepared is very important. The vast, vast majority of people, especially in cities or suburbs are not ready in case things really do happen. Our infrastructure is indeed very fragile, and only a few pieces of it need to be destroyed in order for chaos to start.

But in those situations, I think a rational person only should be allocating resources and time for about 6 months of emergency preparation. Here's why:

-Preparing for years and years of survivalist living follows a J-curve of resource consumption. It can take up all your time and money. Then what's the point?

-Who cares how many cans of green beans you have if all your friends and family are dead?

-After 6 months, either 1) everything has stabalized or 2) you should have found ways to sustain yourself for the long-term. If you're still relying on your emergency supplies, you're just delaying the inevitable
 

You should be prepared for anything, but HOPING that you never need to utilize your preparations. That is the distinct difference. Keep a half-year supply of food, tubs of water, medical gear, medications, warm clothing, tools, etc. Have family plans, vehicle emergency bags, means of self-defense (because people will want your shit) and recreational stuff to get your mind of off the situation. You don't need to look like rambo.
 

A final thought about the zombie mindset. If some shit really does hit the fan, then you should be thinking of ways to help as many as possible, not figuring out how many of them you can kill if you need to. There will absolutely be roving bands of murderous, hungry thugs, yes, but there will also be desperate people who need help. Don't get lost in the movie mindset of slaughtering hordes of people in the apocalypse, because chances are you have more humanity in you than you think. If not, then YOU are going to be the problem for the rest of us to deal with.

[kalmia]

I wonder how much of the doomsday fantasies are related to religious rapture myth. They may come out of a hatred for the world whose corrupt nature they have become aware of, the leaving Eden myth.

 

My contact with them gives me the impression that many of them are male bitches.

[The.Philosophers.Buttler]

I see what you're saying about the necessity/utility of the prepper behaviour.  I would be interested in prepping only granted a large disposable income, and I'd have to have so many funds, that investing to make more money wouldn't appeal to me.  I agree with you that if you don't have money to blow, then 6 months of emergency supplies seems reasonable and sufficient.  After all, one would think most disasters, at least natural, would dissipate within months, or, as you said, individuals would have to find a sustainable living source.  However, if a nuclear disaster would occur, I would assume that the earth would remain uninhabitable or dangerous for a period longer than 6 months.  If you look at examples of instability overseas, such as civil wars, those events can persist for years as well.  Also, of course a good prepper would acquire the knowledge/experience to operate and match their equipment.  

 

I see preppers as buying a kind of insurance through their actions.  If you don't have a lot of money, you may not spend what little money you have on insurance, but may opt to take a risk instead.  For example, I do not have a lot of money so I have minimal liability insurance on my car.   If you have more money, or are more worried about the risk you are trying to avoid, you buy more insurance.  Someone with limited resources and time might opt to prep for 6 months, while another who is more wealthy/concerned might wish to prep for longer. 

[shirgall]

I think my wife has a bit of the apocalypse bug, but for the most part we focus on the realities of rural living: power outages, earthquakes, and flooding that might mean having to put up your neighbors for a bit. The shooting part is my bug, the canning part is hers. It doesn't impact our lives too much, but we do have some food, some odd toys, and we do the occasional airsoft, paintball, or lasertag thing for fun.

 

We certainly don't hope to need things, but it's kinda nice that when you run out of something you don't have to go to the store. We just make sure we have a backup.

 

And who doesn't like beans?

[Karabesh]

Have a look at ResilientMan.com he does a pretty good job of making the difference between prepping and resilience.

The whole idea is that what we are really seeking is resilience which is the ability to bounce forward after an event. 

Enjoy

Karabesh

[Panoptic]

I agree that the prepper mindset is based on fantasy. Its actually sad to see how much of the life and money they are wasting, especially since they consider firearms to be a part of the "necessary" preparation gear. In fact, it seems that many of them are more interested in stockpiling firearms instead of food and water which reinforces the idea that its a fantasy.

 

I believe in keeping food and water stockpiled. I honestly think I would feel paranoid if I started stockpiling medical supplies, clothing, etc. Even though its totally possible that it would come in handy, I just don't like the idea of keeping track of all of this, it just seems to weigh my life down.

 

I live in the middle of a decently sized city and I keep a cupboard loaded with canned foods. I aim for variety because you cannot just survive off of beans (in case you didn't know!). I have ton of different types of vegetables and fruit. More importantly though I have a good sized stockpile of bottled water in my closet. I don't have a firearm because I don't want to have the responsibility that comes along with owning one, but I do hear gunshots outside from time to time. Somehow it seems that the inside walls of my gated condo complex are perfectly safe

[claridiva2000]

I like the idea of prepping. Not for the z-poc, but for regular life disasters like job loss, some other drop in income ,natural disasters, or for friends/family who are down on their luck. If you have food, everything else can be worked out.

[Jeff_NH]

I don't think it is fair to collectives preppers. There certainly are some who think that way - there are others who would self identify as preppers who have far different goals than you suggest.

 

I certainly 'enjoy' the small opportunities to use my preps. Lots of reasons why. I'm sure part of it is a sense of self validation but in many cases it is just fun because you get to test out and refine a plan..

 

In addition to Stef I regularly listen to the Survival Podcast (www.thesurvivalpodcast.com). Fun show. Large community as well. Certainly a mix of different personalities on that discussion board from lurkers to SHTF people but each is an individual and most seem pretty normal to me. The host's "Philosophy" is summed up in 10 values:

1. Everything you do to “prepare” for emergencies, disasters or economic turmoil should be blended into your life in a way that improves your life even if nothing disastrous ever occurs.
2. Debt is financial cancer! Minimize it, pay it off early and stay away from credit cards.
3. Growing your own food is for everyone not just people that want “organic” fruit and vegetables. To produce your own food, even as little as 10% of what you use reduces your dependence on “the system”. If nothing else gardening is good for your emotional and physical health and increases the value of any property.
4.  Tax is theft, the best way to combat it is to understand every legal deduction you can take or create. In general I think “the system” is bad but when it comes to taxation either learn the system or hire a damn good accountant to work it for you. Every dollar you keep can be used to improve your self sufficiency, every dollar taken from you can be used to make your dependence on the government stronger.
5.  Food stored is an exceptional investment. Food is increasing in cost faster than just about any investment right now and certainly faster than the rate of inflation. You simply can’t lose by storing additional food that you use on a regular basis.
6.  Plan for disaster in the following order of priority – Personal-Localized-Regional-State-National-Global. Despite the real possibility of a true economic melt down or catastrophic terrorist attack or some other major global disaster the most probable “disaster” for any individual is personal. Loss of a job, loss of a family member, a fire or localized weather event are the most probable threats to impact any individual. So plan and prepare for those first, then continue to build going forward.
7.  Renewable energy is great if you do it in a way that saves you money (short or long term) but your solar panels are not going to save the planet. Man made global warming is a scam designed to force the U.S. into a global taxation system. If you want to promote solar, wind, hydro, etc. the best way is to develop it in a more cost effective manner. Fuel efficient vehicles are also great. I personally drive a 2006 Jetta TDI diesel that puts many hybrids to shame at 44 MPG! That’s doing 80MPH on average by the way. I bought it because it was affordable, well built and incredibly engineered and cost me a lot less to run even with diesel being a lot more expensive than gas. The lesson is that the best way to promote “green energy” is via economics.
8.  Owning land is true wealth. I advise people to strive to own land in the country where taxes are low and restrictions are limited. Even if you live in the city finding, buying and improving land within 3-5 hours of your primary residence makes a lot of sense. If you can use it to get out of the city at some point so much the better.
9.  In addition to food, water and other common survival stores use common sense methods of hedging against “disaster”. Pragmatic things like, cash emergency funds, good insurance and secondary income streams are not just for people in “the system”. These types of protection can make you life a lot less miserable when something goes wrong. Make them part of your planning.
10.  Your personal philosophy is more important for you than mine! You are the master of your own life and if you don’t agree with my views, great, define, understand and implement your own. The biggest thing you can do is understand that you are in control of your life and that what you do matters. Those two factors have the greatest impact on individual survival across every demographic you can imagine.

 

I've never met someone who identifies as a prepper who is not interested in helping others both in normal day to day scenarios or in some of the prepping scenarios that were discussed. Zombie slayers are of course out there in the community but there are also zombie slayers in the non-prepping community who just say they don't need to prep because they just go take what they need.

 

Speaking of zombies rising up from the dead - I just now noticed that this is a somewhat older thread that just popped back alive.. Normally I'd just let it die but I've already written this so....braaaains!

[J-William]

I like the idea of prepping. Not for the z-poc, but for regular life disasters like job loss, some other drop in income ,natural disasters, or for friends/family who are down on their luck. If you have food, everything else can be worked out.

You make a good point.

Most people aren't prepared for things that are likely such as job loss or illnesses.

The Likelihood of some doomsday scenario is much less.

 

If you're prepared for the apocalypse, but don't have money to pay bills for a few months if you lose your job... Well that's a problem.

[KeepOnGoing]

Don't know if I should CPR this topic or create new one but it actually has few good points so maybe it is worth to be continued. Are there any other preppers or people that are preparing for something? Maybe some homesteaders?

[Gloria]

Pretty sure the Federal Gov't kicked off the modern day "prepper" movement with the anthrax scare (if memory serves me correctly), they came out with the plastic, tape, and water, etc. list.  We do know at least one family that did it decades ago, fueled by Russia/Nuke fears ...really just a refab of an old concept. A gun seemed like the smartest thing in the world to buy on 9/11. East PA has seen two week long power outages in past 10 years. Food, water, popup port a john and shower all part of the fun of having it all.  For us, there is no fantasy, just the genuine interest fueled by fear to be able to protect our young. I am thinking every guy on this forum had a Dad that kept an emergency kit in the trunk of his car ...too bad this generation didn't have the same practice when 100's were stranded on I78, maybe 2007 or so. It's a smart thing to do in moderation. The military surplus stuff often is inexpensive and durable.  Pretty sure my 20$ camo parka that is already 8 years old, is warmer than that 150$ Northface jacket for shoveling snow, etc.  No slave to fashion LOL

[Iron Horse]

Your argument hinges on the very small, very visible (despite the equipment) minority of the prepping community.  Most people interested in the prepared community do nothing more than put enough supplies away to get through a week or two.  The whole zombie marketing angle was a gimmick, tying it in to the hype of the moment with the Walking Dead being top show, etc.

Anything that can get the youth to plan for the future in any manner is a burden removed from first responders and emergency services.  You seem to focus on the firearms, not the fact that the stores of dried goods cost more than the amount of ammo.  Based on your tone and lack of arguments, you appear to bear a grudge against the community.

 

Based on the argument I will guess you are not from rural America where you can be several hours away from the nearest population center, help, supplies and many other things we easily take for granted.  No, I suspect you are from Europe from a country which could easily fit in the caps between sizable populations in which help is very close to hand and self-sufficiency is often entirely impossible, or more often than not outright ridiculed.

 

The mindset of the fat, wheezing, keyboard commando is indeed fantasy, but so is everything they do as they are barely people.  A tiny, vocal minority on the internet is by no means a fair measure of a community.  I encourage you to attend a course on disaster preparedness before you right off an entire community as fatalistic fantasists based on their least qualified, most immature members.