Preppers?

[wolf]

I just recently bought a book about Prepping and started to do it. So I am beginning with slowly stockpiling up my food. Usually I buy what I eat. Today I also bought medications. And I bought a good Bug-Out-Bag, which I also use for trekking and hiking. As always, I try to combine those things with ERE principlies, e.g. multiuse, system-thinking, synergy effects, good quality... Right now, I would say that I am a prepper beginner. I hope that there won't be any crisis soon. Luckily the place where I live and the situation in Germany is stable and secure. But unfortunately there was also a small tornade two years ago about 50km from where I live.

[Farm_or]

Don't get me wrong. It is good to have some self suffiency and to be prepared for a disaster. I put some energy into it myself.

Problems arise in the prepped mentality when they go too far. It becomes a prominent part of their life- planning for doom and gloom. And a crazy thing happens after awhile.

They grow anxious and depressed because something really bad hasn't happened. You would think that good economic times and peace can be enjoyed by all. Not so with peppers? They create an imaginary future where they are heroic for preparing for apocalypse. A few would even go so far as to light a match?

[Riggerjack]

Sure, there's crazies in every group, and I think preppers probably have more than their share, for the reasons you say.

But,

A few would even go so far as to light a match?

There is an enormous difference between willingness to burn it all down and ability to burn it all down. The urge to burn it all down seems to be the rage of the impotent.

[wolf]

If anyone is interested in reading good quality content about Prepping here is a 52 WEEKs to PREPPING SERIES. The stuff is basically the same as in the book "The Prepper's Blueprint", which I like very much.

[jennypenny]

I'm reading a book now that emphasizes that being prepared means more than having stuff or writing down a plan. It's really important to physically practice what you will do, whether it's escaping a burning building or using tools/equipment. She studied a lot of different disaster reports and the people who survived were the ones who could rely on muscle memory and training.

Even when you train, it can still be shocking when it's the real thing. I had extensive training as a lifeguard but nothing really prepared me for the first time I had to fish someone out of the drink.

The best training I've received was from a firearms instructor who made me shoot while he yelled and grabbed at me. He also wrestled with me until he was confident that I could hold the gun and keep him from prying it out of my hands while maintaining trigger discipline.

[Allagash]

The great thing about moving towards a homesteading or even homesteading "lite"/urban homestead/off the grid type of life is at the same time you pursue that lifestyle, are at the same time also adding a lot of prepping skills & self sufficiency. Not from prepping, but just from how you live everyday. If you have solar, garden, food canning/drying skills, can hunt game close, root cellar, farm animals, well, firewood on land or close by, stream/pond, etc.... Just your everyday life gives you prepper skills & self-sufficiency for if SHTF. 150 years ago probably 90% of Americans were natural preppers! They all knew how to hunt, farm, garden, make things, build things.

[Nomad]

I'm a somewhat prepper, not as prepped as I should be.
I suspect a lot of ERE people are preppers as it falls into the obsessive planning mindsight that we succumb too/benefit from...

[Jin+Guice]

My experience with preppers is they are generally preparing for a specific event. A shared assumption is that it's every man (household) for himself and there will be hordes of roving bandits that need to be protected against. They also practice a consumerist kind of prepping where stock piling a lot of stuff is emphasized but learning to run really fast is not. They are much more prepared to hunker than flee. They are long on canned food and firearms and short on social skills. However, they do usually have high "wilderness survival skills", know how to handle a gun and have a plan for the acquisition of clean water.

The preppers on this thread seem to be savvyer than my IRL prepper friends. Preparing for natural disasters that are likely in your area makes sense. The preparedness for most of these disasters (with the possible exceptions of earthquakes and volcanic eruptions) increases as they are likely experienced from time to time. Though I've never experienced a catastrophic disaster, I find when I'm worried about a situation and thus prepare heavily for it, something I didn't think of usually goes wrong. How do y'all prepare for events that you've never experienced? How do you decide which of these scenarios are likely? Shouldn't prepping also involve learning to improvise and negotiate in difficult and stressful situations, occasionally walking really far while extremely hungry and learning to pick locks on top of the usual weapons training, piles of supplies and mastering various boyscout skills?

As I was editing this post I realized it sounds pretty inflammatory and I don't mean it to be. My point is, IMO there are likely important unknown unknowns in any scenario one would prep for and the culture of preppers tends to understate this. Do the preppers here agree and, if so, how do you prepare for those?

[ZAFCorrection]

Those are interesting questions. Historically, a significant response to apocalypse and SHTF scenarios has been migration and nomadism, post-Columbian Native Americans and the Rome-wrangling barbarians being good examples. It shouldn't be game over if you can't manage to keep the bandits out of your well-stocked, out-the-way survival bunker. Just walk, or run, away. For me personally that means keeping extra food and water on hand but also being physically and mentally prepared to just leave everything with nothing but a backpack.

[7Wannabe5]

Well, SHTF situations vary, but my take is that it is highly unlikely that social isolation is going to winning plan. Under stress or rapid change, social ties and supply lines and boundaries, that were previously solid, will break or become more fluid. For simple instance, how you will find yourself talking to a neighbor for the first time in 3 years after a major hail storm or while the police are hauling away the guy across the street.

Under highly emergent condition, within social context, usually somebody will very rapidly attempt to take the lead. Sometimes this will be you. Sometimes not. So, knowing how to roll with either possibility would be first best survival skill, IMO.

[classical_Liberal]

...

[daylen]

Any other ideas for both?

If I had over a billion dollars I would pay others to build me a world-wide-network of bunkers.

[chenda]

I've started to stockpile for Brexit, looking to gradually build up a few months worth of food and other non-durables. I don't think a major disruption to international trade is likely, but its a growing possibility if we crash out without a deal. I can see post-Christmas panic buying occurring.

Realistically though, I can only prepare for some very short term disruption. I don't have the means or facilities to prepare for anything worse than some inconvenient shortages and modest price increases. If it get worse, the only option will be to go abroad until the crisis passes.

[Jin+Guice]

@ 7w5, this is very close to a discussion I had with another friend who is a non-prepper in the prepper friend group (they all live in AL). She is a community art organizer and her basic assertion was that she is actually more prepared because she is highly skilled in organizing people and getting things accomplished.

7w5 also brings up an interesting point about supply lines that I hadn't thought of. The prepper of AL I'm familiar with assume and plan for catastrophic failure of all systems but are all of them likely to fail simultaneously? Perhaps not.

@ZAF, I also hadn't thought of the historical perspective. Your examples support the fleeing mentality, which I'm biased towards myself. Perhaps hunkering is more of a nationalist/ hoping that the problem is solved mentality? I'm thinking of places that were bombed to shit in WWII. Perhaps it's harder to run when shit is hitting the fan in a modern world where borders are well established and closely guarded.

I don't prep at all, in the stock piling sense. I'm currently switching from buying food in bulk to a just-in-time method. Do y'all consider this a dangerous strategy? The major/ common natural risks where I live are hurricanes and flooding. I should own an axe (to chop through the roof in case of a flood), some sort of boat and a life vest but I don't.

[TheWanderingScholar]

@Jin+Guice

Another thing to consider when hunkering down is ability to adapt to a new culture and lack of social ties in an area. Living in an area that has many neighbors you are well connected with in general, as opposed to a foreign country, where will local connections can exist, finding work in the area requires more effort as the locals will prefer to higher locals people who speak the language.

It is a main issue I have right now (Not a prepper and considering America going through SHTF scenario); the job market for GIS Specialist is highly limited and requires specialization skills which I do not have, with language being also a main barrier, which I am trying to get through.

[plow_2]

https://www.naturalnews.com/040249_Bosn ... egies.html

A good article about surviving in bosnia.

[Riggerjack]

Though I've never experienced a catastrophic disaster, I find when I'm worried about a situation and thus prepare heavily for it, something I didn't think of usually goes wrong. How do y'all prepare for events that you've never experienced? How do you decide which of these scenarios are likely?

There are Wheaton levels to all things, prepping included. What many would call extreme prepping, others would refer to as getting ready for winter. When one gets back in the sticks, one will find that most people are comfortable with their water supply, garden, fences, and guns. People in the sticks are really only worried about the ravening hordes of city people, with no supplies or skills.

I expect a pandemic. It's just too likely to not happen. So I have an Ebola drawer. Bleach, disposable gloves, ethanol, and surgical masks. Enough to last a few months. After that, systems will be back in order, or probably won't ever be. Either way, a few more months of supplies won't make much difference. These are all things I use regularly, so I only have more stock than normal of each, and the drawer is where stock is stored.

Ego used to come here to warn us of the dangers of fear. He was concerned that people preparing would lead to a general culture of fear, and that this fearful culture would not help the weak, etc. Maybe he's right.

I will ask again, after. Strange how so few people who have been through an emergency seem worried about over preparations...

[Jean]

To me, it's more out of responsability than fear, I don't want to burden my neighbours.

[7Wannabe5]

@plow_2:

Good article. Supports my theory that one of the reasons nobody messes with me when I wander around the rough neighborhood where I teach is that I look like I could be the wife of one of the middle-aged male Bosnian refugee immigrants. Also confirms my theory that a half dozen breeding meat rabbits would be one of the most valuable assets to hold in SHTF situation.

[ThisDinosaur]

The Bosnia article mentioned first aid and Kerosene making as tradable skills in a civil unrest situation. I'd be interested in a longer list of similar skill examples. Preferably ones that no one else in the neighborhood is likely to have thought of beforehand. (i.e., not hunting and cooking.)

I noticed there has been very little discussion of gold here. Goldbugs often argue that its main function is to hedge this sort of catastrophe, but it seems like people will be more interested in firewood and canned tuna than shiny metal.