What Are You Preparing For?
February 8, 2012, Submitted by: Ken Tweet
Preppers / Survivalists have their own reasons for why they prepare, and / or what they are preparing for. For some it is very specific while for others maybe more general or for multiple reasons.
It may be helpful for those reading this who consider themselves to be preppers, to add a comment to this post indicating your own reason or reasons why.
Here are some of my reasons for being preparedness minded and considering myself a prepper…
The older that I have become, the more I have recognized the fragility of today’s modern world and the parts that make it work. I recognize how so many millions upon millions of people depend entirely on the many integrated systems to function in order to literally stay alive, even though they do not recognize it themselves. This fact alone is enough to scare me into prepping.
During the later years of my previous career I began witnessing the accelerated movement towards excessive greed, profits, and ‘cheap’. The keyword here is ‘excessive’. I’m all for capitalism, but in my opinion when greed becomes excessive to the point of hurting others while losing site of the bigger picture of business fitting in and sustaining a community or nation, it’s too much. I’ve witnessed first hand the Wall Street mentality and how it changes the corporation. I see the downward spiral that it is creating today.
I see the younger generations who are being brought up without any of the practical skill sets that most people my age or older learned (I’m in my early 50′s). This adds to the dependance on modern systems to keep these people alive.
My interest in natural disasters and such phenomenon has revealed many of the vulnerabilities that face us which our entirely out of our control. Although many of these are low in probability during our life time, they ‘could’ happen – some more likely than others. The ‘what if’ scenarios, like a 1859 Carrington event which generated a natural EMP, would literally send us back to the 1800′s without electricity, for example. Their are many more.
I see and understand the magnitude of the great world debt bubble that has been created, and I understand how the ‘compounding curve’ works. We’re entering a critical stage of this compound curve, a stage we cannot escape without great change. I know it is coming, I have no doubt. It’s physics…
I’ve also simply always had an inner self-reliant ‘gut’, mostly with a somewhat Libertarian viewpoint on things coupled with fiscal conservatism and a splash of liberalism here and there. I guess I’m a political ‘mutt’.
I feel it is mostly our responsibility as individuals to the best we can to ensure our own individual survival. I believe that if the majority of a society felt this way and were prepared in some way, that the likelihood of horrible consequences of disaster would be minimized greatly.
Well that’s the short explanation… What about you?
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The world we live in gets more complicated and brittle every year. It’s getting to the point where something HAS to derail it all. Even in a perfect world it would be risky but the world we live in is a motherlode of possible ignition points. With all the money we spend on insurance for cars, home, health etc, it’s foolish to leave yourself exposed to the end of life as we know it. It could be intentional or accidental, it could be natural or man made but the end result would be the same.
@Ken; For some of us it is instinctual, i.e of a contrarian nature and plain hardheadedness. Some of us just go our own way and the independence of the prepper lifestyle is just natural. Having said that, I wasn’t really a prepper until 1998 and Y2K. My independent streak had me buying as much undeveloped land (23 acres+) as we could afford, some 23 years ago, and even then there was, in the back of my mind, this “independent living manifesto” developing in the dark corners of my mind, and there were plenty of dark corners. I have always had a (and I hate to use this word as I rant and rail against it, but there is no other way to explain it) a FEELING (ugh!) that IT was coming. Now I have no prescient powers, no ESP or crystal ball, but It has been coming for a while. Obviously you could make the argument that if you wait long enough that IT, will always happen, but it is more than that but that’s as far as I can explain right now. In 98 I was working as a field service engineer on CAT scanners, PET scanners, Nuclear Gamma cameras, some MRI, clinical networking and other electronic tech stuff. When the design engineers couldn’t tell us whether or not our own equipment was going to run or not on Jan. 1st, 2000, it finally occurred to me that there are some things that we just don’t know and cannot predict, that are going to happen and the degree of the consequences, when it finally dawned on me, were staggering.
Your last two paragraphs sum it up for me as well. The realization of how fragile our “society” is was more than evident for a military man that had traveled the world, but you get into the ‘mindset” that “it can’t happen here” in our isolated little warm-blanket world in the U.S. But, au contraire, it can and will and now it is more evident than ever. Some will pooh-pooh it and blow it off, but the parable of the grasshopper and the ant comes to mind or the “Little Red Hen”. Just in an objective way, if you do the math, and I’m not a mathematician, but the more you learn about the highly probable things that can happen (relatively) and how many there are and you stack them up, one on top of the other, the likelihood that one will happen increases statistically. For example, if you flip a coin, the likelihood of one side or the other is 50% or 1 out of 2. If you pick tails as the “IT” and heads as “life is good”, then every single time you flip the coin you have a 50% chance of a tail (SHTF) occurring. Okay, one coin equals one disaster, so if you have two coins (disasters) and you need all heads to be “life is good’ then you have only a 25% chance osf “life is good” happening (e.g. TT, TH, HT or HH). So as the number of coins, potential disasters, increases, the REAL probability that one will occur increases statistically, according to it’s realistic probability in real life. Now before everyone goes ape-sh*t the REALISTIC odds of ANY SHTF scenario are way lower than 50%, down in the single or very low double digit percentiles for many years. If there are any stats mathematicians out there, you could help here. Anyway, when you have “known” potential events, you can, with enough data input, compute the probability of ONE of them happening within any given time period. Now these would be statistics, also known as being significantly less reliable than “lies and damn lies”. While I can’t do the math, the gut feeling I have is that within the next 15 years we have an even chance (50%) of something of world-wide, SHTF significance, happening, IMHO. Then, just to muddy the water, there are Black Swan events. These are the ones you don’t even know can happen, therefore there is no way to prepare for them, not even statistically.
If you throw out all the extinction events, as they are of no real preparable consequence to us, and just include the real ones (not going to step on that land mine), then it is obvious, that we should prepare and prepare well, with great dispatch. I hope it doesn’t happen, but I’m a realist and it only make sense to prepare, Survive well. Enjoy.
You are so right! GUT feelings are the most important thing to listen too!!!
Sadly the younger generation was raised by a generation that rebelled away from the austerity and practicality that their parents learnt in the war years and was the first generation to fall sway to consumerism. My parents (baby boomers) didn’t pass on any of the practical skills their parents taught them, I guess because they thought them irrelevant. I’ve learnt much, much more from my grandparents. My parents seem content to get every bigger tellies, iPads and other gadgets. I doubt they could even remember how to light a fire these days. Thank goodness for Grandparents! So go easy on the younger generation – think about who raised them and how.
Okay here are my top choices for what we all are in deep trouble about.
1. Deadly virus, completely inevitable.
2. World War 3. Unless people jump in their spiritual sense, a global war if some plague has taken out 90% of the population is so likely.
3. Collapse of the civilization, probably via financial and money issues.
4. Terrorism. I have seen first hand the shear disdain of Muslims in their eyes at how the white supremacists treated them just here where I live. I have heard this is widespread all over the country. Muslims will eventually retaliate, I just hope to God it is not in my area, but could be.
5. Martial Law. EVERY country can fall into this, and there are all sorts of executive orders that could usher it in within an instance.
6. Planet’s crust shifting. Many think that Antarctica actually is Atlantis the lost continent. I could see a rapid shift where an equatorial land mass is suddenly at one of the poles. The first time I read about this the thought really hit me. Maybe just a hutch.
7. Volcano, super or smaller. Everyone should have N-95 or better N-100 masks. Volcanic ash can literally get into your lungs and there it can become like cement and suffocate you. Volcanoes go off all the time, and can occur ANYWHERE that a fissure in the thin crust that we ride on.
8. Earthquake. Lived in an earthquake zone and went through a 7.4 and several in the 5.8-6.7 range. The hypocenter is where the earthquake waves hit the surface, a 6.0 at ground zero hypocenter is awful. The highest percentage of gravity I ever felt was about 22% and that was enough. Try to imagine gravity higher than 100%, you get thrown into air. Enoough reason for anyone to prepare for, anywhere, even where earthquakes are not expected.
9. Warped weather. The climate reacts to any changes, from the sun, to the planet itself, especially ocean currents.
10. The sun belching. This is a total natural event that happens again and again for billions of years and will happen again unless the sun goes nova tomorrow. It is not only EMP, it is a radiation storm that could fry every biological unit down to a few inches of soil. Some extinctions have been thought to be the result of the sun unleasing a CME of extreme radiation.
11. Black swan, who knows.
It is better to not put all your eggs in one basket and prepare just for one event. If you go to the trouble and sacrifice of prepping mega style, don’t forget about all the other events that can and probably will occur at some time in the future. Those people from Texas were completely ready with 50 tons of food, yet their structures were vulnerable to a very powerful tornado, EF-4 and EF-5 have picked up railroad cars loaded with coal or other heavy material, and to radiation from a nuclear war or a nuclear accident. It takes 9.6 inches of steel to have a 250 protection factor, make the outside radiation 1/250 inside. those shipping container are probably only a couple inches to 3 inches think. While only 44 inches of soil will give you this 250 protection factor. Don’t want to bury it, you could backfill it. Also a mound of dirt is less conspicuous to other people in case of any disaster.
I say prep for everything you can, it can’t hurt when something does happen.
By the way Ken and Lauren look good for their ages, I would not have said early 50′s. I do think that occasionally I inadvertently prematurely age poor Ken with some of my over the top comments. I think sometimes Ken bangs his head on his computer and makes the type of sound that Charlie Brown makes after Lucy pulls the football away and he lands flat of his back with some of the outrageous statements I have sent in. I do try though, and I do have his best interest and those out there at heart.
Ill keep my comment short and simple. Im preparing/prepared for loss of electricity and heat, as i live very north and we have extreme weather here, especially at winter. I have canned food for 1 month+ and also dryfood to last another 1 month and gears and skills to keep me warm even in winter conditions outside if needed. Water is not a problem with all the snow, as long as i have Trangia to boil it to kill all the bacteria.
I dont need weapons, but i have set of knives and some working axes for regular stuff.
- So, food 2 months+ and fuel for heat and cooking and very warm clothes.
This sounds very reasonable, given your situation. In fact I believe that many preppers prep due to their geographical location risks, and / or their previous ‘bad’ experiences in life which have awakened them.
My goal from a preparedness situation is to keep my 70 year old mother, a dog, a cat, and myself alive for two months no matter what the situation is. The only reason that I and the dog live here is that I support mom. Bugging out is simply not an option.
Be well.
@ Mortimer. You know what, you are all right. What a nice and kind person you are.
@Be informed. She did the same for me many years ago. I can’t understand why anyone would not help a parent in need.
Please don’t let the “nice and kind person” idea get around. We all have Monsters of the Id.
Be well.
I had to comment on this one. One of the qualities of having a survival person in your group is loyalty. People that remember what a parent or another person does for them shows that quality, loyalty. To me at least loyalty goes along with trustworthy and dependable, all something someone wants if they are going to try to make it through a catastrophe. You would be surprised just how many people are not this.
In reference to your monsters of the id, we all have these. Mine is I have a bad temper and often blow up without thinking. I am trying to mind myself and learn and progress. As you probably read I was so angry about National Geographic making people that prepare look bad. The web site that Stan and Holly Deyo both commented also how NG made all of us that do prepare look ridiculous. I sprouted off and got some of my comments edited because I got on my high horse because I felt that the good people of this site and all survivalists and preppers were getting a bum rap. I used too much of the colourful metaphors to describe the exhibition that I believed Nat. Geo was making of all the good people that prepare.
Ken was correct to present this in an intelligent manner, and I let my anger get the best of me. I had all sorts of plumbing issues that I thought I had repaired, which I didn’t and this added to the much frustration that I was feeling. Our monsters of id are difficult to get rid of, but all we can do is try. As I indicated above there are many issues of danger this planet faces, I believe very soon, and we do not have much time to get things in order in our own lives. So I believe that we have to try extra hard because time is running out.
You to be well.
@ Be informed.
Group dynamics is a difficult subject to master. One person normally has no issues. Two people gets more tenuous. Domestic violence and the like. Three people is inherently unstable. Gets worse after that. I avoid crowds.
Selecting members of your survival group is not something you want to get wrong. Could cost you a great deal, including your life. I don’t overtly ‘network’ in this area. Depending on circumstances I might try to educate selected neighbors after the fact. The friendly ones. Same way I pick dogs, the friendly ones.
Anger, and the stress that is causes can be very dangerous to your health. My brother had a nasty temper and a heart attack at age 32. Didn’t get mine until I was 41. Runs in the family. Males get heart attacks or strokes. Difference is that mine was from external stress (job). I don’t know your situation but you should address anger. Yoga, anger management classes, etc. Not trying to preach but stress kills.
I’m not paying attention to the TV show. Don’t get that channel. The only thing that I read about it was generic other than giving names and location. Seems like an OPSEC oops to me.
Be well.
@Mortimer; Ah, yes, the monsters of the Id. I remember “Forbidden Planet” with Leslie Nielsen, Anne Francis and Walter Pidgeon. And you can’t forget Robby the Robot. The Krell and their monsters of the Id. The Krell were not prepared for their own inner demons. I certainly hope the human race is! Survive well. Enjoy.
@TripodXL.
Good catch. One of my favorite old school movies.
My thought is that we are far worse off than the Krell. They had been civilized for over a million years. I’m not convinced that we are civilized yet.
Read a ‘survival’ story yesterday. Some folks got stuck, car broke down, outside for six days. They were debating on whether to eat their dog. Pathetic. A lot of the local homeless have dogs. Good alarm system.
I come from a farm family and we were taught the skills needed for self-sufficiency. Not all of us are “prepping” hardcore, but we all have the survival attitude and a pretty good knowledge base.” Stocking up ” , whether it’s firewood or garden bounty, is a way of life for us.
Like Cat said,a lot of the babyboomers dropped the ball when it comes to the skills our parents and grandparents used daily. My sibs and I did teach our children most of them , so we have quite a few 20 and 30 something’s who won’t be clueless WTSHTF. It’s just very hard for the young , who are just starting their own families and careers, to admit that they may soon have to return to their ancestral home and live like their great grandparents did. But I know that we wont have to spend countless hours training them, we already did that.
All of the above, and thanks to Be informed for the term “Sun belching”.
With stores relying on “just in time” inventories, and the multitude of disasters that could stop deliveries, it would be irresponsible to not have supplies to fall back on. Preparing is part of our desire for self-sufficiency, not desiring to have to depend on others, especially our government for help. Being able to tell Fema workers no thanks, don’t need anything, go find someone who needs you comes naturally to us.
Bad weather conditions give us a sampler of system collapse. Power outages seem to drag on forever, roads are blocked by trees and debris, gas stations are out of fuel, if they have a generator to provide power, grocery stores sell out of many items, etc..
In my case, life experiences sort of gradually evolved into being a little more and more prepared, but it is also somewhat of a mild but harmless addiction. For example: For my Christmas present I wanted (and got from my hubby) a manual pump for our well. Now I just need for him to install it.
I believe it is our desire for independence, self-reliance, freedom, and providing for our families that motivate us to stock up and be prepared for what may come, even if we may not have a specific fear.
Americuhh: I understand and identify with your rationale for being prepared. It’s the only way to ensure independence and autonomy. I have been uneasy about our long-term water supply for years but haven’t done anything beyond some basic research on the available manual pump options. I want to nail this down this year. I’m curious about which pump you chose and why. None of them seem to be easy to install. Thanks.
Regarding manual pumps, this may give you some ideas, from one of our sponsors… http://www.readymaderesources.com/cart//pumping-water/cat_15.html
Since we have an electric well pump, for the manual pump we just got a cheapie at Tractor Supply store. It is a little one about 18 inches tall maybe. I hope I don’t have to use it too much, my arms would probably ache after pumping enough water for the cattle, but at least the critters will have water, and the toilets can be filled to flush.
I prepare for nothing in particular, and everything in general.
The basic essentials of life (nutritious food, potable water, clothing/shelter, non-toxic environment) never change, but providing for them might be very different from one type of disaster to another. I prepare by asking myself, “how would we maintain X if Y happened?”, then go from there.
How about Bible prophecies? Mainly Daniel and Revelation. End time troubles due to religious persecution. Proverbs 22:3 and Matthew 25:4 say The simple keep going, but the wise prepare themselves. So, nature, government, war or persecution, we are counseled to be prepared. It is unfortunate that most today will not listen to good counsel. JW
What got me going again on my old forgotten life style of ‘putting away” after years of ignoring it?
FUKUSHIMA.
What keeps me putting away more and more essentials every day I wake up?
My Grandchildren.
The list of what to prep for is endless so lets just say it’s for whatever. My wife and I live in southwest Florida and were living on Pine Island when hurricane charlie roared through. You’d be amazed at what 150 mph winds will do to your neighborhood. We add to our stores on a limited basis monthly. We have a small container garden and the ability to fish and hunt. I do have some weapons, not everything I want but hey, who’s got everything they want? I fear that most of the younger generation lacks the will to pursue survival and rather than prep for themselves will turn to looting and thievery when times get rough.
I was with a relief column of AZ deputy sheriffs that went to NO a week after Katrina hit. The frightened and depraved mobs of unprepared desperate people I saw there made me a prepper.
I prep primarily for a storm/hurricane, tornado, flood, civil unrest, earthquake (least likely here),nature or man caused disruption of services ie: water/electricity,etc. And that is all I admit to bemused relatives. I also consider the less likely but possible scenarios such as collapse of the dollar (converting my cash to food, med supplies, ammo, fuel, etc.), pandemic, large scale terrorist attack(biological/nuclear/EMT), nuclear war, world wide scale natural disaster, etc.
As my grown kids are scattered around the country, mostly I prep for Mrs. SurvivorDan. She will never stand begging before a gov’t water truck. Or in a gov’t soup kitchen line. And anyone attempting to harm her will find me…unpleasant. I’m rather fond of her. It’s as good a reason as any.
first let me thank you for this website. i appreciate the work you put into keeping us all informed and the great information that’s provided free of charge (that’s a good thing). i guess i am somewhat addicted to msb. times are changing, some call me a little crazy, but i beleive one must see what you don’t see and hear what don’t hear. it’s kinda of a no brainer and sometimes i have a hard time and am sad that most of the folks have blinders.i’ve been a prepper for many years now and times are changing and i’m kinda excited to see what’s next.i do beleive that community is a key factor it our survival no matter what comes about.
LINK: http://the-end-time.blogspot.com/
(Excerpt)
Thursday, February 9, 2012
The Fed is on a dollar devaluing spree
From Forbes Magazine this week,
The Federal Reserve’s Explicit Goal: Devalue The Dollar 33%
“The Federal Reserve Open Market Committee (FOMC) has made it official: After its latest two day meeting, it announced its goal to devalue the dollar by 33% over the next 20 years. The debauch of the dollar will be even greater if the Fed exceeds its goal of a 2 percent per year increase in the price level.”
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Something to watch – higher prices – less availability – Prep.
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I prefer this website. Good conversations. Meaningful discussion.
To Ken or Lauren. Would it be possible to add a preview reply button? I’ve had a couple of oopsie moments. Thanks!
Not really, no. What you see is what you get before you hit “Submit”.
I find this website informative, encouraging and entertaining.
Keep up the good work – you are doing something that is needed.
Spreading the word.
Thank you. God Bless.
I’m prepping mainly because of the economy here in the UK and Europe. I’m so glad we kept the Pound, but even that isn’t secure anymore and prices are getting even higher than it normally is.
So It’s civil unrest caused by country wide monetary collapse that I’m prepping for. It only takes one event like last summers riots (criminal scumbags) and this place is going to turn nasty. But, while the idiots are fighting over the newest designer trainers and booze, I hope I’ve got enough at the time for it to make a difference to our comfort and survival.
That said, how can I honestly prepare to defend myself when I can’t even carry something to defend myself with!
It beggars belief, it really does!
@Damkina, I’ve been to the UK a few times, and am slightly familiar with the draconian laws there which prohibit many items for personal protection. There are always ways to improvise, but I believe the most important issue here is to avoid the need in the first place. Don’t be a target. Lay low. Be inconspicuous. Give no reason for a confrontation.
Draconian! lol I like the analogy. So true.
I’ve got a couple of things in mind if the show starts getting a bit rough, but at the moment it would just cause hassle with the law if I started carrying things around and I was stopped. Like you say, the best thing would be to stay inconspicuous.
Also I’ve been trying out my new backpack over the last few weeks and putting all sorts in it to get used to the weight. Word got round at work that I carry a dead body around in it!! Pmsl. Not one of them has got a look in it yet, and yet they’re trying all ways to be somewhere near incase I open it. No one thinks to just ask.
Conclusion, people are so nosey, someone will be taking note of what you’re doing, and will probably be the ones begging for help when the time comes.
Greetings, @ Ken… Non-sequitur… Warrior poet/Yes You… Quoting…
Not really, no. What you see is what you get before you hit “Submit”. Be Well K., L., & Survive-All…
@ Be Prepared – I live in Christchurch, New Zealand. We’ve had some pretty decent earthquakes over the past 12+ months including our mag 6.3 in Feb 2010 where ground accelaration exceeded gravity.
I’m preparing for another big shake as I don’t think we’re finished yet. Experience from all the big quakes we’ve had mean the locals panic buy food, water and fuel. They also panic buy junk food. Me, I’ve stocked up on bottled water and buy packs when on special. I’ve stored heaps of pasta, pasta sauce, noodles, snack foods, dried foods and have a garden full (at this time of year anyway) of veges and potatoes.
We’re allowed firearms in NZ for hunting (i.e. NOT for protection), so i’ve got a supply of spare rounds and can hit the hills anytime.
I’m not fussed about fuel. Christchurch is a small, compact city with structures built to withstand large quakes (although we’ll wait to see what happens when the Alpine fault goes) so getting to the shops, malls, medical facilities etc… isn’t that hard on foot/bike or whatever.
I’m also an EMT, have a well stocked first aid kit and medical skills.
I’m a first time visitor to this website, loving it and the contributions so far.
@Geezer, thanks for visiting. I’ve written a few articles on your earthquakes there in Christchurch. There’s one memorable video attached to one of them which shows the great dust cloud during the big one. Amazing. Hope you survived it well.