A Community Ring Of Preparedness Minded Neighbors
You will be safer and more resilient after a natural or man-made disaster if your immediate local neighborhood, community, or network (group) is prepared. The more prepared – the safer, the better, the more quick to recover for everyone.
There is power in numbers, and that goes for everything between security and putting food on the table. No man is an island, and if you think you are – then good luck to you. It will take like-minded individuals and community to pull through a major SHTF.
The fewer your neighbors are caught off guard by disaster, the less they will need from others. The more prepared your neighbors are, the easier it will be to help each other fill the gaps.
The more prepared a community and the more like-minded a community, the more that everyone will look out for each other.
There are expanding circles – ‘rings’ of one’s community. It begins at home or one’s retreat and everyone living there. This is the first priority of preparedness and is the ‘ring’ in which most preppers remain (their own immediate sphere and location).
The next most ring of community is one’s immediate local neighborhood. Your neighbors. Most preppers do not venture out into this realm. What I mean is – most feel that it’s better to remain silent about one’s own preparedness for fear that the word will get out and they might become a target during a real SHTF breakdown (a logical concern). Others are also fearful of the stigma if their neighbors find out that they are preppers (thanks to the mainstream’s negative ‘kook’ or crackpot portrayal).
A more expansive ring includes the wider community itself, in which there is never complete like-mindedness, but there could be sufficient numbers for a cohesiveness with broader and wider fulfillment of needs and sharing of resources.
An additional ring of like-minded ‘community’ could be a unique network of people – who are not necessarily immediately local. It could be your own group of like-minded prepared friends, acquaintances, or otherwise – such that you share a common thread of preparedness, concerns, ideals, and goals. In a disaster you would come together or unite in some way which helps the group overall.
If you are a preparedness-minded person or household, and you are wondering how to discover others who are like-minded (without initially revealing that you’re one of those ‘crackpot’ preppers ;) ), the simplest way is to trust your gut instincts during normal conversations with others.
It doesn’t take too much tactful probing during conversation in order to discover the general mindset of someone else. While you should never ‘judge a book by it’s cover’, sometimes it’s pretty quick and easy to rule someone out as a potential self-responsible preparedness-minded individual.
It may take several conversations to form a good opinion – especially with a new acquaintance. They too might be vague about what they reveal about themselves initially. It’s natural human behavior for some people.
Everyone has their own ‘art’ of conversation, so don’t be afraid to discover a little bit about your neighbors to see if they might be a help or a potential hindrance during a time of disaster. Some people may truly be interested, but simply need to be coaxed into it (preparedness). When someone finds out that they’re not the only one, then it becomes much more self-empowering.
Many of us believe that we’re heading for tougher times ahead, and now is the time to try and establish a better community network – no matter how small it might be.
What do you think about it?
Risk vs. Reward?