GREAT ARTICLE...ARE WE CRAZY?

[ThePhonMan]

Having run a disaster response team for a public utility in the Southern District of the People's Republic of California and responding to wild land fires, floods the Rodney King Riots and the Northridge Earthquake, you can never be prepared enough. Short-term disruptions are inevitable during a major event (ask the Sandy participants).

The recent attention to "preppers" seems to have more to do with the scale of preparedness than just the fact that they are preparing. As if being over-prepared is some kind of sin. If you want to stockpile food, water, ammunition, Twinkies, whatever, good for you. Having it and not needing it is far better than the reverse.

The preppers I know are not concentrating on a specific event but are concerned with the "what if" scenario. The head of the earthquake response unit for a major So Cal fire department actually counted the number of bridges and overpasses he had to cross between home and work. Sound extreme? Not after interstate 10 fell down in downtown LA during the Northridge earthquake. Knowledge is power and reduces panic as well.

I say, prep all you want. All that extra stuff being purchased helps the economy and we'll just make more.

 

[Burt Gummer]

The American Dream blog summed it up the best in the fewest words.

"So why are preppers hated so much?

It is because they are a direct challenge to the status quo. Just by prepping, preppers are proclaiming that they do not have faith in the system. But most people have complete and total faith in the system, and many of them do not like to have that faith questioned."

http://endoftheamericandream.com/archives/why-are-preppers-hated-so-much

 

[dolooper]

Prove it and if so when? I am playing the devils advocate - is it a year from now - five years or ten years down the road. To take anything without proof is the equivalent of the a belief structure. Beliefs are beliefs because they cnanot be proven. I have been putting stuff away myself but preppers seem to think they know more than the rest of us - I am willing to listen - doomsday phrophecises have been going around a long time, yet I have seen very few examples of world wide catastrophies and none in my life time.

James Ruby

I don't know when or even if. What I do know is that something in my lifetime is likely that at least some of the stuff I do will become valuable.

I don't prep for worldwide holocaust type events. Frankly, I'm not sure I want to live in that world anyway. I do reasonable preparations because I have a family.

What are the events that could easily happen in my lifetime? Well, there's a weather event (not as likely in the Northwest), a volcanic event (I live pretty close to a big one), an earthquake (we're said to be right around 300 years in a 300 year cycle of greater than magnitude 7) for starters.

There are also the more mundane issues of simple things like long term unemployment caused by economy or disability.

Many of the things i have like say guns and ammunition will be of value in a catastrophic event but are also valuable in the event where I just need some cash because they're both pretty liquid assets though I might lose a little value in selling them quickly if I had to.

Not all of us expect DOOOOOOOOM and expect it tomorrow. Some of us expect merely SOMETHING and expect it likely in our lifetimes.

 

[russwhitt1853]

Better to have it an not need it than need it and not have it. Food, H2O, Shelter. Knowledge is power.

 

[GOG]

I have homeowners insurance, car insurance, health and dental insurance. I'd prefer never to use them, but they're there if I need them. It's the same with preps; it's just another type of insurance.

 

[Blitzkrieg]

Don't buy a fire extinguisher, you might be paranoid

 

[Dirty Harriet]

That Ayn Rand quote has never been more relevant.

 

[RoneKiln]

I've yet to watch Doomsday Preppers. Not sure what I'm missing, but I've yet to hear any uptick on bashing preppers. I've found prepping to be a fast growing fad among young people in Western Washington. I have never labeled myself as a "prepper," but I never get funny looks when I talk about preparedeness with people. I overhear conversations on preparing for the "zombie apocalypse" near every time I go out dancing or to a bar and often join in on awesome conversations with people I've never met before. Even many of the most liberal people I know have started asking me about learning to shoot and asking what's involved in responsible gun ownership.

Sadly, I have met a LOT of people claiming to be "preppers" that are really just looking forward to an excuse to go raiding and pillaging. Which I think most here would agree is not truly prepping. Perhaps those lunatics are giving responsible people the bad name.

 

[AMProducts]

You know, the thing that I think is so funny about this whole thing... people took the term "prepper" to avoid being pidgeon holed into the term "survivalist" and yet the same damn thing is happening.

As it turns out, most people have an aversion to accepting people who are different from themselves. This is why there have been classic conflicts between races, creeds, classes and ideologies. This has been the basis of humanity since we came down from trees... there are two types of people in the world, those of our tribe, and those who arn't. We promote those of our tribe and malign those who are not.

To the media, the treatment it applies to the "prepper" group is the same as is applied to any "outside the tribe" group they can identify. Another one of those interesting and funny things I notice is "preppers" apply the same bias to non-preppers. To me, this whole battle of perceptions is nearly as hilarious as it is frustrating, and in this landscape of balkanized politics it extends into nearly every facet of life.

One of the greatest lines I ever heard about bridging the gap between people was when a reporter asked Reagan if he still thought the soviet union was an "evil empire" to which he responded "I've always believed that a lot of the trouble in the world would disappear if we were talking to each other instead of about each other." As long as both sides are interested in creating labels, and then fighting with straw men there will never be meaningful movement one way or another.

 

[Blitzkrieg]

Those who beat their swords into plowshares will plow for those who didn't

 

[Rufusbob]

The Scouts have it right, "Be Prepared!"

 

[Hook686]

Yes ... but there is a catch ... catch 22 ... if you know you are crazy, then you really are not.

 

[Grunwald]

The American Dream blog summed it up the best in the fewest words.

"So why are preppers hated so much?

It is because they are a direct challenge to the status quo. Just by prepping, preppers are proclaiming that they do not have faith in the system. But most people have complete and total faith in the system, and many of them do not like to have that faith questioned."

Why Are Preppers Hated So Much?

That however is an illogical analysis. If there is some sort of a major event(natural disaster, financial colapse, etc), it is to the government's advantage that people are prepared and able to take care of themselves. Nothing collapses existing power structures as violently as general population that has lost everything and is desperate and hungry, pushed to the brink in order to survive.
If people have what they need to survive, that gives the government time to try and fix things. Without that time what you have is desperate hungry and angry mobs running on pure emotion. Last thing a civil society needs.

 

[knuckle Head]

That however is an illogical analysis. If there is some sort of a major event(natural disaster, financial colapse, etc), it is to the government's advantage that people are prepared and able to take care of themselves. Nothing collapses existing power structures as violently as general population that has lost everything and is desperate and hungry, pushed to the brink in order to survive.
If people have what they need to survive, that gives the government time to try and fix things. Without that time what you have is desperate hungry and angry mobs running on pure emotion. Last thing a civil society needs.

While I see your logic and agree that in a civil society, one where the people ran the country and not a bunch embysols, i would agree that this would be to their advantage.

But with the current group of idiots steering the ship, I have to say that what I believe that what they really want is a desperate people who are so bad off that anyone promising change and a people that are willing to give any amount of liberty and freedom to lift them up out of desperation is what they want.

This gives them power and control over the sheeple and that is what they want, they want people who agree with them and suck up each and every word with question, that gives them the power they want.

Just look at the rules, regulations, laws, taxes, fees, liberties and freedoms that being sacrificed in the name of freedom and the betterment of the country.

I think there are some local agencies and some people who in the gooberment who want others to be prepared to take care of themselves, but not the current regime in power

 

[Mutoman]

I don't think prepping is any more crazy than any other hobby; it really depends on the level of rationality you take it to, but who cares. In fact prepping is a hobby that can keep you and your family alive in dire times. Sure is much better than spending all your money on sports merchandise, comic books, and model trains; they won't do anyone any good in an emergency.

 

[Robo]

One of my friends thinks I'm a little weird for prepping too much on the side of guns and ammo. I admit I'm probably heavy on the gun and ammo side, but heck, guns and ammo are probably some of the best bartering items you can own.

 

[Hook686]

heck, guns and ammo are probably some of the best bartering items you can own.

Yup and one can always shoot the buggers that won't give you their supplies.

 

[Just Jim]

Why do they hate preppers? Because prepping isn't politically correct

 

[AMProducts]

That however is an illogical analysis. If there is some sort of a major event(natural disaster, financial colapse, etc), it is to the government's advantage that people are prepared and able to take care of themselves. Nothing collapses existing power structures as violently as general population that has lost everything and is desperate and hungry, pushed to the brink in order to survive.
If people have what they need to survive, that gives the government time to try and fix things. Without that time what you have is desperate hungry and angry mobs running on pure emotion. Last thing a civil society needs.

To agree with you here, the last paragraph of the PP(Prison Planet) article is classic straw-man logic, and a major reason why PP is utter crap when it comes to actual information and useful analysis.

Why do they hate preppers? Because prepping isn’t politically correct

The whole article is essentially a wedge, designed to draw a division line between people who think they are "preppers" and the people who arn't. This article, and those like it, is intended to create a victim mentality in the "preppers" that read and agree with it. Interestingly, if you look up the wikipedia article on "rules for radicals" there is this quote taken from the book:

There's another reason for working inside the system. Dostoyevsky said that taking a new step is what people fear most. Any revolutionary change must be preceded by a passive, affirmative, non-challenging attitude toward change among the mass of our people. They must feel so frustrated, so defeated, so lost, so futureless in the prevailing system that they are willing to let go of the past and chance the future. This acceptance is the reformation essential to any revolution. To bring on this reformation requires that the organizer work inside the system, among not only the middle class but the 40 per cent of American families – more than seventy million people – whose income range from $5,000 to $10,000 a year [in 1971]. They cannot be dismissed by labeling them blue collar or hard hat. They will not continue to be relatively passive and slightly challenging. If we fail to communicate with them, if we don't encourage them to form alliances with us, they will move to the right. Maybe they will anyway, but let's not let it happen by default

You guys are being played by the people over at prison planet. People don't believe me when I tell them what a bunch of crypto-communists prisonplanet and infowars is, instead right here they click their heels, and accept what these boneheads are saying by interjecting a few instances where people who are nobodys "HATE" preppers.

To put things more concisely, I'm a nobody, and I don't really care for the whole "prepper" movement, if you changed the subjects of most of the sentences to those associated with cellphones, malls, spraytans, sunglasses and muscle shirts the prepper movement would be indistinguishable from the jersey shore. Hell, over the last 2 months the jersey shore probably talks more about prepping than finding another excuse to buy a bunch of useless crap because they got wiped out by a giant hurricane. Suddenly having a generator to run the fridge so they could keep their valtrex and insulin cool was a life or death matter.

The chances of the world falling so far down the hole that you're going to have to shoot fellow citizens in anger is like winning the lottery 5 times in a row, and even then, there are people who have done that and the world still hasn't fallen apart. I've been through five big earthquakes in my life, during none of them did people panic in the streets killing their neighbors over the last can of spam. I lived through the LA riots, and except for a few areas of the city, you were not about to get away with simply shooting someone on the street. The areas where that was happening is usually where people got shot weekly anyways, and it was usually over nikes or stereos, it wasn't about the last can of spam.

If you really want to worry about who hates you and is looking to take all your stuff, perhaps you havn't noticed, but BHO and the republican congressional leadership is getting ready to increase tax rates. Since the visigoths are not at the gates yet, you might want to worry about congress as the barbarians are not even on the horizon yet, yet congress is currently the clearest and most present danger to changing the relationship between you and all your stuff. When was the last time you called your elected representative? Perhaps you should do that before reading more worthless articles by the staff over at PP or IW.

 

[Blitzkrieg]

That however is an illogical analysis. If there is some sort of a major event(natural disaster, financial colapse, etc), it is to the government's advantage that people are prepared and able to take care of themselves. Nothing collapses existing power structures as violently as general population that has lost everything and is desperate and hungry, pushed to the brink in order to survive.
If people have what they need to survive, that gives the government time to try and fix things. Without that time what you have is desperate hungry and angry mobs running on pure emotion. Last thing a civil society needs.

It's never to the advantage of a tyrannical government to have self reliant citizens.. ever.. tyrants require submissive, helpless serfs.. Burt blew out the bullseye

To AM products.. yes many of the jonny come lately preppers are just fearful sheeple, but many of us, especially the old timers, are dead serious and sane. And yes I am ready to kill to protect me and mine regardless of the circumstances