Prepper Summit: America's Midlife Crisis

[HuckleberryFun]

A prepper's convention seen through the eyes of a middle aged Englishman.
"The thing they could most do to prepare is lose 40 pounds."
Also: "You prepare for the catastrophe you want, not the one you're going to get..."
Hear that Zombie Response Team fans?

America's midlife crisis: lessons from a survivalist summit

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[Andy54Hawken]

Interesting perspective ... A bit of food for thought here.
Thanks for posting / sharing the link Huck.
Andy
Edit to add:
I think it is important to know just how folks who are outside of our interests , hobbies or "comfort zones" , view us a gun owners , preppers or whatever...
Andy

 

[Medic!]

I said it before. And will say it again.

The in laws think I'm paranoid?
But I think I'm just being prepared?

So I split the difference, and call myself preparanoid.

 

[FireArm]

The writer surely well did come off as a douchebag.
Kinda wish I didnt wastey time reading that horribly one-sided account of a prepper event.

Then again I stopped readding before the final paragraph, the guys interest went as far as his job made him write the article.
Tailored jeans.... man card revoked and replaced with a pink metrosexual card instead. This guy is clearly a follower who rarely actually is allowed to think for himself (probably fixed with an ex-wife).

 

[Andy54Hawken]

I do agree the article and writer was a bit one sided , but...
That to me is one part of it that makes reading the article important.

The author seemed not familiar or comfortable with firearms or various other "outdoorsy" activities.
His writing is a strong case for my comment in post #2 :
"It is important for us to know just how folks who are outside of our interests , hobbies or "comfort zones , view us as gun owners , preppers or whatever..."

In my experience , the view expressed in the article is how many folks view gun owners and preppers.
So if we can have a bit of foreknowledge of where someone may stand on something , we may be able to kindly refute their view ... and have them walk away knowing that not every gun owner or prepper is the common stereotype.
Andy

 

[FireArm]

My prepping goes as far as owning gun and ammo.
Thats always been my question, prepare for what? Dont get me wrong I like to be prepared for life and survival. Living in the rural country means I have a small supply of food and fuel at all time. I also have a built 4x4 and wilderness survival knowledge. These arent part of a prepping lifestyle but more from growing up in Oregon , camping, hunting, fishing , hiking, 4wheeling, being a boyscout as a boy helped also.
the way the writer seemed to try to talk down about every aspect was horrible. I dont mind reading an article with a different point of view then my own, its just that his negativity was wearing on my generally positive attitude. Making fun of the mall, pointing out people who are 40 are 40lbs over weight is a pretty board generality, that could be any mall in America... he is surely attempting to put "preppers" in a bad light.

 

[notazombie]

I really wouldn't expect any Brit to "get" what the prepper movement is all about. Just like any microcosm (including the United States, itself) there are people from all backgrounds that are working toward their own specific ends. I thought his repeated jabs at Americans' high regard of the constitution was kind of offputting. Can't really argue with the 40 pounds dig though. Maybe no one will notice if I hide it in my Alladin pants.

 

[bolus]

The writer surely well did come off as a douchebag.

That's on purpose. If you write opinionated controversial crap, more people comment on it send it to their friends who have to comment on it because of how terrible it is. It gets linked here because how crappy it is and then that all raises their level on google and they make more money.

Its rare that we see a nice thought-out level-headed articles linked here (they dont get written anymore). Its mostly just stuff that makes people mad.

The Guardian lost a 100 million pounds last year. They will fall to the gutter just like every other media organization

 

[notazombie]

Good point. I did notice they were panhandling at the end of the article.

 

[cigars]

Written by a Brit who loves big government holding his hand. That likely makes makes him feel as if he has moral superiority over American's that he disagrees with. His fan boys in the comment section are a piece of work as well.

 

[Dungannon]

Generally, the best written articles are ones by skeptics. If you identify with the people you observe, the writing drifts to fawning coverage. I can appreciate someone's writing without agreeing with their assumptions, observations or conclusions.


other interesting quotes:
The preppers and survivalists aren't really imagining the end of America. They're imagining it beginning again.

Gun salesmen are the best salesmen I've ever met. ... I cannot think of any other consumer product, with the possible exception of marijuana, so adored by its merchants.

I am among the freest men in the history of the world but every facet of my life constrains me. I am free in this sense: all it would take for me to do whatever I like is to burn down my life and start over.

Is freedom just what you could have been, rather than what you turned out to be?

Cultures commit suicide. That's how they end. Just like with men and women, it's not the challenges of life that break you, it's your own internal contradictions.

America is in between its end and its beginning and somehow in the middle of both. It's not a comfortable time of life, for anyone.

Middle age is when the sum total of your decisions, rather than the dreams you began with, starts to become who you are.


Good word pictures:
But catastrophe hovers, like low clouds that could pass or bring flood.

Storefronts have that peculiar failing-mall griminess of yellow and brown and orange. Too many things have been fried here. The bleach won't take. The skylights have collected congregations of leaves from several autumns.

...but their sense of threat is diminished by the fact that these are mostly old men, some in wheelchairs, who possess that innate midwestern cheerfulness and helpfulness that makes Americans so hard to dislike.

She has the sad eyes of a woman who tries to explain things to people who will not listen, like she's run the school library in a small town for too long.

All the classes are exercises in participatory storytelling; the audience knows the basic story but what the bug-out bag and the plans and the gardening advice provide is realism, the telling details that make the story credible.

 

[Timbertodd]

Like Andy, I find it interesting how some look at things. The author is not well versed on facts. Just reading the first page told me how the story was going to go. You go ahead Skippy and write your articles poking fun. I will continue to see to it that my family is prepared. Not necessarily for the end of the world, but maybe a storm, earthquake or the loss of a job.

 

[HuckleberryFun]

Like Andy, I find it interesting how some look at things. The author is not well versed on facts. Just reading the first page told me how the story was going to go. You go ahead Skippy and write your articles poking fun. I will continue to see to it that my family is prepared. Not necessarily for the end of the world, but maybe a storm, earthquake or the loss of a job.

"Skippy"

 

[slimmer13]

All that article does (specifically the comments and all the rage and hatred directed at whites contained within), is make me want to carry a couple extra mags.

 

[Dungannon]

" if you do not know your enemies nor yourself, you will be imperiled in every single battle "
Sun Tzu

 

[albin25]

Gives one a good idea of the mindset you're going to be dealing with
when they show up at your door...
...begging for a share of the food, water, and supplies you put away
for your family's survival.

 

[Medic!]

It's hard to believe somebody in his family survived Hitler?

 

[cookie]

I am 64 and my grand parents would be defined in todays having to have a title preppers they had extra food and things so they wouldn't have to" live out of a store" . That being said I I like to call this new trend the sport of prepping. Being prepped is good very good. It is the way to be.

 

[cookie]

" if you do not know your enemies nor yourself, you will be imperiled in every single battle "
Sun Tzu

Sun TZU also says war with out profit is stupid . What as a nation have all our wars been?

 

[Certaindeaf]

seen through the eyes of a middle aged Englishman.
"The thing they could most do to prepare is lose 40 pounds." ..

The unmitigated uppityness! I'd have him know that my neckbeard is so tactical and my suspenders so high-speed low-drag that they totally offset my "survival layers".



lol