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In the Seattle Times:
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This is no "compelling hobby", at least not for me, and Professor Mitchell is wrong when he states that preppers haven't thought about what comes after surviving the initial few days or weeks after SHTF. Who among us hasn't contemplated what the "new normal" is going to be like and how will we fit in/participate in a society whose definition is yet to be determined?
a very good article that doesn't paint us as crazies?
I never claimed to not be crazy
You can prep for the unknown, without having to know what will happen. Being ready is the first step. My feeling is that what ever happens you need to be flexible and be ready to change. Besides until it happens, no one knows what the "new normal" will be. Learn and stock what you can, be ready.
I agree with this sentiment and it generally guides my own preps. I don't have a strong feeling about what'll come next, but things happen and you're better off being prepared for a range of possibilities. History is littered by those who weren't prepared. But, being prepared is no guarantee, and I'm ok with that too - at least I tried.
As I have stated else where I am the product of Prepping. My Grandfather lived through many SHTF situations.
Keep in mind, he had 11 children!
There were the pre-1930 recessions, The Measseles Epidemic, the Spanish Flu Pandemic, The Polio Epidemic, The Wall Street Crash, WW1 (he learned lessons there about Progressives) Gold Confiscation (FDR), WW2 (went out and bought all the ammo he could), Food and material rationing (he kept a Model A Truck with new tires in the garage, where no one could see it and Rat him Out for a reward). The post WW2 bust/boom. Several other economic cycles. My Grand dad lost his gold but he kept his guns and food supply (for 13 ppl). He had a small farm, he never threw anything away, when he died he still had all his children's shoes carefully stored away, along with salvaged water pipe, carpenter tools, farming, trapping, hunting, game processing tools, everything he needed to support 13 PPL .
My dad was in 1929 in the mountains of southeastern US, there were 12 brothers and sisters, they had a huge garden, apple trees on the mountain, a couple of coal veins they dug into to heat the house, all trees on the mountains for fire wood, cooking and heating, water came from a spring on the side of the mountains in dry years the well down on the valley up stream of the out house.
No gold, but plenty, bullets, beans, potatoes, harvest nuts from the trees, you name it, if they could not get gas they made fuel
Most of these stories about what families did in the past had one thing in common. There was a strong central authority that kept people in line ... to various degrees. I think Prof. Mitchell might have been referring to a central government, be it a collection of tribes, or fiefdoms, or a federation, one very large central authority. The story of man from my view is that big strong tribes take from and destroy small tribes ... until there is but one big tribe in the greater geographical region. How many troops can you field ? How many attackers can you defend against ?
I have read that in thirty years there will not be enough resources on the planet to support the population. Then what ? Are people going to roll over and die ? Might they band together under a strong leader and set forth to find and take resources from smaller tribes ? I doubt that all the clever planning, storing and prepping will win the field of battle. How are you preparing to form a bigger tribe, and how will it be governed ? I suspect the same gripes about current government might be carried over no matter how it is organized. Only in such a scenario I doubt that it will be as readily tolerated as under the current government.
Good luck in your prepping.
Lucky - would love to have a manual-pumped well.