Preppers will die

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3 Comments on “Preppers will die”

1. 

   Reply

   Windy Wilson

   September 5, 2012 at 10:00 pm #

   A line from “Charade” with Audrey Hepburn and Cary Grant. “If you’re trying to scare me, you’re doing a first-class job!”.

2. 

   Reply

   Andy

   October 7, 2012 at 2:24 pm #

   This character is convinced that when the lights go out it will be a full-out war and 99% of the population will die almost immediately, leaving he and his heroic comrades to fight on the side of good against unnamed hordes bent on destruction.

   Can he list any examples of this happening? I can name dozens of times throughout history, where a society broke down but communities formed, banded together, everyone pitched in to the best of their abilities. There was violence, but not an all-out apocalypse like this guy’s fevered imagination takes him.

   Make no mistake, I am a prepper and the son of one as well. My father began preparing in the mid-1970′s, moved us out of an urban existence in southern California onto 120 acres in north Idaho, surrounded by many other survivalists. He was much like this guy; just ITCHING for nuclear apocalypse, race war, total chaos, etc. The chance to become a savior and hero.

   Reality is much more mundane; while the things my father and this guy envision are not impossible, the much more likely scenarios seem to be ignored because they aren’t exciting enough. Climate disruption, peak oil, overpopulation – these changes happen more gradually.

   I’m not saying this guy and his arsenal will be worthless, but he seems to overvalue their importance to the exclusion of more boring things – bicycle parts, seeds and gardening implements, PV and communication technologies, shelter in a remote area.

   What happened to my father? He was so sure that destruction was imminent, that when it didn’t over the years he became depressed and alcoholic and eventually died in 2000 in a car crash that was either suicide or simply drunk driving on the gravel road leading to our property. He invested his whole identity in his certainty of impending collapse.

   I’m trying to take a more moderate course. It’s a guessing game, to be sure, but to put all your eggs in the basket of Spec Ops Modern Warfare is foolhardy. Diversify your preparations; strengthen your social bonds to include people with skills other than killing; physicians, farmers, mechanics, gardeners. If history is any indication, barter, rather than gun and grab will be the outcome of a collapse of our society.

   • 

     Reply

     Derek

     October 7, 2012 at 9:25 pm #

     Outstanding response, Andy. It certainly a balancing act.

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