Be honest, people think we are all a bunch of nuts because we prep, don’t they?
This bothers some of us, while others wear the obvious difference like a badge of honor.
While many of us find humor in the fact that we are considered “odd” because we don’t want to starve if times turn tough, there’s also a darker side to the situation.
I’ve told this story here before, but it’s just so true (and it’s been about a year since I last wrote about it) I’m repeating it…
A Prepper’s Glass Of Water
by Mammy.
The Man Of The House: Let’s say someone puts a half glass of water on the table. I say it’s half full. What do you say?
Mammy: Hmmm. Probably half empty.
The Man Of The House: Nope. You’re wrong. Be honest.
Mammy: I am. Probably half-empty.
The Man Of The House: Nope.
(Silence)
The Man Of The House: This is you. (begins flailing & screaming) WE’RE OUT OF WATER AND WE’RE ALL GONNA DIE!!!!
Mammy: You SO know me….
“When the Stuff Hits The Fan”
Preppers are often seen as “nuts”, a fact unfortunately reinforced by television shows such as “Doomsday Preppers,” which paint an entirely unrealistic picture of prepping (and, due to their production nature, skew the real lives of the people they covered”.
In reality, there is absolutely NOTHING nutty about the basic tenants of prepping… having enough food and water to get you by in an emergency… because emergencies happen all the time.
In fact, it’s more nutty to NOT have enough food and water in your house to get you by if the power fails or you are cut off from normal deliveries for several days due to a natural or man-made disaster.
Yeah, not really talking about this type of nuts today…
The truth is, non-preppers are the people who are nuts!
As a community, we have done a poor job overall of showing how what it is we do should be followed, not laughed at and ridiculed. One thing we can do to start to turn this around is to explain prepping to people in a way that seems more “normal”.
Spice and I, when we talk about prepping with anybody (in general, we don’t go around telling people we are preppers), simply state that we think it’s wise to not have to depend upon others for our own food, water and shelter, no matter what the situation.
We put it in simple, easy to understand terms, and stay away from rants about the zombie apocalypse or Mad Max. OK, well… in truth, not really, since I wrote articles about both of those here on 3BY… but you take my point, right?
OPSEC
Operational security (OPSEC) is one key for those who care what other people think of them… because, frankly, the acceptance of others is really important to a lot of people.
It’s always fun to think of ourselves as rebels, the truth is most of us rebel in large groups, doing what everybody else is doing… think of all the “rebellious fads” we’ve had over the years, and what were they? An influence changed his or her appearance, and then millions of others would change theirs to “rebel” by joining in and doing what all their peers were doing.
Since prepping isn’t “cool” and a lot of people will ostracize preppers or mock us, one thing we can do is to simply not let people know we are prepping.
For example, Spice and I have “The Place” which is a rural bugout retreat. Do we hide the fact that we own it from our family and friends? No, not at all. We tell them it’s our “weekend cabin and hunting land”, something that’s totally “normal” and acceptable. People who live here having hunting land are not nuts, they are normal. Conversely, people who have bugout retreats? Those folks are nuts.
Water off a duck’s back
My preferred way of dealing with people’s opinions about my appearance, my opinions or my actions is about as simple as anything can be. I just don’t care what anybody else but Spice thinks.
If somebody likes what they know about me? Fine. If they don’t? Don’t care.
If we don’t let people’s opinions hold power over us, it gives us a type of freedom you can never get when you are a slave to their opinion. Life’s too short, IMHO.
You think I’m nuts?
Nuts: The bottom line
The bottom line is that we are better off encouraging others to prep, even if it’s just enough for a few days, because the prepping bug is contagious. The more people think about what might happen, the more prepper oriented they become.
While I tend to avoid the topic, when it comes up, I always try to couch any conversations around prepping towards local hazards. Why do I have so much food stored? Because we get ice storms and I’d rather not risk my neck for a loaf of bread and bottle of milk.
Why do I have so many flashlights? Because occasionally hurricanes come through and knock out the power for days on end…
And then I’ll usual remind them that even FEMA suggest a minimum of 3 days of supplies and then point them to the ready.gov website.
Won’t get through to the most stubborn folks, but I try to let any verbal barbs just flow by me. Can’t save everyone…
Funny thing. Less than 100 years ago preppers had another name. We called them “Farmers”. They had to pump the water, milk the cows, sow, grow, harvest and store grain and vegetables, raise and butcher meat animals, sew clothes and preserve food without refrigeration, chop wood for heat and so on and so on. This wasn’t called prepping, this was called life. God help us if anything happens to our crutch (the grid) for any length of time because Americans today don’t know a damned thing and it’s too late to learn after the SHTF. The real panic is when the cell networks go down and all of a sudden you won’t be able to IM your BFF how sad you are. Better take that pouty sad face selfie now and print out copies to hand out to any of your friends… should they survive.
My attitude is this: If another doesn’t care enough about his/her loved ones to be prepared for a disaster, then to hell with them. Let them face their loved ones and morally die a thousand deaths before the physical death takes them. My father always said it’s best to not argue with fools because they’ll never accept being wrong. If season tickets to the ball team’s games are more important that being sure you’ll get through a life-and-death crisis, then let your favorite ball team help you – I won’t bother. You make your choices and live (or die) with the results. I’m too busy securing a future for me and my own. I know that’s a harsh way to be, but, I can’t afford to save the world – besides, “the world” would betray me for far less than survival during a crisis.
Thanks for the comments!
I do think it’s important to draw a line between people who refuse to help themselves and people who just have never been exposed to the idea of self-help in the right way (i.e. by people not wearing tin-foil hats).
Most poeople are caught up in normalcy bias… the whole “that will never happen to me, so why should I bother.” With people who refuse to look, who refuse to consider? There’s nothing to be done with them, they are on their own.
Even if that’s 90 percent of the people out there, there are still 10 percent who are NOT like that… who are willing to stop, think and consider. There are 350 million people living in the USA alone, so that’s 35 million folks that won’t just “say no” from the start… and any way you count it, that’s a LOT of people.
That’s what we are doing here. We and other prepping media are reaching out, putting the info out there. It’s 100 percent up the public whether to look for it or not. We do our part, the rest is ENTIRELY up to them.