Guest Post by Tom Chatham, via Alt-Market:
The recent disasters around the world have shown most people are ill prepared for sudden disruptions to normal life. Just as there was a lack of imagination that allowed 9/11 to happen, the population suffers from a lack of imagination that allows them to suffer from sudden occurrences. Survival favors the prepared mind.
Simply having supplies piled up in preparation for some occurrence is not enough to insure your survival. There are several other things you must keep in mind and balance out among your preparations.
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You must imagine the potential catastrophic possibilities
You must prepare yourself mentally to deal with whatever happens
You must have knowledge of how best to employ your resources
You need to use your imagination to think outside the box
You must be able to improvise, adapt and overcome obstacles
You must have a flexible plan to guide you
Many people have spewed hateful rhetoric at preppers over the years and today some are finding themselves in dire circumstances as infrastructure and supplies are cut off for an indefinite period of time. Those unprepared individuals have few options and now rely on the actions of others to insure their survival.
As many in the Caribbean can now attest to, having to wait for help to come from hundreds or even thousands of miles away is slow and stressful to those who wait. They do not know when help will arrive and what resources will be available when they arrive. It could take years for many locations to return to some type of normalcy and this is at a time when help is available and forthcoming. What happens when that help is not available following an event?
In the world we now live in the bulk of the population is conditioned to wait for help to come. They are not encouraged to perform self help to minimize their suffering. This leads to many more victims to deal with overloading services and resources available to the public. This is happening in good times. What happens when things deteriorate and no help is available to communities or cities? What will happen when people and equipment do not come because damage is wide scale? What happens when all expendable resources are exhausted and cannot be replaced?
Preppers already know the answers to those questions and that is why they prepare. They know that someday an event could happen where no help will be available and they will be on their own for weeks or months. They know if something happens, what they have on hand is all they will likely have to work with for the duration. They know those that have not planned will be victims and most will expect someone to help them and their family. This creates a difficult situation for preppers and victims alike.
The act of learned helplessness is the only thing many people know today and that will lead to a reduced chance of survival for many depending on the depth of the event. A prepper can only do so much to help others in this type of situation but the main thing they possess are the leadership qualities and survival skills the masses need to come through the situation.
Following an event there will be a certain number of survivors that will see the light and understand what preppers have been trying to tell them for years. These people will differ from those that will still have the entitlement mentality and expect others to care for them and provide resources they need. These newly enlightened individuals are the ones that preppers will be able to help the most.
The true leaders in society will be able to direct these individuals on courses of action that will allow them to slowly recover and build up some resilience over time. These are the actions that will be necessary to reduce the chaos in society and provide some stabilization. These people will help provide a buffer between preppers and the hostile unprepared masses that manage to survive.
Make no mistake about it. There will be groups with varying mindsets roaming about following an event and it is advantageous to have as many of them on your side as possible. There is little you can do about the entitled victims except defend against their actions. In this case, there will be safety in numbers.
While a prepper cannot foresee every problem, they can plan ahead and set aside some resources that can help solidify your leadership among those you are able to work with. This could take the form of setting aside a few drums of bulk grains like oats or beans that can be purchased cheaply now but will allow you to feed a small group of people a basic meal for several weeks. The small price of a few drums of grain could buy a lot of goodwill.
Being able to provide clean drinking water to a small group by purchasing a good spare water filter will help eliminate the spread of disease among the group. Having a few medications that can help a few individuals that do manage to become sick will mean a lot to their families. Having a few extra radios that the group can share will help with security for everyone. Having a means to provide a small power source for lighting or battery recharging could mean a great deal to those with no power. In some locations having an extra wood stove to share and some wood will provide these people with heat and cooking ability.
Read More @ Alt-Market.com
Puerto Rico is a prime example of not being prepared. I have thinking about this and cannot fathom why these people did not have any prep goods on hand. The author is right, probably 90% plus of population will just wait for the government to save them.
From what I read and what I know of the Caribbean, a lot of people in PR did have some degree of food and water stored, but lost it because of the ferocity of the storm. In other words, they were prepared, but inadequately so.
Might be worth having your preps set up to survive any foreseeable catastrophe, including the destruction of your house by fire, flood or windstorm. It’s totally a stereotype, but PVC pipe is cheap and readily available.
So basically, you need to bury supplies. But if it floods, you need to store supplies in the attic. And not a bad idea to have supplies stored within the house itself.
Puerto Ricans are the laziest bunch of fucks on the planet. Only 39% of the population works – lowest labor participation rate in the Western Hemisphere. We sent over 10,000 FEMA workers to that shit hole. The ”natives” do nothing. The mayor of San Juan was complaining about help from the US – while in the background – there were pallets of water and food – all shrink wrapped.
Now it begins: As mayors of cities with large Puerto Rican populations continue to advocate for federal assistance to help with the resettlement of hundreds of thousands of Puerto Ricans who are expected to temporarily seek shelter with friends and families in the US, Florida Gov. Rick Scott has declared a state of emergency in Florida……
These fucks will never go back. We are truly fucked.
And I saw a report that enough PRs are coming to Florida to turn it Democratic.
The mentality of the nonprepper is why I thank Christ when there is a mass shooting. None of the people in Vegas were preppers, are they would not have been in Vegas in the first place. They would have been home prepping and counting there beans. The more than fifty nonprepping dead are 50+ I don’t have to worry about when the lights go out. The 200 wounded are hopefully wounded badly enough they will not survive the first few days after shft. I sincerely pray that Vegas will always be full to the brim with nonpreppers, because even if they survive a shooting, they will in all probability never survive to make it to my neck of the woods. It’s a long, long walk through the desert. Good riddance. Cheering the deaths of nonpreppers is as much a part of prepping as buying another sack of rice. thanks
Hondo, are you insane?
With a name like Starfucker, how can you call me Insane? thanks
Hondo: You have no fucking common sense.
Hondo,why so hard?Plenty of folks are prepared but at the same time try and enjoy life.While attending a country music fest is not my idea of enjoying life I love rock concerts and mt guess tis the same thing,just a bunch of folks getting together to listen to music they enjoy and have a large party.At the moment there is plenty of rice/other basic goods to buy(get some more people).I will not let terrorists/crazy fucks on pharms what have you run my life.As I like to say,live for today but prepare for tomorrow!
I will say the video of the guy giving the finger to shooter while I appreciate his attitude was not a good move in that others around him that he could have drawn fire to,that said,even if he was drunk do appreciate the”Final act of defiance”!
So far, less than 60 people have died from a trivial shooting in Vegas. Today while you worry about a bunch of partypukers and spend your worthless life condemning me, 4000 innocent unborn human beings were slaughtered inside their mothers wombs. But we can’t worry about such a major event as shedding the blood of the unborn, can we. Honestly, how can we support a woman’s “right to choose”, and not support a shooter’s right to shoot. I support neither, it just disgusts me as to how people in this country make their decisions about what is right and what is wrong. 4000, each day, match that against 59 full grown pukes that at least had a chance at survival. 59 out of 22,000 is about 1/4th of a percentage point, because most of the other 99.75% simply ran away. How many of the 4000 unborn were filmed running from Planned Parenthood. Think on these things before you cringe at the death of the Ungodly while the abortion clinics run red with innocent blood and then stoop to calling me names. Let me say emphatically, piss on Vegas, and Tom Petty too. If that makes me ‘insane’ then I wear the title gladly and honorably. thanks
You have no idea whether those people at the concert where “ungodly” or not. Death in this manner is traumatizing.
And I’m sure there were plenty of people at that concert, not to mention on this website, that do not support abortion. What are we supposed to do to stop it? Please let me know.
Don’t lump everybody into your “ungodly” world when you don’t know the facts.
I have firearms, stored food, clean water, BO bags, etc.
I’ve also been to a public event within the last few years.
Does that mean I deserve to die?
Only if you are stupid enough to get yourself caught in the open with automatic weapons fire coming your way. thanks
“The 200 wounded are hopefully wounded badly enough they will not survive the first few days ”
You are celebrating the death of someone’s father. Mother. Son. Daughter. The slaughter of innocents who woke up that morning to revel in the joy of music. And you wish them dead … even taking pleasure in it.
Never, in the history of TBP has there been a more repulsive poster. That is no exaggeration.
Never before have I pleaded with Admin to ban someone for life. But, I do so now.
ADMIN. Please ban this son of a bitch!!!
Having someone on this site who rejoices in the death of 50, and wishes the other 500 dead …. can only lead to unwanted attention from the authorities . That is NOT an exaggeration.
Stucky- Now you can see what I mean about people going to the dark side. The void, the darkness of the soul and the complete lack of compassion for their fellow man. This is what we are breeding in this country. If the choice was made to them to stick with the caring side of humanity or take the MOTB, I’m not sure they would make the right choice.
Well here come we have to have your guns, the shooter what a low life shit. i’m prepared and hope I never need it. Beans and rice and water can keep you alive but you better know your friends. To me the world is going nuts so if you are have’t tou better start
The usual article trying to make hay when the sun shines.
Hurricanes in the Caribbean (and Pacific) are a seasonal occurrence.
The failures in Puerto Rico are because of the government being too busy piling up debt rather than paying attention to infrastructure.
“prepping” a couple of weeks of food – that’s what any person who’s ever lived through a hurricane/typhoon does, but that doesn’t help squat when electricity and water infrastructure goes down for months.
The notion that you can survive “on your own” in any form of urban environment for any significant period of time is a myth.
One simple example: The author gloats over being prepared. Great – what happens when all the “non-preppers” die? How is the prepper going to handle the resulting disease and piles of decaying flesh?
Equally, “preppers” also tend to be gun nuts. But only the most certified gun nuts have enough ammo to hold off the other 99% non-preppers – some of which are also armed.
And therein lies the problem. It’s pretty easy to be extremely self-sufficient with regard to food, water, and shelter. However, no matter how well armed you think you are there’s always some one or some group out there that has even more fire power. So the most important thing may be to have good relations and mutual understandings with your neighbors and local community.
Tree,while I agree with being a part of community I also see in tough times not being the “grey man” but as much as possible the “invisible man”.Obviously,that means no genny’s/fires ect.,can be done but will be very hard at least initially.
Just for fun go here and post your score when done.
http://channel.nationalgeographic.com/doomsday-preppers/interactives/how-prepped-are-you1/
9 months for me prolly based on blood pressure meds and general health.
I stay away from polls.
I suggest reading the books and articles posted at the “Mountain Guerrilla” wordpress site.
Real world stuff with no wimpy or useless bullshit.
https://mountainguerrilla.wordpress.com/
Mike,good examples and site,would also recommend for folks John Wisemans SAS survival book and the book A Failure Of Civility(hard to get as not printed anymore but can be got on the big e&a,worth it).While both these books are written by special forces types they are presented in a manner that the average Jane/John Doe can understand and info.they can work with/practice ect..
I’d also like to recommend Corporals Corner on YouTube. He does some good stuff, from knots, to cooking, to sleep kits, bow drills, even down to forging your own knives and make homemade concrete and bricks.
Here’s a link to a video:
Had I been in Puerto Rico I would have simply bought 4-5 cases of Baccardi Rum and just carried on in stupor until help arrived.
This prepper stuff is all bullshit. Just to say, from my DoD training – you can’t defend a building (home) – what you need to do is defend a perimeter. Another words you need to erect barriers to your fortified neighborhood, and shoot any one who comes closer than 500 yards. See if you can get your neighborhood to agree with that. Then all the food / water / MRE’s / this is all more bullshit.
Except for a very few – we are dependent upon one another.
Dutch,while I agree in many cases one will not have to engage in violence,just have the goods ect. to carry on till the rebuild begins.Now,if there is no foreseeable rebuild then yes,unless truly prepped and really in the middle of no where you will need others.
in many cases one will not have to engage in violence
If you live anywhere near a city / town all you will need is a couple of days of supplies. The rest of the country will be doing it’s job, and the supply chain will be back up and running. If it goes long enough, and you have to resort to things like bartering – then you better fortify your neighborhood.
People selling prepper books and supplies are making a shitload of $$$ off this fairy tale.
Yes,but better have plan/folks on board NOW for neighborhood team ect.,along with other plans if the first do not work out so well!I will say see nothing wrong with folks making money off books if the info. good,no different then a say Haynes auto repair manual excepting if the info. bad could get you killed.I will also say if you do not read said books,try and learn and put into practice some of the skills thenthey are only good for fire starting material.
neighborhood team
I live in Minneapolis. I believe 25% of the population here are queers / lesbos / trans / – they will never do shit. They believe all they need is a bicycle.
That’s part of the problem for you, Dutch. You don’t live in an area with friendly neighbors. Though some friendly neighbors may end up not being friendly when disaster strikes, for the most part, if you live in, say, a small town, the majority are good people. (Not saying they can’t change when desperate, but hopefully, you have enough, along with others, to help the destitute out.)
Greetings,
I disagree. A chain is only as strong as its weakest link and the weak link in the chain in my neck of the woods is water. If something takes out our municipal water supply and there is no Uncle Sugar available to provide the masses with moar water then the weak link breaks and the 3 day clock starts ticking. That said, I do not need to lose my mind worrying too much about long term defense because it will all be over fairly quickly.
In the end, it just makes sense to put away a few needed things. A solar panel or two and some rechargeable batteries never hurts. Of course, some food and water and radios. Oh yeah, toiletries. Still gotta poop even in an emergency.
For all you commenters who are poo-pooing the idea of being a Prepper, I would encourage you to read the novel “One Second After” by William Forstchen. Its about what would happen to American society if a enemy hit America with a EMP weapon. If only 50% of what the author claims would happen happens, then it would be horrific for us citizens. It will change you scoffers. A very, very disturbing but accurate book. Please take the time to read it and start preparing now!
Mustang,read it along with the two follow up stories,well worth reading all as you see a lot of govt. corruption/and evil as the tale unfolds beyond just the devastation of the original emp.
The EMP attack is a classic example of asymmetric warfare, which is what I expect of dirt-poor N. Korea. The dick-swinging going on between “Rocket Man” and Trump only adds to the chances of an EMP, in my opinion.
I remember being asked why I do not have a generator ?
I answered it’s a short term fix if the grid is a long term problem . I have food for a modest period of time , water filtration , some barter items and a high volume of ammo . I will just wait it out till some fool does himself in with the generator running in his garage and take all of the dead’s useful stuff . Like the Boy Scouts Be Prepared . Also should feudalism take hold follow the teachings of Sun Tzu and the art of war . If your potential enemy is weakening himself , do not interrupt him !
I’m not going to respond to Hondo’s vicious posts, I started to…then reread them…and then realized there is no debating those levels of inside out – unbalanced words. Although I agree with him whole heartily on the American abortion holocaust.
When the recent opportunity to DE-fund Planned Murderhood from Federal monies was passed by for BS political reasons I felt we missed a tremendous opportunity to start a national collective turn…hopefully leading to a stop of the killing and a hopeful delay from inevitable judgement.
This is a great Prepper article from a fantastic blog. I love the author’s practical lean language and common sense approaches. I don’t know anyone personally that has prepped to the width and depth for as long as I have, but no man is an island (maybe he is just a hidden bunker for a while). I also have preps for a small tribe (including three neighbors who border my farm that they don’t even know about) but who knows…I could have to go go run to Plan B Bug Out and even end up spraying for ticks and living in a tent in Plan C Deep Woods cache camping!
The Spiritual Prep is the most important as that leaves a peace for no matter what happens.
And the SHTF is coming….