I think reality TV has ruined what normal preppers are trying to teach us.
There are many, many realistic situatiations, where you might end up without power, outside, or even locked at home (like going abroad when the neighbouring country is in a "green" covid state, and your government changing their mind overnight, how they decide 'colors', and classifing it as "red", and you need to quarantene for 14 days). Plus all the "i have the flu, I don't want to go to the supermarket today" situations.
Having some supplies at home (canned food, pasta, etc.) and some extra other stuff, a barbecue or something to cook stuff in, and an extra pair of socks & a shirt in your car is a very smart thing to do. Our grandmothers, living in villages had full cellars of food not that long ago, with sacks of flour, salt, and knowledge how to bake bread, and it was a totally normal thing to do and have (and people outside of big cities still do that).
And reality TV? Show a nutter, thinking about rapture, with a cellar full of some dry freezed crap, some 5 year food supply pack on a couple of pallets, still unopened, with an expiration date two years in the future, a huge amount of guns and ammo, and a "tactical" toilet bag, with a tacital, camo colored emergency toilet paper cutter, ...just in case.
This makes preppers look stupid, their prep cases look unrealistic, people having half a slice of toast and a jar of mouldy mustard as only food items in their house and people literally starving when their delivery driver cancells their order due to icy roads.
FYI.- This is what reality TV does for literally everything it covers. Pawn shops don't run the way it shows. Gold miners don't work that way (if they want to stay solvent), etc.
You can say this about anything of public concern. We have had TVs in nearly every home for multiple generations. Expecting TV to be anything but a funhouse mirror is similar to expecting people to stop stealing.
The nutters are real - I have one in my family. At some level, this is just arguing about fringe enthusiasts lacking professional PR agents.
"Pandemic. It's been a while since the highly developed world experienced a devastating outbreak, but it may be premature to flat out dismiss the risk. In 1918, an unusual strain of flu managed to kill 75 million people."
Well, this aged well! I'm glad to see this very reasonable take so far.
One thing that I don't see mentioned is a "go-bag" or "bug out bag", which I find to be one of the more useful preparations. Have a bag with some clothes, your documents, medication, whatever you might need if you need to leave your house in a couple of minutes notice for a couple of days. Super useful even if it's not a total life and death emergency, but you need to see or help someone, and won't know for how long. A lot of good advice here about what to put in it though! And a lot of useful advice on good skills to have.
One other small note: always have a roll of paper towels and toilet paper in your trunk in a bag. Just trust me on this one, you'll thank me later.
Also:
Headlamp
Ultility knife (aka leatherman)
Charging necessities for your phone
Some food that can be eaten cold (I use protein bars)
Water container
Note pad and pencil
emergency poncho
I also have a portable water filter; it wont get everything but since I live in Florida most likely there will be fresh water nearby.
I actually had an earthquake bag, supplied with several N95 masks. Around march when COVID started becoming "real", I felt very fortunate to be able to retrieve them and send them to my parents. This has in my view vindicated the necessity of having a plan and basic supplies in case disaster strikes.
> I'm glad to see this very reasonable take so far
What, ultimately, were preppers better prepared for?
Anyone could make a cotton mask out of a t-shirt. The mask policy was a governance error. Having N95 masks as preppers did is as far off the mark from "cotton mask" as not wearing a mask at all, preppers would still run out of N95s, they'd still use a cotton mask, N95s were still overkill.
Besides masks, was there anything the public really needed that it could not get but could have stored inside their basement? Toilet paper? That's what you will summon as, "Preppers averted a life crisis."
How are you going to doomsday prep "elective surgeries" and "ICU beds?" That's what there were real shortages of. It's ridiculous.
> Now a word of caution: beware of debt. Many of us are taught that owing money is normal, even desirable; indeed, for middle-class folks, some forms of indebtedness may be difficult to avoid.
I find that surprising. Perhaps this is the difference between growing up in a middle-class household vs. a working-class household, but personally I have seen first hand why debt is bad and been taught to avoid credit cards and debt like the plague.
Perhaps this does not fit the middle-class lifestyle and now that I am personally earning far more than my parents ever did I wonder if I should be less averse to debt, can anyone chime in with what the right balance is here?
Did you buy your house with cash or a mortgage? In some countries, mostly developed ones, the policies in place almost always make it a silly choice not to take on a large amount of debt to buy your first house. Even if you have the cash, it's always wiser to invest your money elsewhere and use the investment income to pay for the interest part of the loan.
Avoiding debt is good advice for 90% of the population who can't plan or understand long term commitments relative to their income level. When you understand and internalize that debt is simply a trade of cash flows (you get money now, they get money over time) that can be beneficial to all parties involved, you treat debt as a tool. Sometimes it's useful, sometimes it's bad, depends on your situation. When your debt starts to accumulate, it means that your prediction of future cash flow was wrong.
Debt is a useful tool for investing in a business, or as leverage to afford a large purchase when the interest rate is particularly low (read: a mortgage).
If you want to own and grow a business that requires capital outlay or hiring people, there's practically no way to get started without taking on some debt. But if you're just working a W-2 job, have stable income, and live within your means, then the only "reasonable" debt to have is a mortgage and _maybe_ a car payment.
Plenty of people use debt wrong and that's why it gets a bad rep. Poor communities are often not taught proper financial management and may use credit card balances and payday loans because they believe that's what necessary to survive. Even though in the end, they are handing over a sizeable chunk of their modest income for no good reason.
Middle-class people wind up in bankruptcy because they use debt to fund luxury purchases that they didn't need and arguably couldn't afford. (Cars, boats, McMansions, etc).
Debt isn't purely good or bad, it is just another financial instrument. If used wisely, debt is a very powerful way of getting ahead financially. For example, the average person is likely never going to be able to save enough money to pay cash up front on a house, but they can very well pay it off while living in it. However, taking on a house payment you cannot afford is obviously bad. Likewise, using a credit card and paying it off every month is a smart thing to do, but carrying over balance is not. So, like everything else, there's a balance.
This is basically the opposite of prepping advice. If the world collapses, debts will all be wiped clean, you're going to feel like an idiot if you just paid off your loans and now we're all back to bartering. It would be much preferable to have a new and expensive car to barter away than nothing but the printout of a bank statement before the bank was liquidated by aliens.
I think this person just has a philosophy of debt and justifies it as "prepping" even though it's not prepping related at all.
I'm not a CPA or CFP etc etc. However, my personal belief is the right balance is borrowing money when the expected rate of return is greater than the interest rate on the loan.
Right now money is "cheap", whether it's a mortgage, or another type of loan interest rates are about as close to 0 as they can get.
There's a reason that wealthy don't call it "debt", they call it "leverage" because it can be a very useful means to an end.
Borrow to buy your house, aim for the monthly payments to be below a third of your income.
Apart from that, I’d avoid any other form of debt (unless it’s some weird game system like the US credit scores or cards, in which case play it if you want but be careful, if you ever trip up they’ll take you to the cleaners)
The right balance is what let’s you sleep at night. But I have seen people more averse to debt limit their economic growth. If your goal is to get rich, you need to be comfortable with levering up, because your competition will be.
Also, some debt is politically more favorable than others. Debt to purchase land is more easily bailed out and less risky than buying options on margin.
It’s also easier if you have supportive friends/family/spouse with high income so that you can at least have the basics in the worst case scenario.
Always looks at the interest rates. Credit card debt can go over 20% APR sometimes and should be strictly avoided. A mortgage is more like 3% and can work in your favor since its better to pay into that than rent. I would tolerate auto loans as well.
I assume by "some forms of indebtedness may be difficult to avoid" they mean a great many people have student loans and mortgages.
Personally, I'm with you: the people who taught me to manage my finances had lived through periods where inflation and annual loan interest rates were 15%-20% - their attitude was that getting a loan to buy a car was a fool's game, and a sure sign you were living beyond your means.
At 15% annual interest I'm sure they were right - but after a decade of near-zero interest rates, I can understand why people these days are a lot less worried about buying a car on finance.
If you want a degree student loans are difficult to avoid unless someone else is subsidising your expenses or you decided to go to college after already becoming wealthy.
Mortgage is hard to avoid if you want to buy a house.
Some responsible use of car loans have their place.
I don't know you/your-situation but I've seen a hundred people talk about how they are debt-averse and give a bunch of credit card and maybe even auto loan related examples.
And they are all 2x+ their annual earnings deep into a mortgage.
If it's really life saving, break the lock and/or door.
You're right - locks are generally meant to keep out less committed thieves, but lock-picking is hard for the average person. It takes a lot of practice, good light, and a steady hand.
Picking a lock in an emergency situation seems impractical when you can just wrench the mechanism open.
Not just life saving, but you could potentially save very expensive property or business as well. We have been in a situation where electronic door locks failed in a power outage (hurricane) and we needed to access an email server behind those walls for an emergency retrieval of data. Everything was lights out, we were just trying to get the physical box out of the locked room. Ultimately had to crawl through ceiling tiles to circumvent the inoperative door lock.
I like how this is realistic, even though it is a frequent re-post. Do risk-based planning. You are likely to have an accident. Have a practical first aid kit a buffer of critical medicine you might need. You are likely to lose power for some amount of time, consider your plan if you lose power (and plan accordingly. A battery backup for your phone might be practical, a generator might not be). Understand you needs: you need potable water. Most can go days to weeks without food, and you can go months without a balanced diet. Don't plan for things you can't mitigate. Some things aren't survivable: recognize that.
Best to just start noticing immediate risks, not rare risks. Immediate risk would be like losing a job that could make you homeless. Live in rural area with no med kit? Get one. Is stuff like that people should really think about and do, but it takes time to introspect where the immediate risks are
Have been following Michal's exploits (card carrying dad here, sorry) for almost my entire infosec career. Always appreciate his practical and rational take on things. This is no exception, great article and something I think allows people to think about the topic without getting sucked into the editorializing that typically goes with it.
I've lived in the US for around 6 years. When I served on the board of a co-operative apartment building, I was taken aback by the level of detail tenants and some board members made for themselves in the event of a major catastrophe.
How gleefully some sprung into action with their N95 masks and crank-powered radios when the pandemic struck! Unfortunately their foresight did not extend to the more pressing existential issues in the building, such as mould, fire safety, security, insurance etc.
In the event of a real emergency, preppers will be a convenient source of resources and supplies to be exploited by whatever roving bands are marauding the landscape. If you nerd out on preparedness, you're just increasing the chance that the local Blood King will turn your skull into a goblet when he comes looking for the stash of canned goods you bragged about online in the Before Times.
While I suspect a certain level of sarcasm was intended, a valid point for discussion does exist within your comment - The idea that preparing is merely forwarding supplies to your local warlord. This basically assumes a TEOTWAWKI scenario, which should be very far down the list of any preparation. It is always recommended in preparation circles to get to know your neighbors and integrate yourself into your local community. Under any reasonable set of circumstances, a well functioning local community should be able to stand up to any war lord types and would be the atoms from which a new society is formed.
The classic advice goes something like this - in a survival situation you will be killed by the first critical problem you can't solve yourself. Communities form for a reason and knowing the geography of your operational area includes the social geography.
As someone who's been "prepping" for years, I got a few apologies after the pandemic began by people who used to think I was nuts.
However, I think the reason they thought I was nuts wasn't because I was doing anything that was nuts; having extra food;clothing;water;medicine, a "bug out" bag, and some firearms isn't really extreme in any way.
The problem with prepping is the term "prepping" itself, especially its association with "doomsday prepping", which is mostly an invention of the sensationalist media. Sure, such preppers do exist, but they are an extreme minority. The media focuses on them because they are the most entertaining. Practical preparedness is boring, at least in the TV sense. The average prepper is more concerned with weather events(inc. fires, earthquakes), civil unrest, pandemics, etc. Don't get me wrong, I've met some preppers IRL that are kind of delusional, but even they aren't "doomsday" preppers. I don't think I've ever knowingly met a "doomsday" prepper.
Unfortunately, I do think that the media's mockery of prepping did nothing to encourage people to prepare in a practical way, and if anything it discouraged people who have a distaste for things they believe are right-wing.
In my opinion, prepping needs to be rebranded. We should probably drop the term "prepping" all together and just call it something like "civil preparedness". A little promotion from FEMA would help, too, especially if done under Biden, since FEMA has pretty much abandoned any meaningful public communication about preparing people for emergencies. FEMA, and formerly the US DoD as well as Office of Civil Defense, used to publish more literature on emergency preparedness and response, but you'll notice that after the late 1980s those efforts significantly declined.
In any case, the title of the article implies that lots of preppers are "crazy folk" and provides what seems like an alternative that is not crazy. The reality is that this article describes exactly what at least 95% of preppers do. Well, besides the zombie apocalypse part.
I find that folks are in denial. They don't want to think of being on their own, with civil society in disorder. They feel (understandably) helpless in such a situation. So they cling to the idea that it "won't happen here" and anyone preparing for it is foolish.
We'd have to get over that mental hill, before folks can come out on the other side and start sensibly preparing.
I've thought a civil preparedness plan could be building-by-building for instance. Multi-family dwellings could have a set of shared resources. Makes it more palatable, when 'everyone is doing it'.
I agree. Some would call my family preppers, but we live in an area likely to be devastated by a major earthquake. We wanted at least 2 weeks of supplies, water, etc in case of it. We actually were closer to a month. People thought we were strange, until toilet paper and meat shortages at our local stores this year. I have had a few friends ask me for advice on stocking up now.
We started back when we lived in the Midwest. We had a basic "tornado kit" in the basement (our first year, there were a bunch of tornadoes within 5 miles of our home) and then later, a blizzard knocked out power. Of course, the power company does the big city first, then works their way out to the country. Took us 3 days to get power back. We had propane, but the furnace needs electricity to start up the fan. The Well needs power to run the pump, etc. I was very eye opening to us.
I will disagree with the idea that doomsday preppers are an extreme minority and with the idea that they are an invention of media. Doomsday prepping is pushed by several large religious organizations such as LDS, JW, and SDA to name a few. Between just these three organizations there are ~10M US citizens whose beliefs align with a doomsday scenario, and a large percentage of these people prep at the insistence and recommendation of their church.
It could also be called preparedness. We got a brochure last year about being prepared as a society and little things you could keep in mind.
I don't mind having a wind up radio/usb-battery/torch in my cupboard. Or even some jugs of water, water cleansing tablets, first aid and stuff like that. Costs barely anything to be a little bit prepared.
I quite enjoyed the beginnings of this essay & the parts of assessing risk and mapping out problem spaces. But the essay seems to take a weird turn about halfway through ("3: The Prepared Lifesylte") where the author begins to give their opinion on how folks should best live their lives _in general_, under the guise of suggesting that it's a "Prepared Lifestyle".
For example:
- 3.3. Learn new skills --> supposedly this is to counteract the risk of your job market shifting ("develop useful and marketable secondary skills"), but the example list is pretty random and not necessarily all that economically pragmatic. So it just seems more like the author believes people should have hobbies...
- 3.4.5. Don't Hurt Yourself: Just in Case, Keep your Senses Razor Sharp --> Which basically says, don't drink or do drugs because that raises the possibility that you'll get hurt? I mean, absolutely it'll be crappy if an earthquake happens while you're high & sure if you're piss drunk you might do something dumb to harm yourself but if you really wanna talk about avoiding injuries... taking recreational drugs is probably like on the bottom of the list of things to worry about for anyone who doesn't have substance abuse problems. Feels a lot more like the author just being prescriptive about lifestyle choices.
- 3.6. Get in Shape ---> The author proceeds to dedicate 4/5 of this section to how (in their opinion) someone should change their diet to lose weight. There is then 2 sentences on how "being able to walk or bike for several hours is likely good enough to deal with all practical scenarios we talked about thus far". If that was really what mattered, one could recommend an actual exercise routine and probably spend less time lecturing folks on their theoretical obesity. Physical fitness is correlated with weight, but they're often unrelated. After all, plenty of regular (non-obese) people can't bike for hours at a time (myself included! I have terrible hip problems from a desk job, even though I can do plenty of pullups & work out regularly). If you want to be able to run long distances, you have to run. Same for biking. To focus on weight seems disingenuous.
...and so on and so forth.
I do wish that the author wouldn't couch their personal opinions on how others should live under the guise of disaster planning. But the rest of the article is fantastic & very well thought out.
It depends on the career. Blue collar union workers (up until just recently) could easily go a lifetime without losing a job in certain parts of the country. But the flip side of it is the more job security you have today, the worse off you’ll be if you are ever out of a job (again like blue collar workers today).
Living in a hurricane zone makes prepping a once a year event if you’re just a bit smart, we stock water, canned food, snacks, dry groceries (pasta, beans) alternate cooking fuel (propane), batteries, a few gas cans, rope, tarp. Not hard to do, just rotate the food once the season is over, the rest can last forever. The idea is not to survive a zombie apocalypse but just a few weeks without power or a light flood.
[+] [-] kochb|5 years ago|reply
https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=15110850
[+] [-] dang|5 years ago|reply
Reposts are fine after a year or so (https://news.ycombinator.com/newsfaq.html), but this one was pretty clearly a follow-up to https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=25059984, and we probably don't need two of these on the front page.
[+] [-] ajsnigrutin|5 years ago|reply
There are many, many realistic situatiations, where you might end up without power, outside, or even locked at home (like going abroad when the neighbouring country is in a "green" covid state, and your government changing their mind overnight, how they decide 'colors', and classifing it as "red", and you need to quarantene for 14 days). Plus all the "i have the flu, I don't want to go to the supermarket today" situations.
Having some supplies at home (canned food, pasta, etc.) and some extra other stuff, a barbecue or something to cook stuff in, and an extra pair of socks & a shirt in your car is a very smart thing to do. Our grandmothers, living in villages had full cellars of food not that long ago, with sacks of flour, salt, and knowledge how to bake bread, and it was a totally normal thing to do and have (and people outside of big cities still do that).
And reality TV? Show a nutter, thinking about rapture, with a cellar full of some dry freezed crap, some 5 year food supply pack on a couple of pallets, still unopened, with an expiration date two years in the future, a huge amount of guns and ammo, and a "tactical" toilet bag, with a tacital, camo colored emergency toilet paper cutter, ...just in case.
This makes preppers look stupid, their prep cases look unrealistic, people having half a slice of toast and a jar of mouldy mustard as only food items in their house and people literally starving when their delivery driver cancells their order due to icy roads.
[+] [-] lazide|5 years ago|reply
[+] [-] brightball|5 years ago|reply
But I agree with you. I always make sure we have some emergency food, water, basic power needs, heat and communication options.
[+] [-] _jal|5 years ago|reply
The nutters are real - I have one in my family. At some level, this is just arguing about fringe enthusiasts lacking professional PR agents.
[+] [-] ahnick|5 years ago|reply
[+] [-] brainzap|5 years ago|reply
[+] [-] cbanek|5 years ago|reply
Well, this aged well! I'm glad to see this very reasonable take so far.
One thing that I don't see mentioned is a "go-bag" or "bug out bag", which I find to be one of the more useful preparations. Have a bag with some clothes, your documents, medication, whatever you might need if you need to leave your house in a couple of minutes notice for a couple of days. Super useful even if it's not a total life and death emergency, but you need to see or help someone, and won't know for how long. A lot of good advice here about what to put in it though! And a lot of useful advice on good skills to have.
One other small note: always have a roll of paper towels and toilet paper in your trunk in a bag. Just trust me on this one, you'll thank me later.
[+] [-] tedmcory77|5 years ago|reply
I also have a portable water filter; it wont get everything but since I live in Florida most likely there will be fresh water nearby.
Source - boyscout, millitary time
[+] [-] skwb|5 years ago|reply
[+] [-] mschuster91|5 years ago|reply
The article is from 2018... we got a glimpse with SARS/MERS and had sheer luck that these two didn't turn into 'rona-scale pandemic.
[+] [-] an_opabinia|5 years ago|reply
What, ultimately, were preppers better prepared for?
Anyone could make a cotton mask out of a t-shirt. The mask policy was a governance error. Having N95 masks as preppers did is as far off the mark from "cotton mask" as not wearing a mask at all, preppers would still run out of N95s, they'd still use a cotton mask, N95s were still overkill.
Besides masks, was there anything the public really needed that it could not get but could have stored inside their basement? Toilet paper? That's what you will summon as, "Preppers averted a life crisis."
How are you going to doomsday prep "elective surgeries" and "ICU beds?" That's what there were real shortages of. It's ridiculous.
[+] [-] dom96|5 years ago|reply
I find that surprising. Perhaps this is the difference between growing up in a middle-class household vs. a working-class household, but personally I have seen first hand why debt is bad and been taught to avoid credit cards and debt like the plague.
Perhaps this does not fit the middle-class lifestyle and now that I am personally earning far more than my parents ever did I wonder if I should be less averse to debt, can anyone chime in with what the right balance is here?
[+] [-] hervature|5 years ago|reply
Avoiding debt is good advice for 90% of the population who can't plan or understand long term commitments relative to their income level. When you understand and internalize that debt is simply a trade of cash flows (you get money now, they get money over time) that can be beneficial to all parties involved, you treat debt as a tool. Sometimes it's useful, sometimes it's bad, depends on your situation. When your debt starts to accumulate, it means that your prediction of future cash flow was wrong.
[+] [-] bityard|5 years ago|reply
If you want to own and grow a business that requires capital outlay or hiring people, there's practically no way to get started without taking on some debt. But if you're just working a W-2 job, have stable income, and live within your means, then the only "reasonable" debt to have is a mortgage and _maybe_ a car payment.
Plenty of people use debt wrong and that's why it gets a bad rep. Poor communities are often not taught proper financial management and may use credit card balances and payday loans because they believe that's what necessary to survive. Even though in the end, they are handing over a sizeable chunk of their modest income for no good reason.
Middle-class people wind up in bankruptcy because they use debt to fund luxury purchases that they didn't need and arguably couldn't afford. (Cars, boats, McMansions, etc).
[+] [-] paxys|5 years ago|reply
[+] [-] earthboundkid|5 years ago|reply
I think this person just has a philosophy of debt and justifies it as "prepping" even though it's not prepping related at all.
[+] [-] Wonnk13|5 years ago|reply
Right now money is "cheap", whether it's a mortgage, or another type of loan interest rates are about as close to 0 as they can get.
There's a reason that wealthy don't call it "debt", they call it "leverage" because it can be a very useful means to an end.
[+] [-] namdnay|5 years ago|reply
Apart from that, I’d avoid any other form of debt (unless it’s some weird game system like the US credit scores or cards, in which case play it if you want but be careful, if you ever trip up they’ll take you to the cleaners)
[+] [-] lotsofpulp|5 years ago|reply
Also, some debt is politically more favorable than others. Debt to purchase land is more easily bailed out and less risky than buying options on margin.
It’s also easier if you have supportive friends/family/spouse with high income so that you can at least have the basics in the worst case scenario.
[+] [-] swebs|5 years ago|reply
[+] [-] michaelt|5 years ago|reply
Personally, I'm with you: the people who taught me to manage my finances had lived through periods where inflation and annual loan interest rates were 15%-20% - their attitude was that getting a loan to buy a car was a fool's game, and a sure sign you were living beyond your means.
At 15% annual interest I'm sure they were right - but after a decade of near-zero interest rates, I can understand why people these days are a lot less worried about buying a car on finance.
[+] [-] oicu812|5 years ago|reply
Consider a program like this to free yourself of debt: https://www.daveramsey.com/dave-ramsey-7-baby-steps
[+] [-] astura|5 years ago|reply
Mortgage is hard to avoid if you want to buy a house.
Some responsible use of car loans have their place.
[+] [-] cagenut|5 years ago|reply
And they are all 2x+ their annual earnings deep into a mortgage.
[+] [-] tiborsaas|5 years ago|reply
In an emergency situation it could be life saving if you can open a door to gain access to something valuable.
[+] [-] mankyd|5 years ago|reply
You're right - locks are generally meant to keep out less committed thieves, but lock-picking is hard for the average person. It takes a lot of practice, good light, and a steady hand.
Picking a lock in an emergency situation seems impractical when you can just wrench the mechanism open.
[+] [-] bob1029|5 years ago|reply
[+] [-] throwaway5752|5 years ago|reply
[+] [-] cjohnson318|5 years ago|reply
[+] [-] m3kw9|5 years ago|reply
[+] [-] jcims|5 years ago|reply
Have been following Michal's exploits (card carrying dad here, sorry) for almost my entire infosec career. Always appreciate his practical and rational take on things. This is no exception, great article and something I think allows people to think about the topic without getting sucked into the editorializing that typically goes with it.
[+] [-] ptcampbell|5 years ago|reply
How gleefully some sprung into action with their N95 masks and crank-powered radios when the pandemic struck! Unfortunately their foresight did not extend to the more pressing existential issues in the building, such as mould, fire safety, security, insurance etc.
[+] [-] bhelkey|5 years ago|reply
[+] [-] idlewords|5 years ago|reply
[+] [-] metiscus|5 years ago|reply
The classic advice goes something like this - in a survival situation you will be killed by the first critical problem you can't solve yourself. Communities form for a reason and knowing the geography of your operational area includes the social geography.
[+] [-] ravenstine|5 years ago|reply
However, I think the reason they thought I was nuts wasn't because I was doing anything that was nuts; having extra food;clothing;water;medicine, a "bug out" bag, and some firearms isn't really extreme in any way.
The problem with prepping is the term "prepping" itself, especially its association with "doomsday prepping", which is mostly an invention of the sensationalist media. Sure, such preppers do exist, but they are an extreme minority. The media focuses on them because they are the most entertaining. Practical preparedness is boring, at least in the TV sense. The average prepper is more concerned with weather events(inc. fires, earthquakes), civil unrest, pandemics, etc. Don't get me wrong, I've met some preppers IRL that are kind of delusional, but even they aren't "doomsday" preppers. I don't think I've ever knowingly met a "doomsday" prepper.
Unfortunately, I do think that the media's mockery of prepping did nothing to encourage people to prepare in a practical way, and if anything it discouraged people who have a distaste for things they believe are right-wing.
In my opinion, prepping needs to be rebranded. We should probably drop the term "prepping" all together and just call it something like "civil preparedness". A little promotion from FEMA would help, too, especially if done under Biden, since FEMA has pretty much abandoned any meaningful public communication about preparing people for emergencies. FEMA, and formerly the US DoD as well as Office of Civil Defense, used to publish more literature on emergency preparedness and response, but you'll notice that after the late 1980s those efforts significantly declined.
In any case, the title of the article implies that lots of preppers are "crazy folk" and provides what seems like an alternative that is not crazy. The reality is that this article describes exactly what at least 95% of preppers do. Well, besides the zombie apocalypse part.
[+] [-] JoeAltmaier|5 years ago|reply
We'd have to get over that mental hill, before folks can come out on the other side and start sensibly preparing.
I've thought a civil preparedness plan could be building-by-building for instance. Multi-family dwellings could have a set of shared resources. Makes it more palatable, when 'everyone is doing it'.
[+] [-] briffle|5 years ago|reply
We started back when we lived in the Midwest. We had a basic "tornado kit" in the basement (our first year, there were a bunch of tornadoes within 5 miles of our home) and then later, a blizzard knocked out power. Of course, the power company does the big city first, then works their way out to the country. Took us 3 days to get power back. We had propane, but the furnace needs electricity to start up the fan. The Well needs power to run the pump, etc. I was very eye opening to us.
[+] [-] stagger87|5 years ago|reply
[+] [-] enlightens|5 years ago|reply
[+] [-] INTPenis|5 years ago|reply
I don't mind having a wind up radio/usb-battery/torch in my cupboard. Or even some jugs of water, water cleansing tablets, first aid and stuff like that. Costs barely anything to be a little bit prepared.
[+] [-] leashless|5 years ago|reply
If you're interested in a more model-driven and systemic approach, try this, which is a pattern language for human risk management.
http://resiliencemaps.org/files/Dealing_in_Security.July2010...
[+] [-] ifokiedoke|5 years ago|reply
For example:
- 3.3. Learn new skills --> supposedly this is to counteract the risk of your job market shifting ("develop useful and marketable secondary skills"), but the example list is pretty random and not necessarily all that economically pragmatic. So it just seems more like the author believes people should have hobbies...
- 3.4.5. Don't Hurt Yourself: Just in Case, Keep your Senses Razor Sharp --> Which basically says, don't drink or do drugs because that raises the possibility that you'll get hurt? I mean, absolutely it'll be crappy if an earthquake happens while you're high & sure if you're piss drunk you might do something dumb to harm yourself but if you really wanna talk about avoiding injuries... taking recreational drugs is probably like on the bottom of the list of things to worry about for anyone who doesn't have substance abuse problems. Feels a lot more like the author just being prescriptive about lifestyle choices.
- 3.6. Get in Shape ---> The author proceeds to dedicate 4/5 of this section to how (in their opinion) someone should change their diet to lose weight. There is then 2 sentences on how "being able to walk or bike for several hours is likely good enough to deal with all practical scenarios we talked about thus far". If that was really what mattered, one could recommend an actual exercise routine and probably spend less time lecturing folks on their theoretical obesity. Physical fitness is correlated with weight, but they're often unrelated. After all, plenty of regular (non-obese) people can't bike for hours at a time (myself included! I have terrible hip problems from a desk job, even though I can do plenty of pullups & work out regularly). If you want to be able to run long distances, you have to run. Same for biking. To focus on weight seems disingenuous.
...and so on and so forth.
I do wish that the author wouldn't couch their personal opinions on how others should live under the guise of disaster planning. But the rest of the article is fantastic & very well thought out.
(EDIT: formatting)
[+] [-] unknown|5 years ago|reply
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[+] [-] Natsu|5 years ago|reply
How lucky is this, I wonder? I suspect it's not evenly distributed, though.
[+] [-] ComputerGuru|5 years ago|reply
[+] [-] unknown|5 years ago|reply
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[+] [-] neuralRiot|5 years ago|reply