the expectation to be protected and cared for by FEMA and the like reverberates throughout our society. (why should i have a gun for home-protection? i have 911!) part of me feels bad for them. the other side could care less...as you have pointed out the ease of which one can, at least moderately, prepare themselves for a multitude of eventualities.
the line one must walk between being a well-prepared, forward-thinking citizen and a misanthropic, "survivalist" is fine indeed. i guess i have lost my faith in humanity at this point and pray that people get it together before its too late.

One time or another, I've asked most of my co-workers if they've made any disaster preparations. All but two brushed off the question, saying that they would go live with friends or relatives. One said she and her husband would just wait for someone (read: govt) to come to help them.

Only one has a family-sized tent, a non-electric heat source, and has collected water, food, a decent FAK, and has made some plans. Unfortunately, she lives just 25 miles below a volcano, very near a river from the same source, and the major way out is a single 50-mile two-lane road.

Sigh.

Sue

According to a recent article on emergency preparedness in a national news magazine, there are four states of denial involved in the failure to be prepared.

1. It won't happen here.
2. If it does happen here, it won't happen to me.
3. If it does happen to me, it won't be too bad.
4. If it does happen here, and it does happen to me, and it is bad, it was God's will and so couldn't be helped anyway.

The Time magazine article didn't provide any great revelations, but disheartening nevertheless.

Excerpts: "We know exactly — exactly — where the major disasters will occur...but individuals underperceive risk."

"[Disasters] are made much worse by our own lack of ambition — our willful blindness to risk as much as our reluctance to work together before everything goes to hell."

"...the past year in disaster history suggests that modern Americans are particularly, mysteriously bad at protecting themselves from guaranteed threats...in times of crisis, our greatest enemy is rarely the storm, the quake or the surge itself. More often, it is ourselves."

Uniquely American, or a global phenomenon?

I wouldn't be surprised if we couldn't blame it on fifty years of television. All problems solved in 30 to 120 minutes (including commercials).

But I've never been to another country, so I don't know.

I wonder if the citizen of Botswana (etc) think the same way?

Sue

This, I agree, is the winning trifecta. Not only for our society now, but for every society in the past that has had a woefully unprepared population. The differences now that make it harder to excuse are the wide availability of good information, and the equally wide availability of supplies and gear that could save lives.

Frank2135

It seems to me that the first piece of equipment people need to have to be "equipped to survive" is the idea that things can go from "normal" to "survival" in seconds, and that it will be your actions, not 911's, that spell the difference between survival and the alternative. I have had this happen too many times to me. I was there for the riots in DC in '68; twice I have had "freak" winter storms turn a 30 minute commute into a 4 and 12 hour "adventure". Recently, our power went out for 7 days because a hurricane knocked a branch off a tree, which then broke a power line. The line was on a main street 1 block from my house. The local power company needed 7 days to get a crew available to fix it.

I have a friend who works in downtown Washington D.C. who worries about a possible next attack on D.C. -- dirty bomb, biological etc. Yet, he can't seem to bring himself to prepare to "bug out."

Our society and culture has conditioned us that we are not responsible individuals, rather, it conditions us that we will be taken care of.

Only after you get out of this mind-set can you then think about the "hardware" aspects. They are step 2, not step 1.

That reminds me of the Foreign Office 4 stage plan:

• In Stage One we say that nothing is going to happen.
• Stage Two, we say something may be going to happen but we should do nothing about it.
• Stage Three, we say that maybe we should do something about it, but there's nothing we can do.
• Stage Four, we say maybe there is something we could have done, but it's too late now.

(According to Yes Minister).