We All have understandable worthy fears for others who do not properly prep and how it may effect them when time comes....But whats your irrational ones?

Mine is lack of good lighting. When i visit a family members house or a friends house and they need lighting it seems to always be the same story. They pull out the oldest weakest incandescent flashlight that barely does the job with half dead batteries. It tends to be that or the 20-30 dead broken flashlights pulled out form the strangest places just to find the one "good" one. The rational idea behind this is normal you want people to see in the dark when power goes out. The irrational bit comes when I start screaming in my head that its not good enough that you have light you can see by it has to be more then that!

Too most of us this may sound like normal thoughts and reactions. When telling someone who does not prep they should have some Candles and food/water stored up they tend to agree, rational. When telling them their flashlights they been using for the past decade arent good enough for them, irrational.

I could be just crazy though....that could be the case easily.

Easy fix for families with incandescents - get them a decent inexpensive LED flashlight for birthdays or holidays. I buy LED flashlights for all my nieces and nephews, they love them and keep them in their rooms, play with them etc. A 4-pack of eneloops also goes a long way too (and Costco used to sell eneloops with inexpensive chargers so I have more than a few of those to hand out to the kids). In my family only my mom would think of using an old incandescent light, the kids are all onto LEDs.

For Christmas this year I'm thinking of giving out to my extended family some of those inexpensive Coleman 3AA LED lanterns, for the inevitable power outages. They look pretty cool, useful and will come in handy eventually.

That's a good point about the light. When I asked my girlfriend if she carries the tiny fauxton light I gave her, she responded that she prefers to use the light from her cell phone when she needs to see something at night. My first reaction was to go into lecture mode, but then I stopped myself. She could be unprepared in worse ways. So, I let it go.

Another irrational fear is my fear of being unable to tie a wide variety of knots. Some people are 100% uninterested in the art of knot tying. Really though, knowing a huge variety of knots is unnecessary for survival. Knowing the Clove, Reef, Bowline, and Roundturn & Two Half Hitches, is probably sufficiently for practically all survival situations. Everybody should at least be able to tie down a load, bind stuff together, and hitch rope to an object. There are better knots for particular applications, but again we're talking about people who are uninterested. For example, no, I'm not going to add a friction hitch (e.g., Tautline) to that list because a Tautline won't be remembered by an uninterested person. Plus, you could still get stuff done without knowing a friction hitch or many other knots.

I don't have fears - irrational or otherwise - about the degree of anyone else's preps.

I just buy extra.

And give friends and family this:

http://www.amazon.com/Survival-Mom-Disas...ds=survival+mom


If that book does not persuade them to be more prepared, nothing I say will.
.

Irrational? ... None, mine are all quite rational.

Sh** really does happen on occasion and when it does peeps who prepare do fine without any assist. Peeps who don't prepare become victims looking for the cavalry to come rescue. Like Dagny I prefer to over prep and keep extras of just about everything -- except for food and water; how do you define extra food and water without knowing how long the crisis will last. I suppose that's true of any consumable.


If you need ammo and have a gun in a military or LE caliber, I can probably fix you up ... if I know you as a friend and you know how to ask. But first be prepared to take some verbal sh** for not having your own.

Normalcy Bias is essentially the mindset for the 'unprepared people', but within this group is a subset (Venn Diagram )of 'Entitled' people, who do not only realise the Emergency situation that they face but that they require to be pandered to, for their survival needs.

I personally don't have a problem with those suffering from the 'Normalcy Bias' but the 'Entitled' subset could be a major headache for everyone. My 'Irrational Fear' is not really knowing the how big the circle on the Venn Diagram for the 'Entitled' really is within the modern electricity based technology 'matrix' as it continues apace.

They aren't fears, more peeves, but these are probably my top two, with "Entitled" being right at the top. The "Someone else can and must take care of me. That's why I pay taxes!" attitude makes my skin crawl. Those that are oblivious are second. No matter where you live, it doesn't take very much imagination at all the finish the sentance "What if....."

I guess since we're talking fears, this is one: getting stuck somewhere, prepared, with people who think they are entitled to my stuff, when they knew the risks all along and chose not to do anything about it.

As with LED flashlights this is fixed by giving water storage to your family members, and help them fill it and put it away for a rainy day. I give 5 and 30 gallon storage to family members with kids and dogs, they tend to appreciate having this.

What is it about teaching a man to fish... I don't belong to some scary prepper group fitted out in khaki and 5.11s, the most I belong to is the Red Cross which preaches this stuff, but doesn't go to excess as often as I do. So it does no harm if you practice what you preach, and help to secure your own family, however you define that. Folks I know in the disaster preparedness game are far more hardcore than I am about this stuff.

My irrational (?) fear is not necessarily for other's troubles, but for my own. I am not "mega-prepper", but I am better than the average Joe. My fear is to not have something I need (maybe I had it, but ran out of it during the disaster), and not be able to fashion a suitable replacement.

When I look around me at all the simple things I depend on daily, I often wonder how I'm make something like that myself. Say, even my cereal bowl. I suppose I could carve one out of a block of wood (that would take me a full day). But to do that carving, I'd be looking for my knife. But what if my knife was gone? How would I make one of those? It's not like we're just rolling in flint deposits here in the suburbs that I could knap something out of (assuming I knew how to knap something in the first place). I could probably learn how to knap through trial an error. But there goes a week of my time trying to learn that. By the time I had made all the things I needed to make in order to make other things, I would have died of starvation from my missing cereal bowl.

That's my irrational fear - the snowball effect of missing items, combined with my personal incompetance at making them myself!

Happened to me many many times. In the heat of the moment I forgot that I did have the needed item, and completely forgot where it was. Then when things cooled down, I remembered I had it and remembered/discovered where it was.

Irrational fears ?
Non-preppers are the norm around me.
Being prepared is the rare exception.
So, why worry about anything ?

I have a strange Flashlight/Energy Efficient lightbulb attraction that I can't really explain.

I have a couple of LED flashlights in my Truck, along with a Wind-Up one that I test pretty regularly.

I always have a good LED Flashlight in my backpack, and I use it all the time.

I also love the idea of LED household lightbulbs - and I have an awesome Coleman LED lantern that had four detachable LED "Modules" that I keep handy in the event of a power outage. The eight D batteries that power this this will run it for 40 hours straight.

I'm not certain if this is actually irrational, but, even though my wife and I try to have a little extra to help others in need, I fear that we'll be overwhelmed and forced to decide who gets to live and who must starve.

Re-interpreting the question after my first answer: Like haertig, my irrational fear (other than of dentists, birds and fish) is not having what I'm going to need and not being able to make a substitute. Honestly, it's why I don't fly, hate taking public transit or carpooling in someone else's vehicle, not because of any fear of an actual plane/train/car crash. It's also why I have a tendency to over pack.

Not irrational . . .

You and me both, pal. My suggestion: buy rechargeable batteries. Save money for the REALLY GOOD flashlights -- if you're like me you have enough flashlights for any conceivable need, now you're just improving your collection.

Nope, never enough, need more After our discussion in this thread about the FourSevens Maelstrom, I backordered the Maelstrom MM-X. I've already decided to program the Low setting of 30 lumens and the Medium 270 lumen setting in for this light -- Bright and Really Bright. I did not feel a need to program in Extremely Bright although that decision may change on its first late night walk in the park. I use a bright light to search for eyes looking back -- refer to the thread on coyotes.

I have many lights that can handle the low end nicely.

The Maelstrom MM-X (under the original Maelstrom X7 branding) arrived. The user interface is not difficult and gives a very wide range of power out (0.3 lumens to 480 lumens). With this light the button switch turns it on/off like on the tactical models, but rather than having two modes selected by turning the head, four power levels (moonlight/low/medium/high) are available by twisting the head. The light also has strobe/SOS/beacon modes if you feel the need. I'll test that high mode tonight when I walk the dog

Haertig,

you can hollow a bowl with hot rocks from a campfire like the indians did via charring the wood. . FYI

Ironwood