Why Are We Preparing?

Comments in my previous thread have inspired me to write this one. I thought every person here is a prepper. If you are a prepper, why are you preparing? For example, if you live on the west coast of the United States, you may be prepping for a significant earthquake. At the very least I hope you are for those living in that area.

Jeanette Isabelle

We'll start off with the USGS
https://www.usgs.gov/news/natural-hazards-2016

I don't really consider myself a "prepper"... I've lived on the central west coast of Florida for 60+ years, attended a relatively good school in the South, toured parts of Asia and South East Asia, and have gone through multiple tropical weather events, and have some firearm skills... as I age, I understand I can't do some of the physical work I once did....as a former classroom teacher, I incorporated a hurricane prep discussion, and always included an after action report when we encountered such events...I think it is prudent to have at least a month's supply of canned food, and some way to extend this with stored rice, beans, or pasta...I have the ability to solar cook, pressure can, and dehydrate... once upon a time I had a uniform badge that said "be prepared"

"Be prepared,that's the Boy Scouts marching song,
Be prepared, as through life you march along,
Be prepared to hold your liquor pretty well,
Don't write naughty words on walls if you can't spell...

Be prepared to hide that pack of cigarettes,
Don't make book if you cannot cover bets...

If you are looking for adventure of a new and different kind..
and you come across a Girl Scout who is similarly inclined,
don't be nervous, don't be flustered, don't be scared,
BE PREPARED!!!"

lyrics from Tom lehrer's "Boy Scout Marching Song" (1954 or so)

I ROLFL listening to this in high school, and it clearly made an impression. My family legends involve a tale of Mom and Dad concocting a glorious Depression-era Sunday dinner from road kill chicken.

Much later, working in the National Park Service, there were routine assignments where the nearest grocery store would be 50-100 miles away. I ran up my first $100 + grocery bill during a 1967 stop in Gallup, NM, while proceeding to a summer at Chaco Canyon....

By then, SAR involvement had dunned into me the need to think of possible complications on an outing. Doing archaeology and history,
I was involved in understanding tales of abandonment and misadventure, etc.

So it is perfectly normal to have a well stocked cupboard, along with a stock of TP, beer, and ammo because the stores are not always open or convenient.

Prudence ="prepping". But like any human activity, it can be carried to ridiculous extremes, but, still

"Be prepared, as through life you march along..."

I am an ISTP personality. My preparation is heavy on the skill side. Sometimes I think it would be interesting to have a certain skill an often I end up to learn it just for fun. The range goes from cooking, baking sourdough bread over amateur radio and lockpicking to reloading, shooting muzzle loaders, CAS, hunting, fishing and extended first aid skills. New skills also require new toys badly needed equipment.
Somehow having some supplies seems just natural.
So in conclusion the driving force behind my preparedness might be a personality flaw.

Max, how do you cook sourdough bread over amateur radio? That is a skill!

We prepare for things that happen somewhere on a regular basis, as has been stated in other threads, tornados, hurricanes, earthquakes, floods, power outages, loss of water supply, etc. ..etc... Things happen in life, and relying on someone else to help you out of it is dangerous, especially when you are expecting the government to handle it. Even the government has limited resources, many of their people lack training, their communications may not work effectively, or they may be overextended in handling large scale emergencies.

Should you worry about security? Yes. Should you be paranoid and live in fear of societal breakdown? No. Living in constant fear is counterproductive. A realistic threat assessment, based on factual historical information, is the basis of a good plan for preparedness.

Real radios glow in the dark and produce enough heat for slow baking pumpernickel (it´s baked at about 120°C). I am not a fan of pumpernickel though .
Apart from that I bake my sourdough bread in the oven just like everybody else.

We need to prepare for the things you mentioned.

I also look at historical examples such as the Armenian genocide, the Great Depression and Europe during World War II.

Jeanette Isabelle

Not for any specific event; We just like being self-reliant.

Montanero...USAF Security Service SIGINT intercept and reporting units, at the time I served, used dual racks of Collins R390A radio receivers... they would generate enough heat that hot dogs wrapped in foil could be cooked on them...

Montanero speak with straight tongue!!

I might add, be part of the solution. Get training and hook up with other volunteers - in a CERT group, for example or some similar volunteer organization. I acquired first aid training up to EMT level and used it frequently for strangers who were subjects of rescues, but I frequently used it on family and friends, as well, dealing quickly with problems and getting them to definitive care before things ballooned out of control.

Timely response is a crucial factor in emergencies (the "Golden Hour"). the closer you are to the scene and the more skills you bring to bear, the more effective you are.

Look up the definition of the word prepper in the urban dictionary. It is most closely associated with another name that some may not want to be associated with.
http://forums.equipped.org/rules.html

So I went immediately to the Urban Dictionary and found this:

"Someone who focuses on preparedness, generally for various worst-case scenarios like peak oil or armageddon. Sometimes used to avoid the more loaded term survivalist."

Now I know ETS states up front that it is not a survivalist forum (good!). There are alternative definitions of "prepper" in the UD, one of which emphasizes the negative aspects of the activity.

Reading on some threads, one does get the impression that many preppers will be really disappointed if TEOTW does come fairly soon - they have invested heavily.

I'm missing something. Why would the preppers be disappointed?

Edit: Let me add I believe it is possible to overprepare for a situation.

I'll give an example. Suppose you believe a catastrophic event will happen and the only safe place to be is in the desert. You have everything you think you need that will not be available in the desert. There are two potential problems: One, you could die before you even head to the desert. Two, depending on your mode of transportation or the lack thereof, you may not be able to bring with you everything you wanted.

Jeanette Isabelle

Reading some threads (not all by any means) there seem to be folks who are preparing for The End and the Total Collapse, whereupon they will improve their lot considerably by virtue of their vast amounts of canned tomatoes and AR-15s. In the new order, they will rise to the top. The sooner that happens, the quicker they will improve their status...

One can think of all kinds of problems with that scenario, but there are many degrees and shades of "prepping," and in this thread I think we are discussing mostly the most extreme varieties of preparedness. Nothing at all wrong with paranoid people prepping - after all, they just might be right.

But I wouldn't bet on it.

I prepare the way I do because I like the toys and other necessary equipment. If the end and total collapse actually arrives, and I find myself stuck in SOCAL with no way out I’ll be a bit peeved. That said, with current legislation coming in the next few years, I will probably have a PNW tag for my loc in the not too distant future. I’m not a native Cali and will not consider it a loss when I leave.

Russ, you are giving away our true motivations. I could collapse REI if I sold all the gear, etc. that I have accumulated over the years because of my outdoor-oriented activities. And I'll bet we're not alone....

I'm that way with first aid equipment. I have four first aid kits in my bedroom, one in my EDC bag, one for the household and another for the car.

Jeanette Isabelle

A lot of my prep is simply living in a place where I don't need quite so much prep in the first place. We don't have hurricanes here, or earthquakes, or tornados (along the foothills), or forest fires (in the suburbs), or floods (we're up atop a large hill). We do have snow, but not the totally paralyzing kind like up in the northeast or along the great lakes. It can get cold, but not usually for prolonged periods, but if absolutely necessary I do have a bazillion linear feet of 6 foot wooden fence that would burn in our fireplace for a long time.

I do have water and food and adequate means of self defense stockpiled though. And a generator and a decent about of propane and gasoline.

Question: If you run out of water, can you drink a hot tub? That's 500+ gallons right there!

Depends on what you were doing in it before. Boil it well.

I got moved around by my job a lot, coast to coast. (Some of my colleagues got moved overseas, so at least I got to stay domestic.) I was always just by myself, a stranger in a new town. It was hard to develop ties with the community (work, neighbors, etc.) when everyone knew you'd be gone soon. So I realized I needed knowledge and technology, because I couldn't count on anyone but myself. So I made plans for situations like: what if I got so sick that I couldn't move? (Actually had to execute that plan a few times.) People who live with at last one other person probably don't think about the importance of having a supply of water, medicine, and sanitary stuff right next to them in bed.

The skillsets for survival weren't instilled from other parts of my life. Many people got into prepping as an extension of camping. But there is not much that intersects with any of my skills, professional or otherwise -- other than actually experiencing emergencies such as hurricanes, flooding, earthquakes, medical stuff, etc. People who have those skills tend to come from a different world, a different culture. So my horizon has been broadened as a consequence, and I'm better for it.

Also, moving around means one gets chances to learn about new problems. Crime in the cities, having access to nothing out in a two-horse town, tornados in the Midwest/South, freezing cold in the Upper Midwest, fires/earthquake on the West Coast, hurricanes on the Gulf, etc.

I became interested in prepping because I study Bible prophecy and because of personal experiences.

Jeanette Isabelle

Yikes! The treatment chemicals for a hot tub are a potent brew. Fine for bathing -- and yet rinsing afterwards is SOP. But I would have grave reservations about ingesting this water in any amount, even boiled.

That said, I suspect the water could be reclaimed by a distilling process, which is not hard to scrounge together if you have a heat source.

Sodium Bicarbonate to raise the pH, Sodium Bisulfate to lower the pH, target pH is 7.2 - 7.8, Potassium Monopersulfate as a "shock oxidizer" (this I image is not good to eat, just by the ominous name of it!), Chlorine (probably dissipates with aeration?) and minerals. I think the minerals are to help stabilize pH and to create hardness, but I don't really know, nor do I know what the specific minerals used are. Then there's an ozone injection thingy and a quite extensive mechanical filtration system.

My wife wanted the hot tub, so I said she gets to be the chemist. I just do the soaking and relaxing myself!

The water looks as clear and fresh as a remote mountain stream. However, ... !!!

I prep because it is a natural extension of me being a DIY guy. Also, there really is no downside to doing a reasonable amount of prepping. It only adds value to my life. Besides being practical, prepping is a good mental exercise, forces self awareness, forces world awareness, etc.

I picked my name here deliberately. Much of what I carry, choose to learn, and so on comes from trying to learn from experience.

Experience is the reason I EDC the items that I carry. Experience is the reason I will from now on bring extra lip balm and aspirin when I'm on a trip. Experience is the reason I'm considering a folder (or box cutter) to EDC.

Jeanette Isabelle

Also, its kind of fun

the strange answer is...
For very dull events

I plan for rainstorms, floods, etc and so on. If its unlikely to happens around here, I don't worry about it.

so no TEOTWAWKI ( and I feel fine), no zombies, no EMP's

When someone cuts themselves and needs a band-aid or needs a piece of tape or a knife or something to light a fire I have always been that nerd who can simply pull out of his wallet or a pocket. Just today one of my coworkers needed a knife and everyone pointed in my direction at the same time “Macs got one for sure, he always carries a knife”

My reply was “why the hell doesn’t everyone else?”

Trying to be prepared for what life throws at you (simple or complex)seems like common sense to me.

You just described my life!

Its fun to be self reliant!

I agree with the general philosophy, except I prefer not to make it public.
They mostly make fun of you, and when it gets bad, everyone remembers you. No, thanks.

My experience at being prepared when things turn south has been completely different. To my knowledge no one has made fun of me (and if they had, so what?). In the worst case scenarios, my efforts, preps , and the efforts of other prepared people has made the situation somewhat better than it might have been. Usually I have been remembered as the dude with the right stuff who tried his best. I can live with that.

That is much better than being the person sitting in the corner, doing nothing.

It also might be that I love gear and tech; gives me a reason to get new stuff and play with it...

Also, I love being efficient and being able to move fast.

It doesn't have to be "doing nothing", just doing it a different way.

Before retiring, I used to carry my own tool kit in the work bag; since the office tools always moved from place to place and lot of time was wasted trying to locate this or that. I didn't have much patience for wasted time. So, when something went wrong, I temporarily shifted to a different task. Then during lunchtime, when everyone went to eat, I got the tools out, fixed the problem and restarted the task. Boss never cared about those details. He only wanted results. So, I got the job done without telling anyone that there was a problem and I used MY TOOLS to fix the problem. This way none of my stuff got borrowed or lost.

I am INTJ

Our species lives in the future
We spend most of our lives planning.

So, prepping becomes a favourite hobby