Survivalism and Prepping

I am a Conservative and a Tea Party activist. My Conservative value system intersects nicely with survivalism. I am independent by nature. My wife and I run our own business. Business people tend to plan for contingencies just like survivalists.

The political and economic climate has been deteriorating for quite a while, and I believe it will get much worse before it gets better. Big Brother grows by the day. The incentive to “get off the grid” is definitely there. (But “getting off the grid” means different things to different people and warrants discussion on its own.)

I believe the key is making the decision to do SOMETHING. Many people contemplating taking a survival stance become completely overwhelmed when they start thinking about things like food and water storage, energy production, self defense, etc. They don’t know where to start. I was in the same boat at one time. So I started to read up on the subject.

There is no shortage of “experts” giving advice and advocating their own plans. A quick Google search on “survivalism” produced over 1.5 million hits. Amazon lists hundreds of books on the subject. But be careful. Read the reviews first. Stick with the best rated material.

Most experts will categorize the possible scenarios into different levels of severity and duration. Start preparing for the most likely scenario first. In our case it was preparing for a direct hit by hurricane.

Develop a priorty list. We started with simply buying a few extra things at the grocery store on each trip. Water should be high on your list. You can survive a lot longer without food than water. As you develop your own plan you will discover weak points. Not to worry; it’s part of the process.

One thing I would strongly urge is to keep your preparations on a very low profile. The fewer who know, the better. Knowlege of your preparations by others could put your family at a significant security risk when a crisis occurs.

And remember, “The longest journey starts with the first step.”

The Irony of Prepping – Or is it?

It is widely accepted in the Conservative community that Obama and the Progressives believe in the redistribution of wealth. The mantra is “From each according to his ability; to each according to his need.” (a basic premise of Communism).

Their utopian system is based on collectivism – “It takes a village.” Agenda 21, if implemented fully, would forcefully move people from the rural areas back into the urban areas. The food production of the rural areas would be owned and controlled by the government for the benefit of the people as they see fit.

The ruling elites (from both parties) are slowly forcing us in the direction of collectivism, where we are forced to work together for the benefit of “the village,” all under the control of the ruling elites (or a dictator).

Now let’s look at prepping in the context of a total collapse of the economy. There are as many collapse scenarios as there are those with hypotheses regarding how that will unfold. But the end result is a reset to our way of living. Our house of cards would come tumbling down.

Prepping is based on the practice of self-reliance and self-sufficiency. We prepare for life without all the modern conveniences. We broaden our library of skills. We stockpile food, water, guns, and ammunition. We build backup systems for energy production. For really long-term scenarios we plan on producing our own food.

But most “experts” in the field believe that surviving a collapse will ultimately force survivors to work together collectively. We will have to come together into small protected communities to pool our resources and survival skills, much like scenes from “The Postman,” “Jericho,” “The Walking Dead,” and others.

The obvious difference between these two theories is freedom of choice.

I know which is preferrable for me and my family.