By Philip.
Photo from nixerKG via Flickr
In 2012, the National Geographic Channel has partnered with Kelton Research and conducted a survey which gauged Americans’ preparedness level and mindset for the potential end of the world scenario. Out of the 1,007 men and women who answered the survey, it revealed that 85 percent of the nation is unprepared and only 20% are most likely to stock up on essential resources the night before the world might end. Even with these statistics and data, a lot of people still think that preppers are crazy. Even the self-confessed prepper, Alan Feuer believes that being a prepper is not easy and thinks that shows like the Doomsday Preppers just gives an invitation to laugh and think of preppers as lunatics.
Photo from theirhistory via Flickr
Who Are The Preppers?
To some, the word “prepper” connotes images of people wearing gas masks armed with resources, such as food and water, and hiding in their bunkers waiting for a catastrophe to happen. In reality, preppers are people who are among us. It could be a doctor, a married couple, subway conductors or even the people that you know such as close friends, neighbors, and acquaintances.
Photo from Semo Times via Flickr
Sudden occurrence of disasters, terrorist attack, arms race, and religious beliefs are just some of the reasons why prepping became an evident part of some people’s lifestyle. Prepping didn’t take place when the infamous prepper TV show has started. The biggest prepper event that has taken place was in fact during the Cold War where the US government constructed a massive bunker to protect the members of the congress. The underground bunker includes a 75,000 gallon of water, a stockpile of medical and food supplies, and a power system.
Photo from Thierry Ehrmann via Flickr
Prepping For TEOTWAWKI
A lot has been added in the movement and the Red Cross also reported the increase in the number of people learning first-aid. Even post-apocalyptic movies such as 2012, Armageddon, and The Day After Tomorrow have contributed for raising the bar. People also think that the events that take place in the movie would most likely happen in the next 25 years. Since 2012, up to 3 million Americans fall on the category of being a prepper and gone are the days of the archetypal man waving a banner and enlightening everyone about the prophecies on apocalypse.
Preppers will take extreme measures to protect their family and you’ll usually hear stories about them and their way of life that most people will think of as unlikely and bizarre. One of it is from a couple who keeps 25,000 rounds of ammunition and food that can last for half a century.
Photo from Ardin via Flickr
What Makes Them Reluctant?
Though the increase in the number of preppers and survivalist groups who will take extreme measures in preparing for a major catastrophe, there are still some who get hesitant in advertising their way of life. These disinclined survivalist are the types of preppers who hide under the bush and keep a low profile about their prepper lifestyle.
Even when most preppers who would just typically shrug off all the naysayers that call them crazy, lunatics, and what have you, some preppers still prefer not to give in detail their lifestyle nor advertise their plans, quantities of supplies, what kind of supplies they have, etc. They choose not to give it in detail because they believe that revealing their preparations is an invitation to unwanted guests when everything goes out of control and without the rule of the law.
There Is No Immunity
While some people love to share their experience in prepping, some would still rather choose to shy away from the limelight and keep within themselves their identity for various reasons. Weather you broadcast being a prepper or not, it is still important to be prepared at all times. A true prepper will go to whatever lengths to make sure that they are prepared for any kind of uncertainties – be it storing canned foods, water or batteries, learning survival skills, constructing a shelter, and practicing hand-to-hand combat techniques. Hurricane Sandy, the recent Ebola crisis, and extreme snow storms occurring are just few evidences that you can cite to prove that no one gets to be immune for any adverse disasters that are yet to come.
16 comments
Skip to comment form
Personally, I believe in being as invisible as possible as a security measure. As such, I would not advertise the fact I am laying down any sort of preps for anything other than the painfully obvious, such as the harsh winter that is being forecasted and base it on previous, easily relatable experience, such as the notoriously unstable power grid where I used to live. Basically, I will say we have food and some canned goods for about a week on hand, but they won’t know about the three months in the basement, the gun safe and the rest of our stores.
In fact, part of our overall strategy will involve making maximum use of local relief efforts, both as a way to stretch out our stores and remain beneath the radar. That is if doing so will not compromise us.
Also, people have a funny memory sometimes and the guy at work you thought was ok could wind up at your door with evil intentions, or worse lead others to your door.
i openly let folks know im prepping to get out of dodge so to speak letting them know ill be off and taking care of my own not saying im not burying food and other supplies i may come back but i own a small farm and unless im buying shit tons of ammo and prepared to kill everyone in sight ill go leaving nothing of use to find thats my plan but in my opinion everyone is different and hell i could be wrong lol hope i never find out
I think the preparedness community thrives by sharing and educating those like me who are just coming onboard. Those that slant towards sovereign citizen and publish that will be the first to be contacted by the G prior to an event. Careful with your profile!
Exactly@ (In fact, I received the same advice from a guy named deepspace, off the 12160dotcom website about a month ago. ) He said:
Rule #1 You do not advertise that you are a member of ‘prep club’. You can advise and warn your family members and people that you trust, but you do not tell even them.
Sound advice! (But it arrived too late for me- everybody in this neighborhood knows what I am doing, And because of that, on the first sign of trouble, I have to bail from here, and take my preps with me……
There is absolutely no way to keep prepping secret. We can keep quiet, keep everything hidden, and live on an island of one and the world still knows what we are doing. I dug a bunker by hand in shovel in our backyard and the next time we googled our lot, there I was digging the hole. Even if you pay cash for items the cashiers are now trained to alert the authorities. Guns are registered, ammo is watched like hawked, neighbors have prying eyes, the kids talk at school, and on it goes. But we prep anyway, what choice do we have.
I look at this topic similiarly to the topic of my underwear size, I am only going to share it with those that really need to know. There are several reasons for this but the main reason is simple; I don’t share a lot of personal information with people that I dont know and trust on really any subject of my life. If the subject comes up in general conversation (which is rarely) I might offer an opinion but I don’t make a habit out of drawing attention to what I do.
To make a comparison, most people dont broadcast their Christmas shopping to strangers as this is a good way to set yourself up for a robbery. I think the same goes with people thinking that you have thousands of dollars worth of prep equipment stashed around your home.
This is an extremely interesting article and a lot of good responce. Being fairly new to this page I keep a keen eye on the responses and read each as if “advice” to consider.
Here are some ramblings from an old fart.
On one hand we have Canadian Vet that’s hard core OPSEC (IMO), I do like his thinking on using not only his own Preps but subsidizing with the “G’s relief efforts”. I also totally agree with the “guy at work” comment. I have already had that “well I’ll just come to your place” comment tossed back at me. Lesson well learned.
On another hand we have Brian, Letting others know his intentions and to, hopefully, teach others about prepping and being a little smarter is something well needed. “GOOD”, can be a viable option for some, maybe even most, but it seems the option of Bugging-In is a very popular scenario. Personally I would not be broadcasting where I was to Bug-out to, that’s seems just a good way to invite followers? IMO I agree with you Brian, I hope like crazy we never find out.
I think Storm is correct, we thrive on teaching and sharing our knowledge, unfortunately it can also greatly compromise our intentions of surviving whatever is heading down the pike. It seems the “G” is watching and waiting for something, ever wonder what it is? Unfortunately we don’t need to advertise our preparing, every time we access some prepper site or make a statement on the net (even on the phone)we “can” be flagged, every time we buy 5 cases of food using a store discount care we “can” be flagged, and I guarantee you if ya buy 5 multi-pack of 12GA shotgun shells your just got put on a list. Hell even posting on this site…….. Well you get the idea. FYI, thanks for the input and welcome to the “crazy’s” HAHAHA
David is partially correct, IMO, Bailing and taking all your preps from where he is at may sound easy, but the truth of the matter is when the SHTF everyone else is going to be balling, so unless you have somewhere to close to bug-out to than it might be better to just stay put and lay low for a time? Just imagine the roads at peak traffic/rush hour (thinking LA here) now, and imagine that 100 times worse when everyone is hitting the roads and trying to run, check out the photos from Sandy or Katrina disasters. FYI it took the Feds 4 days to get water to the Super Bowl after they told everyone to go there….. Nice Huh?
J, thank god you’re not sharing your underwear size…. HAHAHA One question I have is how do you know who to trust and who to let into the confidence? We all hear from time to time of putting together a “community” to join together when the SHTF. So how’s that going to work? Seriously how is it you would really know who’s going to be an asset and who’s going to cut your throat when their kids are hungry because they did not prep properly?
In conclusion I’m probably dead wrong on 95% of my thinking and hopefully I don’t get someone wrong in my analyses, but prepping is something my Great Great Grand Father/Mother did as normal everyday survival. Even the Mormon teaching tells the followers to store 2 years of “preps” on hand. And heck I believe every one of us was a Boy/Girl Scout at one time teaching to be prepared. So why is it now it’s becoming something we need to hide? One reason is social decay; another back when my G-G-Grand Parents were alive 90% of the people lived on the farms, 10% in cities, not that’s backwards.
Good luck to us all if we have to hide from whatever it may be we are hiding from.
NRP
There is absolutely no way to keep prepping secret. We can keep quiet, keep everything hidden, and live on an island of one and the world still knows what we are doing. I dug a bunker by hand in shovel in our backyard and the next time we googled our lot, there I was digging the hole. Even if you pay cash for items the cashiers are now trained to alert the authorities. Guns are registered, ammo is watched like hawked, neighbors have prying eyes, the kids talk at school, and on it goes. But we prep anyway, what choice do we have.
If you were 95% wrong on your thinking then you wouldn’t be and old gas passer, now would you?
NRP,
Thanks for not asking about my size 🙂
My general rules on sharing such info are 2: First, are you someone I would trust with the well being of not only myself but my family, because that is in effect you are potentially doing by sharing such knowledge, in my opinion. Second, are you someone that is receptive about this and not going to start with the tinfoil hat jokes and comments; writing me off as a lunatic. Needless to say, there are not a lot of people in our circle that knows the depth of our preps. A number know we like to camp and work to develop outdoor skills but that is something I pass off as both family hobbies and quality family time.
It’s not necessarily that I have trust issues with people I know but quite simply stated I dont know all of the other people they know, if you take my meaning. For example, I dont know if Fred might tell Julie something along the lines of “Check it out, J was telling me he is a prepper and has a bunch of food and equipment loaded up in his garage. I know he hunts, too, and i’ll bet he has lots of guns and stuff!” If Julie needs money or repeats it to someone that does, my place becomes a target.
This may sound paranoid, but I know people that have been robbed by friends of friends and the like.
It boils down to your own comfort levels with what you share, in my mind.
I do belong to a loosely knit group of like minded individuals on this subject. We are all friends that have known one another for 10 years or better and all of them have watched my kid grow up. We have all been there for one another in 1 form or another over the years and I dont think that will change over something as trivial as the world going down the drain 🙂
My advice to those that are looking for a group would be to look into your own circle of friends first and not go seeking strangers. I would bet that we all know at least 1 other person that has similiar concerns and could be counted on in times of need.
Nope, nothing my wife and I do to prepare is shared with anyone other then the closest members of our group. I am with Canadian Vet.
The subject of prepping can elicit many different reactions in people. Whether or not they choose to prepare to bug in or bug out is up to them. Our philosophy is that everyone should prepare. To be prepared is to survive!
Family and family alone. In that, I mean immediate family know that I prep and they are part of my group. I have one friend that I trust with my life that knows I prep and he and I have some shared aspects of our preps but even he doesn’t know the full extent of my preps, nor I his.
That said, if another prepper drives by my farm, they can see clues that I prep and therefore know that a prepper lives there to some extent. I doubt one of the sheeple will put two and two together because they don’t notice much. It is what it is and no, I do not have a visible bunker at the road :). However, I have an operating windmill attached to a shallow well, I have a rain catchment system, I garden, and I have a large orchard so if I drove by and saw all of that, I would think a prepper lives there because I happen to be a prepper.
I have a “neighbor” (lives on the north side of my property) that I have spoken to once. Because he built his house out of concrete and there was extensive underground work during construction, I assumed. When he installed his windmill and started installing a large solar panel system, I had no doubt. So just because you have told no one, don’t assume that others don’t know.
I love cleaning the shelf off, when I find something I want. K-mart had 4 mess kits on sale $5.99 each— I bought (1) came back bought the other 3..gal asked me–(what’s up) I told her they were “Presents” ha-ha- they are $13.on the net.
I have a “Prepper” patch on the back of my Cap—-people all the time ask me; What a Prepper?
I tell them I live 20 miles from town -and shop once a month- I prep when I have money -O-OK.—DUH.
have a wonderful time to all.
keeb.
We are new to prepping, but are making progress. If someone asks or notices, I just say that I live in an area that is hurricane, tornado and earthquake prone. I have experience with all three and that it is best to have a bit of stuff around until things get back to “normal” (i.e. power, water etc.)
I find that reading the advice of other preppers invaluable, because both types of advice, good and bad, help me learn. Keep blogging, there are those of us out there that are really in need of help!
Author
Karen
Good on you for starting your journey! It will truly be a fulfilling experience and you all will be much better off. Congratulations.