Gaye Levy
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Back in the day, I was considered somewhat of an activist. Although normally quiet, unassuming, and nerd-like, I fought for the end of political tyranny, the power to the people, and women’s rights in the workplace. I was a small voice in a big sea of voices, but, to this day, would like to believe I have made a difference.
Now, years later, in my own quiet way, I have proudly labeled myself as both a “Prepper” and a member of the Prepper Movement. In addition, I have gone so far as to publicly define prepping as a form of personal activism.
Along the way, it has been my intent to create Backdoor Survival as a kinder and gentler prepper website. This is a site that welcomes everyone without political or religious overtones. It has also been eclectic in content covering a wide range of topics spanning preparedness, homesteading, healthy living and life in general.
With that introduction, today I am going to step outside my normal comfort zone and suggest we define the prepper movement with a call to action. I do so knowing that this opens up a level of personal responsibility for which we may not be ready.
This latest think piece from contributing author Richard Broome, asks that you to open your mind and your heart to the realities of who we are and what we are trying to accomplish as forwarding thinkers in the 21st century.
DO NOT GO GENTLE INTO THE NIGHT
“Do not go gentle into that good night but rage, rage against the dying of the light.” –Dylan Thomas (1914-1953)
In my last contribution to Backdoor Survival, “Mind The Gap,” I talked about the global, structural “assurance gap” that I think exists. The essence of my argument was the assertion that the growing threat to all of us, outmatches the countermeasures we have in place.
In all of my articles this year, as a contributing author for Backdoor Survival, I have offered similar thoughts. So, on this cold, snowy morning in Montana, I decided to address this once again, but with some additional thoughts. As a like-minded community of preppers, we can no longer be so gentle, but must rage.
I have, in previous articles on Backdoor Survival, talked about “The Coming Cyber War” something I feel is no longer just looming event, but starting to happen all around us. With all that is in the press recently, how could anyone not feel this way?
Just ask the executives at SONY, as the impacts the cyber attack on them continues to unfold. I subsequently wrote about “Building a Culture of Preparedness.” In that article I beat the drum, urging us to change our national mindset about personal preparedness and readiness, also advising more political activism by preppers.
All three of these articles had one common theme. Mainly, we all need to be thinking more deeply about our true state of preparedness, both as individuals and as a nation, and we must do it now before we run out of options.
Speaking of trees, my two recent novels, Leaving The Trees, published in July 2013, and Good Crazy, published in November 2014, were created to depict what the cascading effects could be if a cyber event in the financial markets did spin out of control, freezing our financial systems and ultimately the supply chains we all depend on. A cyber event, such as this, really could undo us all, and like in my novels, have us living in camps within the trees trying to survive with what would be left.
However, in addition to the cyber attack scenario, many other scenarios could undo our society, such as an Electromagnetic Pulse (EMP) attack, Pandemics (think Ebola) or an ISIS gone wild. All of these could have similar devastating results.
In short, I believe the “assurance gap” which I frequently write about or discuss on radio shows, is still there and just getting worse. If the SHTF moment really does happen, any of these scenarios could cause it. As the witches in Macbeth predicted, something wicked this way comes. We all just guess about “what” and “when.”
So…where do we go from here?
Almost forty-five years ago, as a brand new army lieutenant, I was asked to teach a class to a group of young soldiers about the correct technique for throwing a hand grenade. Properly throwing a hand grenade is something you really want everyone in a military unit to completely understand.
The instructions are simple enough.
“Hold the hand grenade with your hand over the safety band.”
“Pull pin.”
“Throw.”
“Take cover.”
Seemed easy, yet many soldiers would do things like:
–Throw the grenade before the pin was pulled so it would bounce harmlessly at the feet of the enemy. This would allow the enemy to pick up the hand grenade and toss it back at you. However, with the pin pulled this time.
–Pull the pin, release the safety band, and then look at me to tell them what to do next.
–Fumbling the throw and having the damn thing rolling on the ground at our feet getting ready to go off.
Yet… despite all of that here I sit, alive and well. I survived the experience and, by the way, I should have told you we used dummy grenades to practice with first. (Whew!)
Thinking about that experience as I ponder the state of global affairs, my central question does remain: “Where do we go from here?” I ask this question, very mindful that with the multi-level complexity of all the potential threats that beset us these days; these possible events could already be too much for us to understand how to cope with.
If even such simple instructions like throwing a grenade could become so misconstrued, what is to become of us with more complex challenges that could suddenly occur? Will we fumble around while the grenade is getting ready to explode?
As the recent Ebola crisis unfolded before us in the news, I kept having the same thought, “What a debacle!” The procedural steps we asked medical professionals to follow appeared to be flawed. Finger pointing erupted. No one seemed in charge.
The result of this inept leadership was the public lost confidence in our government’s ability to handle a pandemic. It was all very unsettling and pointed out to me that the Prepper Nation is right to be skeptical about what we can expect from government.
If our elected leaders cannot do any better than what we witnessed with the handling of Ebola, maybe the Prepper Nation can? We do, after all, spend time thinking, preparing and doing more than most of the people around us.
We talk on sites like Backdoor Survival, sometimes argue, but always try to share ideas and help each other. We also talk straight to each other and do not hide behind comforting, but vapid platitudes and homilies that we see politicians use to reassure citizens, but actually mean very little and solve nothing.
However, even with all of the good information preppers share, I feel something is missing.
There is an old story about a young boy walking with his grandfather through the family garden. The grandfather was carrying a bullwhip. Every time he spotted some kind of bug eating his plants, out came the bullwhip and SNAP! The bug was gone. At the end of the garden they came to a tool shed with a large hornets nest built in the apex of the roof, right over the shed door.
The boy turned to his grandfather and said: “Grandfather! What about that hornets nest?”
The grandfather turned to his young grandson, looked at him thoughtfully for moment, and then finally said: “Boy. Let me tell you something. Bugs is just bugs. But…hornets…they’s organized!”
I feel we are now at a defining moment where the prepper community must start to step up and become an organized movement. Yes, I said an organized movement. We need to stop feeling the need to explain ourselves as a community but rather embrace more publicly and assertively our different perspective from others. We are right about what we think and what we do. They are wrong. Like a grenade going off, there will be no “do-over” to get things right if we ever really face one of the many serious events that could occur.
This is essential. I feel we must start to make some forward progress dealing with all the emerging threats facing us and close the “assurance gap” that I believe exists. If we don’t, considering the current trend of global events, I am quite concerned things will suddenly unravel all around us.
Ayn Rand once said: “The hardest thing to explain is the glaringly evident which everybody had decided not to see.”
So let’s be honest, if you follow the news and politics at all, you can see our country is now being sold to the highest bidder who has the money, the votes, or both, for our politicians on either side of the aisle. To counteract this reality, preppers need to be able to move the needle on the political Richter scale. At the end of the day a more structured and organized prepper movement increases our power as a voting bloc. We need to seize the attention of political leaders with a prepper agenda for change that has some political muscle behind it.
I know this idea is a fairly prodigious, complicated undertaking; yet, we do have the power of the Internet behind us to share ideas and find a way to make a nation of preppers come together.
My belief is we should start this conversation about how to build an organized prepper movement on Backdoor Survival. Right here. Right now.
I think we start with the question: “What should be the Prepper Nation agenda for change?” Then, let us see where this conversation takes us. Let us all talk about how to make this a safer country. Let us all come together and try to do a really big thing.
Before… we all become that bug in the garden.
Richard Earl Broome . . . All Rights Reserved . . . December 13, 2014
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Richard Earl Broome is a contributing author to Backdoor Survival. He has lived an extraordinary life rising from an Army private to an Army colonel who served on the White House staff at the National Security Council for two Presidents of the United States as a member of their National Security Council staff.
He is considered a national expert on the subjects of crisis management, disaster recovery and survival. He is a frequent contributor of articles about the many threats facing our society, appearing frequently on radio shows to discuss issues such as pandemics, ISIS, and the cyber threat.
Now living in a small community in Montana, he is a member of the faculty at Montana State University where he teaches leadership. His two books, Leaving The Trees and Good Crazy (Leaving The Trees Journey) (Volume 2)
The Final Word
Without question, this is the most difficult article I have shared with the Backdoor Survival community. I have thought about it, struggled with, and ultimately embraced it for indeed, it is a think piece of the highest order.
The call to action is this: please consider responding with your thoughts and ideas in the comment section below. Do you agree, disagree, or are you somewhere in between? This is my website but it is your forum. Let us continue to be the best we can be.
Enjoy your next adventure through common sense and thoughtful preparation!
Gaye
If you enjoyed this article, consider voting for me daily at Top Prepper Websites! In addition, SUBSCRIBE to email updates and receive a free, downloadable copy of my e-book The Emergency Food Buyer’s Guide.
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Note: the price can vary by color so if you are not particular, scroll through the colors and save a couple of bucks.
Dorcy LED Wireless Motion Sensor Flood Lite: Don’t let the price lead you to think this wireless flood light is wimpy. I have two of these and feel that these lights are worth double the price. Using D-cell batteries, the Dorcy floodlight will light up a dark room or a dark stairway in an instant. I can not recommend these enough.
LifeStraw Personal Water Filter: The LifeStraw is considered the most advanced, compact, ultralight personal water filter available. It contains no chemicals or iodinated resin, no batteries and no moving parts to break or wear out. It weighs only 2oz. making it perfect for the prepper. There is also a larger sized LifeStraw Family currently available with free shipping.
One Second After For many, the novel “One Second After” was a game changer that convinced them of the need to be prepared. If you have not read this book, you really should.
Morakniv Craftline Q Allround Fixed Blade Utility Knife: ANOTHER FAVORITE KNIFE! Also known as the Mora 511, this is now my favorite knife. It is made of Swedish steel and is super sharp. Many Backdoor Survival have emailed me indicating this is now their favorite knife too.
FordEx Group 300lm Mini Cree Led Flashlight: FAVORITE! Here we go with another flashlight. It is super mini sized, bright and waterproof. Plus, it uses a single, standard AA sized battery. Pictured is one that I own in green but they come in basic black as well as some other colors.
Blocklite Ultra Bright 9V LED Flashlight: I now own six of these little gems. There is a similar flashlight called the Pak-Lite (which is more expensive) but it does not have a high-low switch like this one. These little flashlights just go and go, plus, they make good use of those re-purposed 9V alkaline batteries that you have recharged with your Maximal Power FC999 Universal Battery Charger.
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86 Responses to “Define the Prepper Movement With A Call Action”
In reading these many comments there is a common complaint that it is almost impossible to get people in their community to listen and act upon the Prepper movement. One reason for this is the simple fact we forget to understand and that is why should people listen to you? It is too easy for people to get defensive and label you as a nutty Prepper type or a Tea Bag survivalist.
One way to overcome this is to be clear that the need for the community to organize itself is not your idea, but rather the Government’s own FEMA department recommendation that communities must recognize that the Government will not be able to help in a disaster for up to several days or not at all. It is up to the communities to take responsibility themselves for their own protection and organize a Civil Defense plan for the safety of all. That includes having enough food and water for a minimum of 72 hours for each family member. Hopefully, you now have their attention. Funny how everyone listens when the message is from the government.
I’ve just been thinking about the NRA as an example. This organization has become an unquestionably powerful force, even though I’m sure it has members with widely varied points-of-view who come from all walks of life and probably disagree with each other on many hot button issues. The key seems to be that they have come together as a group who feels very strongly about their one central belief. That shared belief is soo important to them that they are willing to leave their differences at the door in order to fight for the common cause. I should think that true preppers would hold to their belief of prepping as tightly, and would be willing to come together for the common good of promoting the prepper lifestyle. Can we somehow take a page from the NRA playbook in order to unite preppers? It seems to me that all preppers have a great deal to gain by uniting and finding a way to persuade more citizens to become preppers. After all, the more people who are prepared to take care of themselves, the less people will be among the roving hoards of unprepared, right? and the more people that are prepared, the more we take away the power from those who wish to do us harm. Just imagine how differently the ending of One Second After would have been if after the power went out everybody just lived off their preps! There is evidence that preppers can unite…the word prepper itself. Some years ago we would have been referred to as ‘survivalists.’ But since that label began to be so negatively perceived, survivalists apparently united to change what they call themselves.
The NRA is a great example of people with diverse views coming together with a common objective. I had not thought of that.
I also resist being labeled. “Say it long, say it loud, I am a prepper and I am proud.”
AHH HA HA HA! OK, thanks for the belly laugh. 🙂
learner, you make an excellent point about the nra being a diverse group that acts as one, unlike us preppers (although of course there are preppers in every group). the difference is that the nra serves the oligarchy extremely well: it does everything humanly possible to increase the profits made by those who manufacture and sell firearms and ammunition. nra members are willing to put their children at risk or do whatever it takes to make sure that the 1% prospers. preppers, although many of us are right-wing politically and even more are gun enthusiasts, are an even more varied population, many of whom have no great love for the oligarchy. and some of us are even hair-on-fire liberals! in other words, we are harder to control as a group and less likely to vote against our own interests in favor of the powers that be. so the aforementioned powers that be have no reason to encourage us to form a cohesive unit and every reason to try to prevent it.
teabag, I don’t disagree with you.
The preceding comments illustrate perfectly the difficulty of organizing preppers into any form of cohesive group. I’ll explain that opinion by first describing my circumstances. I am a 72-year-old woman who has been a full-time RVer for 12 years. I travel alone and live off-the-grid (rarely a campground and never utility hook-ups). I’ve spent the last eight winters in a boondocking area of hard-core eccentrics, independents, and crazies, where I amazingly discovered that people of all ilk can live together fairly peacefully with NO rules, NO leaders, and NO amenities. It’s a liberty-lover’s paradise and a close-knit community, but not a prepper place. I LOVE the freedom of my life-style and would not exchange it for a palace.
Although I have very little money and almost no space in my small RV, I’ve been prepping for three years and have managed to stash at least six months’ worth of food into every nook and cranny, along with small barter items and necessities of life for the longer term. I’m concentrating on all things off-grid and am learning about herbs and making medicinal herbal tinctures so I will have something to contribute to a prepper community, should I ever find one. BUT, as indicated in several preceding comments and in a majority of other prepper websites, I would be “persona non grata” in a prepper community because I am . . . gasp! . . . a LIBERAL! Before some of you puke in disgust, know that there are many other LIBERAL preppers! In fact, the only preppers I personally know are LIBERALS. And even worse, although I am very spiritually oriented, I no longer consider myself a Christian, nor do I have the remotest desire to join any organized religion. Allow yourselves to faint.
The point I’m trying to make is that there’s too much vitriol spewn out by too many preppers regarding politics and religion to allow for sufficient unity among them to change anything at all. They’re mere copycats of the hate-mongers who are ruining our world right now with their divide-and-conquer tactics.
I want to thank for what I think is a very thoughtful, articulate response to my article. I agree what you have found with your lifestyle is both freedom and some control over your life.
We all come from different viewpoints, so I agree that coming together as a community of preppers will be an enormous challenge. Obviously I am, respectfully, on the other side of this discussion from you, but I have decided I am not willing to be just “the bug in the garden,” but rather to attempt in some manner to cause positive change.
If you are a liberal and 72, then you will recognize this quote by Robert F. Kennedy:
“There are those who look at things the way they are, and ask why… I dream of things that never were, and ask why not?”
Good thoughts from a man whose life was cut way too short.
I guess the quote for me is from Theodore Roosevelt:
“It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; but who does actually strive to do the deeds; who knows great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat.”
Like you, I am also in the camp to try for more control in my life, but on a larger scale. I will gladly take on that fight for the future generations.
Bottom-line is, I think preppers need to have a voice. We need to matter to those in power and for them to have to reckon with us, not just do as they wish.
Thank you for your thoughts Gail.
Richard,
Those two quotes convey a lot of wisdom. Your posts have me wondering if you are planning someway to be the voice of the preppers? Are you planning to run for a political office? or organizing a PAC? or do you have some sort of plans to move forward with this goal to build an organized prepper movement?
LOL. I would never run for office.
I also have no plans to form a PAC. The PAC is not a bad idea though, but I think we are so early in discussing organizing a movement that it is too soon to go in that direction yet.
I am not vying to lead this movement. I am not certain if any one person can, but more to stimulate discussion and provide ideas.
We need to make some forward progress as a country and help facilitate a culture that embraces preparedness. Israel does, why not us?
To Gail: A million thanks for saying what this lurker did not dare to! I’m 54 & agree with you; wish I had the option of RV (or sailboat, for that matter!) living. Alas, I own a farm, free & clear. Gotta make my stand here, in the deep South, for better or worse, to live or die. Best wishes, & thanks again!
To Richard: Great post, great quotes but it is George Bernard Shaw who originated the quote attributed to RFK. Shaw’s play “Back to Methuselah” was the place where RFK got the quote that he paraphrased. Also, RFK DID indeed attribute the quote to Shaw. Just some silly English Lit. history from an English Lit. major (& they said my degree would never amount to anything!-LOL). I am a prepper but such a newbie at it that I dare not wade into this wonderful & spirited discussion! I feel like I need to get the rice under my belt BEFORE I can consider such issues as whether &/or how to give any recommendations regarding politics to anyone who has more wisdom & experience prepping. I feel as though I must prepare a way to preserve my family’s physical lives before I can consider higher minded issues such as politics to enter my mind. For a beginning prepper like myself, there is just so much to do, so much to learn, so many decisions to make, so much to consider when prepping to physically survive, it can be overwhelming. When I try to think about being politically active about my lifestyle it becomes doubly overwhelming. Would I vote for a candidate who backed prepper issues? It would depend on what other issues the candidate did or did not back. Other issues are equally as important to me NOW as being a prepper because we have not experienced a SHTF situation but we definitely have experienced other important issues that must be dealt with now, not in some potential future time. (though I do agree a SHTF situation is probably inevitable–I can’t vote a straight ticket that deals with future/maybe’s when there are so many now/in-my-face issues that are certain). There, said I wouldn’t wade in & now I have-lol. I now return programming to the adults–cartoon time is over 🙂
I am new to prepping…I have a lot of stuff but not as organized as I should be but with help of Gaye I am sure I will get it all together….eventually ….I agree with a prepper organization for the whole nation but right now…it won’t happen anytime soon….I just wanted to know if anyone watches or listens to ……yes I am going to say it…….Glenn Beck…..?????….what is everyone’s thoughts of his views….some of his show is kinda silly but he believes in preparing and being armed…let the comments begin……….
start with the kids, before they become entrenched in denial. teach them disaster preparedness, with exposure to familiar figures like firefighters–a cooperative effort. if governor kasich can mandate school collaboration with churches, then surely we can mandate school collaboration with emergency responders! kids will still start believing they’re invincible around puberty, but at least they’d have some skills to survive; and once the testosterone levels go down, they’ll be prepared to start living the preparedness lifestyle.
“Preparedness Lifestyle” is a very good way to describe it. If we were to describe a “Healthy Lifestyle,” I think most of us would say we paid attention to our diet and nutrition, routinely exercised, and tried to control our weight. If any of us were to tell others what we mean by a “Preparedness Lifestyle,” in a sentence or two, how would we do it? Can we come up with a similar phrase? For preppers to attempt to design an agenda for change and create a prepper movement, how we describe the “Preparedness Lifestyle” seems to be the fundamental starting point to me.
Any other ideas for a Prepper Agenda for Change? How could we start to change the negative attitude many have about prepping? In the last 50 years, the country has significantly changed our attitude about health and fitness and now people are much more conscious and supportive of it. Can’t we do the same for prepping? It would certainly benefit all of us. What should our strategy be to help start this same kind of national psychological shift to support prepping?
I never thought to have a discussion on this side of prepping, however for the good of our country maybe that time has come.
I would think the first thing would be to get the leaders of this country (federal, state, local, Wall Street, news/media) to publicly admit that in a nationwide or large regional emergency the government would be of little (or any) help and that “we the people” would be on our own for an extended period of time. This fact should be pointed out to all citizens of this country in the form of a series of public service television/radio/written commercials, made by the above mentioned leaders. I know this is pie in the sky thinking, but could you imagine the cold hard slap in the face of reality to the “head in the sanders” to have their senator, congressman/woman, or governor come on public T.V. and make a statement like this. You can’t confront a problem if you don’t know about it and this would force everyone in this country to admit we have a large problem that only “we the people” can solve.
I think it would be a great idea to have each State require that all high school freshmen (even those that are home schooled) take a yearlong “shop” class during which they learn how to build, wire, and grow things from written instruction. In parts of Europe they have apprentice high schools. Having this type of high schools would help us all when the stuff hits the fan since someone has to be able to make wind generators from car alternators and it would help those kids that have no desire (or can’t afford) to attend college earn a decent living after they got out of high school.
Require that all colleges offer very low or no cost courses on pepper oriented subjects to maintain their accreditation. Some of the subjects covered could be basic gardening, introduction to welding, basic and advanced emergency medical instruction and many others that help us all in a true national emergency.
“In the last 50 years, the country has significantly changed our attitude about health and fitness and now people are much more conscious and supportive of it. Can’t we do the same for prepping?”
Richard, that is such a wonderful question that it pains me to provide what seems to be an abrupt or seemingly harsh response: “No.”
In Scripture there’s a passage that says to let your yes be yes, and your no be no. Given that, I’ll provide some brief conjecture as to why this one prepper’s answer is no.
Libs (by which I mean Liberals. by which I also include as a variant of Socialism, Marxism, Totalitarianism, Communism, and all the aforementioned eventually devolve into some degree of Fascism) are, for the most part, big government statists. Prepping, by implication or by actually stating outright, declares via action that the government is not going to be able to help or provide during disaster or calamity or crisis. This narrative is anathema to Libs.
Libs want everyone to breastfeed at the government teat. The big government teat is going to protect you and nourish you. But preppers don’t want to suck big government teat. Hence preppers will be identified, isolated, mocked, ridiculed, scoffed at, marginalized, and sad to say, persecuted.
you might be surprised how many liberals are preppers.
I have developed a low budget prepper diet. It ensures above starvation calories and adequate protein. Vitamins are not included, nor are flavoring agents. It is a baseline diet and can (and should be supplemented with any meat or veggies you can get. The cost can be as low as $1.06 per person per day.
Use oil (cheap in bulk from Sam’s club) to provide the calories. Use rice, sugar and flour for additional calories and palatability. Protein comes from TVP and powdered milk. Legumes can also supplement protein and carbs.
The idea is to give 2200 calories per day in a way that is relatively cheap, easy to preserve and compact.
This is not really for those who plan to rotate their provisions and plan to eventually use every last item. It is for real ‘end of the supply line’ times. I would not consider it particularly healthy and it does require cooking. TVP can be a great meat substitute and use white rice as it has no oil and won’t get rancid. Use CO2 gas (or dry ice) to preserve if you see fit.
When bad times come few will turn away from 3 year old rice just because it is out of date. After 3 years the oil in bulk (the 35 pound jugs) have not become rancid yet.
This is not for everyone but for $3000 I know 10 people will live for a year and have enough calories and protein to work too.
If you are rich go the MRE route or get into drying and freezing and canning. I do some of that too but it is assuring to know that I have enough for survival.
Hi Mike,
Do you have more details to provide? I’d be interested in understanding it better.
Thanks.
Thanks for all the excellent thoughts and commentary about my think piece so far. I have a question for everyone. If we were all allowed to construct a notional “Prepper Agenda for Change” (with the huge assumption we could actually achieve this), what should be in it? I mean the new laws, the new public policy, the kinds of things a movement could force those in office to do if they had the voting power to back it up.
I’ll give you an example. Shouldn’t preppers get a tax break or an insurance rate reduction because we will be less demanding on public services during a disaster? If You can get a tax break for putting solar panels on your house, why not for being more prepared than your neighbor?
Some of my initial thoughts would be…
1. Mandate that critical infrastructure was hardened or backed up in some way(like hospital and nursing home generators.)
2. Allow for Dr.’s, pharmacies to release to people an extra supply of life essential meds(like insulin, organ rejection meds, etc.)
3. Include in the school curriculum a first aid and basic survival skills(setting up emergency shelter, navigating without GPS, water purification, locating food) and have it be a mandatory to pass in order to graduate class.
These are really excellent ideas. I agree with all of them. I would figure out what might be the single points of failure for anything we deem (as preppers) to be critical infrastructure and mandate back up capabilities for all of them. Hospitals, most certainly. What else? Communications sites, etc.?
Did you know that Israel, a country that certainly has the need to have a national culture of preparedness with all the threats to that nation from the surrounding countries, has school topics similar to what you have suggested in their education curriculum, starting in elementary school?
I did not know that about Israel but that is good to know. I am homeschooling my kids and am teaching them to be preppers. Some of my future lesson plans are to have math word problems like such…
If an average adult needs 2000 calories for average activities, how many calories would be needed to sustain weight for 30 days, and how many pounds of beans and rice would it take to meet that need? lol
right now they are still mastering ABC and 123 thought.
number one: the power grid. not only because we need electricity, but because our aging nuclear power plants are only required to keep a week’s worth of diesel fuel on hand to power their generators (which cool the spent power rods). with the grid down, some plants would enter a fukishima-type meltdown condition after one week. i live upwind of several, so this one scares me.
First and foremost, reaffirm the Constitution and Bill of Rights, and start properly teaching them to the children…and put prayer back in the schools!
first of all, i would like to say “happy new year” to gaye and my fellow readers!
bandanas are red
and lifestraws are blue;
may all your good wishes
for this year come true!”
secondly, i have some thoughts that i haven’t seen anyone mention yet. that grandfather had a very good point when he said hornets are organized. all hymenoptera species are extremely well-organized and efficient. in fact, many scientists and futurists think that when we become extinct we will be replaced as the dominant species on the planet by ants. all hymenoptera species are societies run by FEMALES; the males exist to donate sperm and that’s it. i’m not suggesting that we should turn ourselves into wasps, but i do believe that if a large prepper organization is going to work it will have to be run by women! every other organization on this planet is run by men, and has been throughout recorded history, so we don’t know from experience what a major gynocentric organization would be like–but we know excruciatingly well what an androcentric one is like, and they are much of the reason why prepping is necessary in the first place! the only large and effectively run prepper group that i know of is the mormon church, an organization completely dominated by males; i suspect their history of persecution has more to do with that than any logical or prophetic expectations about the future. in fact, i don’t know why any christian would be a prepper; i’ve read the bible and don’t recall jesus ever saying we should prep for armageddon. in fact, he said specifically that we should NOT accumulate material goods, we should NOT try to predict when the end will come, and we should prepare for judgement day by having faith, doing good works and not being afraid to die. but i digress. i’m not sure women are ready to lead such a movement in our society, and i’m very sure men aren’t ready to allow it! (just as one example, sharon’s comment about liberty was thoughtful and made sense; jon r. (a frequent commenter on this and other blogs), who is clearly an intelligent and knowledgeable man, reacted by jokingly proposing marriage (often a way of symbolically “owning” and thus disempowering a woman) and referring to her as “girl.” that’s pretty typical of the best of the male preppers, as far as i can tell.) believe me, i’m not knocking men; their drive, talents and strength have brought human civilization to incredible heights in many ways: to the moon, for example! but there has been virtually no female input to this juggernaut, so its faults have also become exaggerated: a focus on the present, ignoring the future; an all-pervasive obsession with dominance and power, to the exclusion of morality; a reliance on ever more elaborate technology even as it annihilates the natural world; and so on. if we are going to survive as a species, we will need some estrogen in the mix to plan for the survival of coming generations, something women are very good at, and we need it now. an international prepper organization led by women would be an excellent place to start. i suspect there are women in other countries, where women get more respect, who actually could create and lead such a group. i hope so.
I would like you to know that being a Christian would in no way exclude you from being a prepper. There are instances in the Bible where man is instructed to ‘prepare’:
*Noah-Genesis 6:21 “You are to take every kind of food that is to be eaten and store it away as food for you and for them.”
*Joseph-Genesis 41:35-36 “They should collect all the food of these good years that are coming and store up the grain under the authority of Pharaoh, to be kept in the cities for food. 36. This food should be held in reserve for the country, to be used during the seven years of famine that will come upon Egypt, so that the country may not be ruined by the famine.”
And lets not forget about these gems:
*Proverbs “6:6 Take a lesson from the ants, you lazybones. Learn from their ways and become wise! 6:7 Though they have no prince or governor or ruler to make them work, 6:8 they labor hard all summer, gathering food for the winter. 6:9 But you, lazybones, how long will you sleep? When will you wake up? 6:10 A little extra sleep, a little more slumber, a little folding of the hands to rest—6:11 then poverty will pounce on you like a bandit; scarcity will attack you like an armed robber.”
*Proverbs 27:12: “A prudent person foresees danger and takes precautions. The simpleton goes blindly on and suffers the consequences.”
*1 Timothy 5:8 “If anyone does not provide for his relatives, and especially for his immediate family, he has denied the faith and is worse than an unbeliever.”
As a prepper, I am not religious. I am a strong believer in the ideas of the Constitution ad the Bill of Rights. I do not trust my neighbors when the time comes to be prepared for anything. I am of the mind set live and let live. I would appreciate the coming together of a prepper movement to have a voice against tyranny and politicians that have been bought.