Pontification

Posted on by

One constant about this interest of ours…

There will always, always, always be someone better prepared and worse prepared than you.

I’m not a slouch in the preparedness department, but I know firsthand several people who are far more prepared than I. While I don’t think anyone ever feels they are prepared as much as they like, I think there are points when we feel we are prepared enough.

Some folks prepare for World War III (or IV, if you prefer), others for that whole ‘Tribulation’ nonsense, others against natural disasters and still more people prepare against some sort of Bird-flu-infected-asteroid-crashing-into-a-nuclear-plant-awakening-Godzilla-who-summons-aliens-etc. Certainly the amount of preparation for one scenario may or may not be enough for the other. However, if youre pretty confident that the event youre preparing for is, say, a hurricane, then it seems a little silly to get upset because you feel youre not, and never will be, as prepared as the guy stockpiling against a Chinese invasion.

I am the first guy to admit that you are far more likely to be inconvenienced by a hurricane or earthquake than you are by North Korea dropping the bomb on your state. Part of preparedness is evaluating the risks and threats to your safety and planning accordingly; the likely risks are given higher priority over the less likely.Some risks are so unlikely we either ignore them entirely or prepare for them as an ‘extra credit assignment’ when we have a few extra bucks or are feeling particularly cautious.

Preparedness (generally) is not about relativity. Your level of preparedness isn’t determined by comparing yourself to other people. Your level of preparedness is determined by comparing your present to your past.

I don’t make fun of the guys who stockpile seven years of food against some biblical period of hardship. Why? Because when something more likely, such as a flood, earthquake or depression occurs those people will still be prepared to deal with it. So, more power to ‘em. I also don’t make fun of guys whose levels of preparation are small or less than my own. Why? Because at least they are doing something and taking responsibility for their safety. The ones I make fun of are the folks who don’t prepare at all or who make fun of those who do prepare.

In a nutshell: its not a competition and it isn’t some sort of clique where if you don’t have five M4geries and a 500 gallon fuel tank in your basement youre some kind of wimp and not one of The Cool Crowd.. The only person you need to compare yourself to in terms of preparedness is the person you were a week, a month, a year ago.

14 thoughts on “Pontification”

  1. I tend to be less well prepared than others in terms of stockpiling and maintaing specific items that I would consider useful in the event of an incident. One the other hand, I tend to be more well-prepared than others in terms of having acquired skills that would be useful in those sort of circumstances. Mostly, I’m thinking of my ability to build or fix things, which is a sort of obsession for me. I’m also pretty clever when it comes to communications, navigation, and food preparation. I feel pretty comfortable in a lot of ways, but I know that if something did go down, which given my locale, would probably be an earthquake, I’d be scrambling for some needed items.

  2. Yeah, Survivalist Envy is a running joke at our house. When I add something new to the stash, I tell my husband “I have to have it, or all the other survivalists will laugh at me.” When my AR-shooting gun buddy goes gah gah over my .308s, I smile sweetly and say, “Don’t you feel…inadequate?”

    I’ve been into prepping for over 25 years now. My level of preparation waxes and wanes. I’ve lived on 40 acres in rural NH with goats and hogs and chickens and gardens, and I currently live less than 8 miles from the skyscrapers of a large city. I prepped for MAD. I completely blew off Y2K (not unprepared, just didn’t believe in it or add anything special). Preparation is my lifestyle, and I’m always learning, but we all have to live our lives in the pre-SHTF world. Most of us will never be as prepared as we’d like to be, and many of us wouldn’t be willing to make the sacrifices necessary to meet our ideal survivalism fantasy (and survivalist fads tend to change every decade or so anyway). I suspect many of us would soon be bored with it all if we did achieve it. I do what I can, but I know I’ll never own it all, learn it all, or have that absolute security we strive for. With my luck that damn asteroid would wipe out my blast shelter 10 minutes before the nukes hit anyway.

  3. AH

    was more prepared back a few years ago for nuclear winter, but as time went on, as skills improved; along with collecting the right books and tools, I found myself to be able to do more with “just the basics”. It is nice to have a warehouse of stocked items, but having the ability now to do with or without certain items, has allowed me to sleep better at nights.

    am aware you can reload your ammo, but are you cabable of making replacement powder, primers, or even parts for your glock? such a skill like soapmaking, salt collecting, or even basic plumbing are nessary too. point is, if you can’t be able to replace it; is that good or bad?

    and as for hardship, am wondering how many will survive the lack of cable tv, or blogging on the internet. will you survive that? Wildflower 06

  4. Our preparedness is only so-so.

    Good in that we are more than adequately armed, and have at least 5 months worth of food. Water will be a little tricky, there is a pond about 300 yards from our house, but how many people will be trying to use that water? How likely is it to be contaminated? Depends if the park it is in becomes a refugee settlement.

    Not so good- where we live. Being in the thick of a major metro area means that when the fecal matter interacts with the rotary oscillating unit we will either succumb to a mob (maybe living in that park behind our house) that wants our supplies or we start piling up bodies. Once that happens, then nobody sleeps. Can’t maintain a low profile, and the ruckus just attracts more attention.

    I figure anything up to 2 weeks will be fine. Then after that it will get pretty nasty and unruly, once the other 95% of the locals realize that the grocery store won’t reopen for a long time.

  5. I am, right now, better prepared than probably 95% of my neighbors for the most likely disaster to hit my area: a really big hurricane that will take out basic services for a week or more. Bugging in would be easier, bugging out would be feasible. And there is not likely to be any degree of violence that I can’t deal with. I might be able to stick it out for longer, when conditions would worsen, but that is but a slight possibility.

    But can I deal with TEOTWAWKI? Not really. Not without moving to a rural homestead in another state with a better water supply, stocking (and I mean STOCKING) up on supplies, and learning to build, fix, etc., everything myself. And I can’t afford that without abandoning up the rest of my life. There is no point in “surviving” if you’re not living in the first place.

  6. Interesting thoughts.

    You see this with firearms as well.

    Someone who owns/carries less guns or a less powerful or effective gun than you is naivee. But someone who owns/carries more guns than you is paranoid.

    It is the driver phenomenon that Jay Leno once observed. People who drive slower than you are idiots, while those who drive faster are nuts.

  7. Well said, I feel more prepared today than in 2000, but I am not even close to being what I consider “well prepared.” I agree that you shouldn’t make fun of the guy with a case of mres and a rusted shotgun, he is probally beter prepared than 95% of Americans that live in urban areas. It’s not a contest, its about getting as stocked up on gear, grub, and skills as your resources permit.

  8. Amen

    That is exactly right – your level of preparedness should be based on what you feel you will need.

    This begs an interesting question for the LMI’s. In a real TEOTWAKI situation do you pool your resources and build a community/fortress and place your strength in numbers to stave off those starving humans who didn’t prepare? Or do you hide and hope that your stockpile of gear and food remains undetected?

    Crom

  9. Re: Amen

    in such a real aftermath, you might share “limited resources” with such co-operatives, never showing or admitting to “having more”. it depends on whom you are dealing with. best to plea” poverty and no resources” until you can feel safe sharing anything. train your own people to be aware of “friendly snoopers” prying into what you are doing or got stashed away. in the aftermath, smash and bury your empty wrappers, cans, and jars. be surprise whom digs for what info in your garbage can.all these are just hints, you should be aware of. Wildflower 06

Comments are closed.