When I was visiting my parents recently in Alaska, I had the
opportunity to watch some television.
Normally, I don’t do this because we don’t get reception where I live
and I’m too cheap to spring for cable. Once
I bought rabbit ears so I could tune in to local stations. Only PBS came up (very fuzzy, I might add)
and it was my bad luck that they were having a “Thomas the Train”
marathon. I took the rabbit ears back to
the store since they were basically useless—unless I was four years old and
then I would’ve been in something akin to heaven.
So, back to my original story. I watched some episodes about extreme
preppers. I have to say that out of all
the crazy reality television shows, this one was the most entertaining. I saw episodes where one guy dug a fox hole
that he could disappear into if an invading army came his way, the family that
was obsessed with some kind of flu epidemic and the guy who was going to ride
out hard times on his sailboat. I
especially enjoyed the episode of the man with the vineyard that he planned to
protect with extreme prejudice. There
were many other stories, too many to mention, but all brought up a few
questions in my mind.
First, why would someone who was prepping for the end of the
world, want to go on television? Don’t
their neighbors already think they’re one brick shy of a load anyway? Why would they want an entire nation to have
the same sentiments? And—why would they
want to broadcast what they have and how “prepared” they are to an entire
nation? If they are prepping because they
don’t trust the government, won’t this put them on some kind of list? If they’re on television, won’t their
neighbors and friends recognize them immediately? “Hey, there’s Dave. Cool, I know where I’m going if anything
happens.”
Second, I noticed that these same “preppers” only obsess on
one aspect of prepping, like the family that believes there will be an epidemic
so they practice donning their protective gear (gas mask, protective clothing,
rubber boots). They never take into
account that the chances of them actually needing it are one in a million, and
if something like that were to happen, I’d probably want to go outside, take a
deep breath and get the pain over with quickly.
Third, if you’ve watched the show, you’ll notice how defensive
these people get when they get their scores back. It’s usually low because they can’t protect
themselves and live in an isolated bubble without outside interference. If you’re locked inside a bomb shelter,
sooner or later you’re going to run out of food and supplies and you have to
come out. There will most likely be
someone waiting for you when you open that door and re-enter the world
again. Also, if you haven’t taken your
community into consideration, all your preparation is pretty much useless.
My thoughts on the subject:
There is absolutely no way to protect yourself completely for every
inevitability. Although you can do
things that will help you get through tough times, like store a little extra
food, sooner or later the masses will come—either in an armored vehicle or on
foot they will come. Also, I’m not sure
I could exist with any form of happiness in a “Water World” or “Mad Max”
situation.
It’s probably more important to prep for everyday life—find ways to save money for a rainy day, get out of debt, and learn to garden so you don’t have to eat genetically modified foods that are sprayed in pesticides and you aren’t dependent on others for your food sources. I’d also want a little extra food as insurance so I know if something did happen, that would not have to be a concern. The last thing I would want if truck deliveries stopped for a period of time is to stand in a long line for rations. Along those lines, you’ll want to find ways to improve your health in every way possible. If something were to happen, I’d want to face whatever problems with a healthy body instead of a broken one. So if this sounds good to you—get prepping.
Take care, All
