Silent Earth
A True Doomsday Prepper
What are you, what are we?
So ask yourself this Do you plan on dropping dead next week, do you think you will crash your car next month, How about your home being burnt down in the next quarter?
NO OF COURSE NOT, but you still have LIFE, CAR and HOME insurance just in case something unfortunate happens. That dear reader makes YOU a Prepper as well.
Got a First Aid Kit (FAK) at home, spare bulbs, fuses, torch, snow shovel, extra gallon of fuel for the car, a bit of extra food in the house incase you cannot get to the shops next week? Have you got a few dollars set aside for a rainy day, got locks on your door, got the emergency services on speed dial, Do you listen to the TRAFFIC news on the TV or radio, Got a bus time table incase the car is off the road ? Yup all of that also confirms YOU ARE A PREPPER.
We preppers are no different to 99% of society who simply take extra precations to help ensure their lives are disrupted as little as possible when some unplanned disruptive EVENT occurs.
EVENTS events , what events you ask? Is it Armageddon, Martians landing, Zombie outbreak, North Korea invading California??? .............Erm NO to be frank , nothing so glamorous.
Events such as being snowed in or your street being hit by a power cut or getting stuck in the city because of bad weather / industrial action / riots etc and not being able to get home by normal methods. The shops running out of your prescription medicines and cannot get more for days is an example, Events such as mudslides and landslips cutting off your village or town from the rest of the county for days, Snow, Forest fires, Earth Quakes, Tsunami, Floods, Rain storms, Hail storms, Droughts, Industrial strikes cutting off food , fuel or utilities, Riots, Civil Unrest, Police incidents and even things like unexpected periods of unemployment. Preppers make the same contingency plans most sensible people do we just do it in a bit more depth.
Media and Preppers / Survivalists
Thanks to the main stream media both printed and TV survivalism and preparedness are etched into western societies psyche as something extreme to be condemned and ridiculed as " gun nuts", "rambos", " Hippies" " Loopy Greens" etc From movies like Tremors, The Survivalist, World War Z, Red Dawn etc through TV media with Z Nation, The Walking Dead, The Last Ship etc. Into supposed factual shows like Doomsday Bunkers, Doomsday Preppers (US and UK versions). The media always portrays us in the worst possible but most rating attractive method. EG Why record preppers home aquaponics set up or composting toilet or solar array or the preppers doing First Aid or Amateur Radio licence courses, when they can portray them running around with guns, fortifying their remote homes and wearing cammo clothing. Yes any close investigation of preppers you find few extremists and lots of genuine ordinary everyday people simply taking sensible precautionary steps to protect their families from storms, floods, quakes, unemployment, riots, shortages etc. If the media wanted to record REAL GENUINE HARD CORE PREPPERS they would have images of guys cleaning vehicles and gardening tools, wives preserving or baking food, children using their space time NOT to roam the streets but to learn useful skills. The homes would look almost identical to everyone else's homes just with more books, more food perhaps bigger kitchens and pantries and gardens turned over to food instead of flowers. The family would still watch the Simpsons on TV but would also watch global current affairs shows to stay informed.
What we think is insane
Building homes with not enough storage space for real families, not building SECURE homes in already noted high crime areas, redeploying law enforcement FROM rural areas to town when crime is rising in the RURAL areas, Unchecked immigration into western countries by often hostile cultures to our own, building homes without Fire Places and Chimneys, larders and pantries. Centralising hospital services which only increases the risk of spreading diseases, building homes with no place to even park a car or grow a few veg. Disarming the law abiding whilst criminals and terrorists have free reign to weaponry and explosives. Global just in time logistics for all essential goods and services.
WE ARE
We are both the PRE and the POST consumer era combined.We see the sense our grand parents had in being able to fix things for ourselves, do jobs around the house for ourselves, look after ourselves, to grow at least SOME of our own food, to stock up extra essentials in food, fuel, medicines etc for the times they are unaffordable or unavailable.
But we also see and accept the inherent risks and vulnerabilities in modern society, From the supply on demand last minute logistics used globally for everything from food to fuel to medicine to components to keep manufacturing going, to getting fuel to power stations and grain to bakeries. We see and accept the vulnerabilities in modern society and all we do is make modest sensible precautions to mitigate or insulate ourselves from the effects of any likely disruption to the vulnerable system our society now relies upon.
So ask yourself this Do you plan on dropping dead next week, do you think you will crash your car next month, How about your home being burnt down in the next quarter?
NO OF COURSE NOT, but you still have LIFE, CAR and HOME insurance just in case something unfortunate happens. That dear reader makes YOU a Prepper as well.
Got a First Aid Kit (FAK) at home, spare bulbs, fuses, torch, snow shovel, extra gallon of fuel for the car, a bit of extra food in the house incase you cannot get to the shops next week? Have you got a few dollars set aside for a rainy day, got locks on your door, got the emergency services on speed dial, Do you listen to the TRAFFIC news on the TV or radio, Got a bus time table incase the car is off the road ? Yup all of that also confirms YOU ARE A PREPPER.
We preppers are no different to 99% of society who simply take extra precations to help ensure their lives are disrupted as little as possible when some unplanned disruptive EVENT occurs.
EVENTS events , what events you ask? Is it Armageddon, Martians landing, Zombie outbreak, North Korea invading California??? .............Erm NO to be frank , nothing so glamorous.
Events such as being snowed in or your street being hit by a power cut or getting stuck in the city because of bad weather / industrial action / riots etc and not being able to get home by normal methods. The shops running out of your prescription medicines and cannot get more for days is an example, Events such as mudslides and landslips cutting off your village or town from the rest of the county for days, Snow, Forest fires, Earth Quakes, Tsunami, Floods, Rain storms, Hail storms, Droughts, Industrial strikes cutting off food , fuel or utilities, Riots, Civil Unrest, Police incidents and even things like unexpected periods of unemployment. Preppers make the same contingency plans most sensible people do we just do it in a bit more depth.
Media and Preppers / Survivalists
Thanks to the main stream media both printed and TV survivalism and preparedness are etched into western societies psyche as something extreme to be condemned and ridiculed as " gun nuts", "rambos", " Hippies" " Loopy Greens" etc From movies like Tremors, The Survivalist, World War Z, Red Dawn etc through TV media with Z Nation, The Walking Dead, The Last Ship etc. Into supposed factual shows like Doomsday Bunkers, Doomsday Preppers (US and UK versions). The media always portrays us in the worst possible but most rating attractive method. EG Why record preppers home aquaponics set up or composting toilet or solar array or the preppers doing First Aid or Amateur Radio licence courses, when they can portray them running around with guns, fortifying their remote homes and wearing cammo clothing. Yes any close investigation of preppers you find few extremists and lots of genuine ordinary everyday people simply taking sensible precautionary steps to protect their families from storms, floods, quakes, unemployment, riots, shortages etc. If the media wanted to record REAL GENUINE HARD CORE PREPPERS they would have images of guys cleaning vehicles and gardening tools, wives preserving or baking food, children using their space time NOT to roam the streets but to learn useful skills. The homes would look almost identical to everyone else's homes just with more books, more food perhaps bigger kitchens and pantries and gardens turned over to food instead of flowers. The family would still watch the Simpsons on TV but would also watch global current affairs shows to stay informed.
What we think is insane
Building homes with not enough storage space for real families, not building SECURE homes in already noted high crime areas, redeploying law enforcement FROM rural areas to town when crime is rising in the RURAL areas, Unchecked immigration into western countries by often hostile cultures to our own, building homes without Fire Places and Chimneys, larders and pantries. Centralising hospital services which only increases the risk of spreading diseases, building homes with no place to even park a car or grow a few veg. Disarming the law abiding whilst criminals and terrorists have free reign to weaponry and explosives. Global just in time logistics for all essential goods and services.
WE ARE
We are both the PRE and the POST consumer era combined.We see the sense our grand parents had in being able to fix things for ourselves, do jobs around the house for ourselves, look after ourselves, to grow at least SOME of our own food, to stock up extra essentials in food, fuel, medicines etc for the times they are unaffordable or unavailable.
But we also see and accept the inherent risks and vulnerabilities in modern society, From the supply on demand last minute logistics used globally for everything from food to fuel to medicine to components to keep manufacturing going, to getting fuel to power stations and grain to bakeries. We see and accept the vulnerabilities in modern society and all we do is make modest sensible precautions to mitigate or insulate ourselves from the effects of any likely disruption to the vulnerable system our society now relies upon.
