Are Preppers Crazy?

The answer to "Are preppers crazy?" changes and is varied. There was a brief time in recent years when television explored the philosophy and ideas of the survivalist, doomsday folks extensively. Then, like all things American, people quickly bored of it and except for The Walking Dead and a few hangers on, the wonderful world of tv is on to other things.

I was pleased that the Republican debaters last evening actually mentioned the possible threat of an EMP and the danger of ignoring (or practically enabling) those in the world who would love to have the capability of inflicting such a disaster upon America.  The world, at it's best, is a precarious environment. There's not only those that would engage in insanely reckless behavior and bring our comfy little lives to a halt---there's the natural occurrences that we have very little control over that loom always around our heads.

So, are those---and to some people's surprise, there are millions---that believe in making preparations for a catastrophic event, crazy?  I say a big fat NO.   You can laugh if you like, you can go about your daily life and just believe that if something horrible happens, well, someone will rescue me, someone will feed me, someone will protect and give me shelter. It's America, right?"

Just ask yourself a few questions:
                   Have you ever gotten really sick, say with the flu, a virus bug or such. You know, too sick to really take care of yourself, too sick to get out of the bed and realized that you barely had a can of soup on the shelf?  You just hadn't had time to get the store this week.

                   Have you ever had your car break down and were strapped to get it repaired and wondered, how in hade's am I going to function without that vehicle?

                   Have you ever been a couple of days from payday and had to just make your groceries stretch, invent something out of what was on the shelf?

                   Have you ever been truly captured inside due to bad weather, winter or stormy? Ever had to be without power or water for just a few days?

If you haven't experienced any of these temporary inconveniences, you're indeed fortunate. Just take a moment and imagine any or all of those events magnified and extended, perhaps permanently.  Could you literally survive and for how long and could you protect your family?

It's far from crazy to make some preparations for a bad day or future. I'm not talking about wearing a mask and a foil hat, digging a hole, giving up your pleasant life to hoard away supplies. I'm saying that it is smart for all of us to just make some preparations for a day when our world is not like we are accustomed to.  If you just bought three extra items, each week when you shop---canned goods, over the counter medicine, dried goods---at the end of the month, you would have 12 things on an emergency shelf or under your bed. At the end of six months you would have 72 items stored away. This does not have to be expensive or take up a lot of space. 

Just this one last question, when you're in your comfy bed tonight, in the dark. What if no one was any better off than you in a disaster, no one was there to come help? Or what if the only people coming were the bad guys?   Just buy that can of beans tomorrow, and stick it away. I promise, you'll never miss that dollar.

I may be crazy, but I'm not stupid.  JO