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“Prepper”, and “prepping” have started to become what the term “survivalist” was a few decades ago, the term for someone that tries to be ready for some radical calamity. From the “mainstream” point of view, preppers are a bit odd at the least, and nut jobs on the far end of the scale. I know for a fact that some of my family thinks I’m “a bit touched”. Yet they are reading this. (Aren’t you, family?)

That’s fine, no need for them to come out of the prepper closet. But there is a need for them to start taking steps. They’ve made the first one in admitting, even if only subconsciously, that bad things happen. I don’t think it is possible to get through life without some form of calamity happening to you.

If nothing else, their is always the death of a loved one due to old age, though Aubrey de Grey, a noted gerontologist, believes we are at a crossroads and will be solving aging issues within the next 25 years. (Here is a set of his interviews that I find fascinating.)

If you’ve read this far, you will agree that, like it or not (who WOULD??), bad things happen. We try to be ready by setting aside things for the eventualities – extra food, extra money, extra time, and good, solid relationships. Nothing makes hard times easier than someone sharing it with you out of concern.

“Out of concern”. Having someone along that is emotionally invested in your well being is a fantastic thing. Their concern has to be genuine though, and I do not believe that groups  formed for emergencies are as viable as groups that have a common bond.

I recently read through a few articles about forming prepper groups, and the pitfalls. Sure, you get like-minded people together (they all believe the S will HTF) that work towards a common goal (survival). Most will have handy skills, training and gear. Sounds great, doesn’t it?

But I have a few questions about their motives and background.

Where are their friends and families? What kind of person doesn’t already have friends and family to include in their plans? And if they have reached adulthood without having any friends “worth saving”, what makes you think that they will think any better of you?

They don’t sound so great anymore…

Now try this. Walk outside. If you see a neighbor, do you wave? Do they wave back? Have they ever helped you with something, like moving a large item, jump starting your car, or keeping an eye on your house while you were away for a weekend? If your answer to any of those is “yes”, then you already have someone that has “got your back”. They are emotionally invested. Those are the folks you want to include in your group.

My brother doesn’t agree with me on being ready for bad things. But if/when something happens, he and his family are welcome, because I know they each bring SOMETHING to the table, if only extra hands for the daily chores. More importantly, I TRUST them. I would rather have my niece, who has never fired a gun, than someone I met a few years ago that is C.E.R.T trained, but shares no common background with me. 

My title is a bit misleading. When I say “Forming a prepper group is silly”, I mean that getting together with strangers and hoping that the common desire to survive is enough to make it work. Rare is the pick up group that lasts more than a few months. Solid groups are based on solid relationships.

Let me try to illustrate this another way.

When I was in Basic Training for the US Air Force, the biggest part of the training was breaking each individual down via mental and physical stress, to a point of almost non-functioning. At that point, the Training Instructors would gently guide us towards the realization that by working together, we could all accomplish the impossibilities required of us as individuals. They would take individuals, and make them team players.

You cannot learn to be a team just from regular meetings with strangers. But interact in their lives, and you will.

Have you ever seen a husband and wife team DOMINATE a nonverbal communication game together, such as Win Lose or Draw, Scattergories, or some other nonverbal communication or word association game? It seems as though they are either cheating, or have some sort of telepathy going on. They are about as emotionally invested in each other as two people can get…and usually make a great team to accomplish any goal.

I am lucky enough to have that with my wife, and we work well together (most of the time!!), better than most of our friends and their wives do, at least while playing games. And while my wife would struggle to get a fire started without a lighter or matches, and she has been known to let deer get away that I wanted to put in the freezer, she is the first person on my go-to list, because I know she will be there for me.

I have several friends that are also on that list…. but no one that I’ve not known for at least a few years, and have spent many many hours getting to know them. That level of trust is really hard to find without common ground.

So is it a bad thing by having a group organized (even loosely) in the event a bad situation arises? Nope. But just be careful from where you source the folks on the list. I’m not saying that the folks you meet solely for the purpose of prepping cannot be trusted, I’m just saying that you may already have the group you need around you, and it is far easier to lead them to prepping than it is to trust strangers in an emergency.

Just my $0.02…

Read about the power of community here in Lights Out by David Crawford

Peace,
db

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