I don’t think preparing for the possibility that we could be visited by chaos and catastrophe this fall and winter is giving into the COVID panic.  Sensible people prepare for life changing events—they buy life insurance, change the batteries in smoke detectors and keep their automobile gas tanks full.

Do we call those people preppers?  We could because they are!

 

The media has over the years depicted preppers as those who take to the back woods, lugging water from a nearby stream, and killing game to eat which they cook over spits in the ‘yard.’  But there is a wide range of possibilities for how much you want to prepare, and some of it is completely sane and sensible.

I had no interest this morning in writing one more crooks and criminals post that will only serve to feed your news reading addiction, because today I’m working on my to-do list for being prepared.

And, hey, look at it this way.  If conservative-minded people prep for the worst and the libs think the government is going to take care of them, guess who might survive riots, civil unrest and a pandemic.  You guessed it!

I just started reading a great book (well, I’ve only read a few chapters, so shouldn’t prematurely call it great) entitled “Start Prepping” by Tim Young.

The author discusses something that keeps most people from moving when faced with immediate or longterm danger.  He calls it ‘normalcy bias.’  He lists several examples of where people died because their brains just couldn’t go there—that they were in danger of being killed—and so they did nothing.

Case in point….

I recently read a novel about the Titanic and subsequently read a non-fiction book on the horrific sinking of the unsinkable ship.

The ship (on its maiden voyage!) sank in about two hours and 40 minutes from the time it struck an iceberg in the north Atlantic until it went down.

Initially the captain and officers didn’t think it was possible that they would lose the whole ship and many passengers did not move to lifeboats (there weren’t enough anyway) continuing to play cards and otherwise entertain themselves as normalcy bias overcame them.  At least 1,500 people went down with the ship.

Bad things do happen in history, after all, Rome fell, Nazi Germany nearly conquered all of Europe, the Twin Towers fell, is it so far-fetched that we are due for some rough times.

Heck we have had a little taste of it already.

Six months ago would you have dreamed that millions would lose their jobs and fat women would be punching each other in the aisles of supermarkets over toilet paper?

So what is the downside of learning how to protect your family?  A few people might think you are nutty—so what!

I suggest you stop reading this post, and look for a few good books and then head out to the grocery stores near you that are (still) open and begin getting in the things you would hate to live without even for a brief time—coffee maybe?

But, don’t forget water!  Author Tim Young says it is the most vital commodity for surviving even a few days.  Those of you living on ‘city water’ could find your water supply suddenly shut off for myriad reasons.

And, so what if you spend some time preparing, get in some food, water and other supplies and thank God nothing out of the normal happens later this year, then you can enjoy a few less shopping trips over the winter, eat some of what you have stored, and spend the extra free time on your political news reading addiction instead!

Finally, are you an ant or a grasshopper?  Aesop figured this out, oh, about six centuries before Christ.   Of course, one big difference now is that the ‘grasshoppers’ of today are mean SOBs often with weapons.  But that is another thing you need to be prepping for!