Are Preppers Crazy or Is It Crazy to Not Prep?

What do your friends and family say when you tell them you’ve been storing food, growing your own produce or that you subscribe to Mother Earth News?  When they find out that you’re considering raising chickens in your suburban backyard, do they think you’re crazy?  My own friends get this uneasy look in their eyes, and then slowly back away as if they hear the opening notes of  “Dueling Banjos”!

The fact is, human beings have been survivalists, or preppers, for nearly our entire existence.  Foraging, hunting, and gathering wasn’t just an alternate lifestyle for our ancestors but the only means of survival.  Each day, each season brought the possibility of having no water, no food, no medicinal herbs, and no shelter.  Storing as much food as possible, yes, stockpiling!, wasn’t radical, it was sensible.  There was no option to self-sufficiency.

Fast forward thousands of years, and self-sufficiency, by and large, is a thing of the past.  We have forgotten essential, practical survival skills.  Why take the trouble to grow your own food when there’s a grocery store on every corner?  The produce department displays not just one variety of apples but a dozen, all shiny clean and not a worm in sight.  Discount stores offer shoes and clothing at a price much lower than anything handmade.  Most of us revel in the quality and variety of goods that are so easily accessible, but will this era of plenty last indefinitely?

It really is no wonder that preppers seem out of step with most everyone around us.  There are obvious, ominous storm clouds on the horizon, and to us, it just makes sense to stock up on groceries,  learn long-forgotten skills, and make plans for any number of emergencies.

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Friends and family may question our sanity, but our ancestors would be proud of our efforts to prepare for an uncertain future.

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4 thoughts on “Are Preppers Crazy or Is It Crazy to Not Prep?”

  1. I live in a hurricane zone, within fallout range of I think 3 reactors, near many obvious terror targets, near possible sites of major civil unrest. The local Sheriff’s Dept has vehicles with equipment mounted in them that detects radioactive materials, as well as MRAPs. This tri-county area is responsible for a huge slice of our state’s violent crimes.
    What, me worry? 😉

  2. Charles Harris

    I grew up in the Washington, DC area during the Cold War. I lived and worked there until I retired in 2011. Over the years we had multiple hurricanes and power outages. W.T. Woodson high school where I attended was hit three times by tornadoes. As kids we prepped during the Cuban Missile Crisis. As an adult we exercised extra caution after the 1993 CIA shootings, the Pentagon attack on 9/11, the 2002 rampages of the beltway sniper, and the 2011 line of duty deaths of Lt. Vicky Armel and MPO Michael Garbarino during the shift change at the Sully District police station in Fairfax County where I lived.

    Preparedness and vigilance are still part of daily life where I am now retired in West Virginia. We still live in dangerous times, whether you choose to accept that or not. I choose not to be a victim.

  3. As far as I’m concerned , only a fool is without preps ! In 75 years and five kids, I have experienced many times when I had to rely on my preps to get by. Had one time when I was not prepared and I promised myself and my kids that would never happen again ! It never has. I am prepared for as much as I can prepare for. I have thought up numerous ways to hide my stores even in plain sight. I didn’t have a lot of space for storage so I had to get creative. Above doors in the bedroom and bathroom, behind the couch and made into a display table from buckets stacked and then a board setting on top with a long scarf and then family pictures etc. Home made pull out boxes under the bed and so on. I’ve even heard of some who have made false walls and floors in their homes so they can make room for storage. End tables with long table cloths to hide what is under them and I even made night stands from my boxes and covered them to the floor and placed a lamp and clock on top. You need to use your imagination and you will find plenty of room. Above the door in my one bathroom is a wire shelf with plenty of stored bathroom tissue on it ! Clean out the cabinet under the sink and get rid of the stuff you really don’t ever use that may be gone bad by now and fill it with new stores of bar soap and toothpaste and tooth brushes. Where there is a will there is a way.. When we lived in cold country I learned to put bread sacks over the kids shoes so they went in their boots easier when they had grown out of them , until I could get new ones ! Came in handy. I shopped at the second had stores for winter snow suits for them too and passed them on down to the next kid. I didn’t have the money to buy new all the time, but I did have the money to do some yard saleing and second hand shopping. My friends an I exchanged hand me downs all the time and we tried to take very good care of everything so no-one ever knew that stuff was second hand ! With things the way they are today in this world you need to be prepared for most anything from storms to lay offs to enemy attacks. Don’t be a fool. You can always use what you have but if you need it and you don’t have it , it is way too late then. Be smart !

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