A lot of them aren’t planning for the end of the world, just for “something bad” of indeterminate but finite length that’s longer than a lot of people think reasonable.
It’s a spectrum, with routine “emergency preparedness” on one end, and “self sufficient lifetime bunker filled with reusable water and canned food” on the other.
It’s normal for people to have a flashlight, a few days worth of shelf stable food, a first aid kit and a couple of tarps. It doesn’t even need to be intentional, it’s just normal, but it still forms a basic emergency kit.
A rational response to a normal risk.
A lot of the more extreme peppers who aren’t radical are in more rural areas, where something like a tornado could actually knock out power for a week or more.
A rational response to an uncommon, but real risk.
Others just have a disproportionate estimation if the risk of something like Katrina or the 2003 blackout happening, that can knock utilities out for a protracted period of time, or some esoteric and unlikely beliefs about civil unrest.
A rational response to an uncommon, unlikely risk.
At the far end you have people who want to survive the literal end of the world. I don’t necessarily get why you would want to survive for a bleak and empty life either.
An irrational response to an unprecedented, infinitesimal risk.
I work in emergency management. I’m on the “keep beer in fridge” end of the scale but I know people who bury containers of goods for trade (rimfire for varmint hunting popular for this). It really is a continuum.
Best advice: keep a full tank of gas, food in a chest freezer with ice packs, and 1 gallon of water per person per day. You will be expected to make it for 3 days without assistance. Full marks if you plan for a week which includes a heat source for warmth and cooking.
The problem is “our” image is not something we all agree on. I see no reason for that to be different for the handful of survivors. The survivors will most likely end up wishing they had died quickly.
Probably evolution. My guess is that there have always been “weirdos” that live at the outside or are especially paranoid. Most of the time it’s just weird, but sometimes it payed off during our evolution.
Basically your great great great great great great great great great great granddad was a prepper. But you didn’t inherit the prepper gene.
I don’t really understand preppers. Why would you want to survive after society collapses? That sounds awful.
A lot of them aren’t planning for the end of the world, just for “something bad” of indeterminate but finite length that’s longer than a lot of people think reasonable.
It’s a spectrum, with routine “emergency preparedness” on one end, and “self sufficient lifetime bunker filled with reusable water and canned food” on the other.
It’s normal for people to have a flashlight, a few days worth of shelf stable food, a first aid kit and a couple of tarps. It doesn’t even need to be intentional, it’s just normal, but it still forms a basic emergency kit.
A rational response to a normal risk.
A lot of the more extreme peppers who aren’t radical are in more rural areas, where something like a tornado could actually knock out power for a week or more.
A rational response to an uncommon, but real risk.
Others just have a disproportionate estimation if the risk of something like Katrina or the 2003 blackout happening, that can knock utilities out for a protracted period of time, or some esoteric and unlikely beliefs about civil unrest.
A rational response to an uncommon, unlikely risk.
At the far end you have people who want to survive the literal end of the world. I don’t necessarily get why you would want to survive for a bleak and empty life either.
An irrational response to an unprecedented, infinitesimal risk.
I work in emergency management. I’m on the “keep beer in fridge” end of the scale but I know people who bury containers of goods for trade (rimfire for varmint hunting popular for this). It really is a continuum.
Best advice: keep a full tank of gas, food in a chest freezer with ice packs, and 1 gallon of water per person per day. You will be expected to make it for 3 days without assistance. Full marks if you plan for a week which includes a heat source for warmth and cooking.
We’re lucky that our go-to emergency kit basically overlaps with our “ugh, I don’t want to cook” stock, and we enjoy camping.
Regularly rotating supply of canned chili ingredients has us covered for food for a while in case if emergency or long day at work.
The chance to create a new society in our own image. With government subsidised cocaine and hookers.
The problem is “our” image is not something we all agree on. I see no reason for that to be different for the handful of survivors. The survivors will most likely end up wishing they had died quickly.
You’d rather die?
Than have to scrape by in a post-apocalyptic hellscape? Absolutely.
I don’t have a Mad Max fantasy.
Not very shiny and chrome of you.
Oh, what a movie. What a lovely movie!
Lame
Probably evolution. My guess is that there have always been “weirdos” that live at the outside or are especially paranoid. Most of the time it’s just weird, but sometimes it payed off during our evolution.
Basically your great great great great great great great great great great granddad was a prepper. But you didn’t inherit the prepper gene.