Why do I Prep? ? Survival and Beyond

By Robert Rowe

I prep. I prep, therefore I am prepared. Is it really that simple? No. Prepping isn?t solely about being prepared for an emergency. Prepping is also about being able to take care of your friends, neighbors and family in the event of an emergency. It is difficult to determine what constitutes an emergency, though. There are natural emergencies, such as what the east coast is experiencing in the aftermath of hurricane Sandy. Other natural emergencies include things like tornadoes, earthquakes, volcanoes and flooding, just to name a few.

Then there are man-made emergencies. These can range from acts of terrorism to a house fire or an extended power outage. For these types of emergency, it is pretty easy to prepare. But what about the smaller ?sort of unexpected? emergencies? Something like being poor.

As an example, I will use the situation of a friend of mine. I received a call from my friend today asking me for some advice and help because they could not afford to pay their electric bill and their power had been turned off. They knew this event was going to happen and had taken some appropriate steps to deal with it. For example, they applied for emergency assistance from a local charity that deals with this type of situation whenever they have the funds. Unfortunately for my friend, the earliest appointment they could get was December fifth. That means my friend and his family are going to be without electricity for 22 days.

Now, why my friend is in this situation is not the issue here. There are some other things my friend could have done differently, to be sure. But it isn?t like he is a deadbeat who is sitting around all day drinking beer and smoking cigarettes collecting a welfare check. This is a person who is out there every day pounding the pavement trying to find any work he can. He is doing everything he knows how to provide for his family.

I have been helping him out as much as I can with information on how to prep, things his family can do to save money and make what little money they have go farther. I even, occasionally, provide them a gift of a fresh rabbit or two. Well, sort of. I make him earn the food. He helps me in the greenhouse, or slaughters the rabbits or whatever else I need done. In other words, we barter. This seems to benefit both of us.

Since my friend knew this event was going to happen, his family did take some preemptive steps to prepare for it. What little money they did have for food, they spent mostly on canned foods so they would have fewer perishables to lose. They stocked up on candles to provide them light during the long dark hours of the winter months. They were able to procure a few extra blankets from relatives to keep them warm at night and there were some other measures they took as well. In other words, they saw it was going to happen and took some steps to mitigate the inevitable outcome.

So, when I got the call from him today, I was not shocked at all. Here is the thing he did that I respect. He asked if there was any work he could perform for me in exchange for firewood and the use of my camp stove. He did not ask for a hand out. He asked for a hand up. He offered to work for what he needed. Of course, I told him that I would look into it and see if I had anything for him to do. When I got home from a rare day of work for myself, I took stock of what I had and what I could afford to give away. Then I figured out what work I needed done. I went over to his house and told him what I had to offer and what I needed and we worked out an agreement.

Were I not a prepper, I would not have had the extra supplies and inventory on hand to offer my friend in his time of need. This is an emergency for him and his family. Could he have prepared himself better? I am sure he could have. But there are some good things that came from this event. First, I get some much needed chores done that I haven?t been able to get to recently. Second, my friend knows that he has a friend who has his back. That develops loyalty. Third, my friend and his wife have asked me to help them develop a prep plan for their family because they want to be more self-sufficient in the event this kind of situation should happen again.

In other words, their eyes have been opened and they are newly awakened.

Prepping has allowed me to feel more confident about the prospects of my family?s survival in the event of a major emergency. It has allowed me to help out a friend in his hour of need. Those reasons alone are enough to prep. But there are other reasons.

Let us presume a SHTF scenario. I don?t care which scenario you wish to use, let?s just assume that it has hit the fan and we are in a civilization collapsing event. Most likely, the event will take time to unfold. It will be a decline that happens over a period of weeks, months or even years. As a prepper, this is something I am not too concerned with surviving. I have the means to survive and the means to continue to survive long after most have not. Indeed, I can survive indefinitely. It will be hard and require a lot of hard work, but it can be done.

As a prepper, I am in a unique position to help out my neighbors. I am in a unique position to rebuild the local community. I am in a unique position to lead those in the neighborhood back to a more civilized community. I am in a unique position to be a stabilizing influence on the neighborhood. I am in a unique position to provide the training and education the people of the neighborhood will need to rebuild.

In other words, preppers who are willing to participate in their neighbor?s lives after the SHTF are going to be the leaders of the new order of life. This is not to be confused with the New World Order, though, in essence, it will be exactly that. The way of life will be completely different from what it is now. It will be something that nobody currently alive will know how to deal with without the help of those who are prepared.

So why is this important? Is it just to appease my ego? No, of course not. When it comes time to rebuild society, who would you rather have leading the people? Someone who knows how to prepare for and survive emergencies or someone who has learned to target and take advantage of the weak and unprepared? Would you rather have someone who obviously has strong moral values and has demonstrated their willingness to live by those values or someone who merely tries to find an easy way out of a difficult situation? Personally, I would rather have the prepper in a leadership position than a road warrior.

So, being a prepper is more of a way to preserve our way of life after SHTF than merely a means of personal survival. Without preppers, hope for returning to a civilized nation will be non-existent or at the very least, it will take a much longer time to achieve.

Why do I prep? I prep for my country and the American way of life.

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Source: http://www.survivalandbeyond.net/why-do-i-prep/

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