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This article is brought to you by our friend Andrew J. Jackson over at Prepography ”The Art & Study of Self-Reliance”

By Andrew J. Jackson

There are a number of preparedness myths and myths about preppers.  Get your C-4, blasting caps and clacker out of your engineer’s bag, because today we’re going to explode 10 of those myths:

1. Preppers Prepare for Doomsday:  While most preppers have a worse case scenario in mind their preparations are suitable for local, national, regional and truly international disasters…both man made and natural.  Additionally, preppers are more resilient when it comes to individual and family disasters because of their mental paradigm, the knowledge and skills they develop as well as their physical and financial preps.
2. Preppers are Crazy:  There’s a great video by Sootch00 discussing this myth, but the truth is that preparedness is the only reasonable and logical response to an unknown future and even a cursory study of history.
3. Preppers are Paranoid and Live In Fear:  Maybe some do, but not many in my experience (every ‘movement’ has it’s fringe elements though).  I find that most preppers are intelligent, fun-loving people.  They plan ahead but they also make the most of each and every day because they’ve built an awareness to the fragility of our current society.
4. You’re Not a Real Prepper Unless You Have a Wilderness Retreat: Unless you have a bottomless bank account and a private security force securing your retreat…this isn’t generally a viable option.  You might be much safer staying within the environment you’re familiar with… surrounded by your friends and neighbors.  Now, I recognize that there are certain perils (hurricane, wildfire, urban civil unrest, etc.) where bugging-out is the only option… but carefully consider when and if you will bug-out.  Note:  if you decide bugging-out is for you, make sure that you do have someplace to go…maybe ‘back home’ or to a relative’s home in another state.  If bugging-out is part of your plan…or backup plan… then talk to your potential ‘hosts’ about becoming reciprocal bug-out locations.  It helps if the parties on both sides of the ‘bug-out’ contract are preppers.
5. Preparedness is Expensive:  Prepping can be expensive…but it’s not a requirement.  Remember that prepping is a continuum and how far you go and how much you spend is completely up to you.  For example with food preps, you could buy a year’s supply of emergency food for a  thousand dollars or you could pick up some canning supplies at  a garage sale and store the bounty of your own garden instead.  Another way to make prepping less expensive is to spread out your prep buying  over time…buy a little extra at the grocery store every week and build up your stores over time.   See my article on Top 10 Free Steps to Preparedness for more ideas.
6. Preppers are Terrorists:  There’s been several misguided government efforts in recent years to identify home grown terrorists by identifying ‘suspicious activity’.  Unfortunately, suspicious activity’ is painted with such a broad brush that it’s included such common prepper activities such as purchasing bulk ammunition, storage food, protective (gas) masks, flashlights and weapons accessories.  There’s a great article over at The American Dream if you’d like to read more.
7. Preppers Secretly Hope For The End Of The World As We Know It (TEOTWAWKI):  As far as I’m concerned, any prepper who wishes for ‘doomsday’ deserves to get their wish…just leave the rest of us out.
8. Preppers Know They’re Preppers: My grandparents were preppers…so was just about everyone who experienced The Great Depression.  My brother-in-law’s probably the most successful prepper I know and I’m not sure he’s ever heard the word (note to self, bring the brother-in-law into the circle of trust).  My brother-in-law checked out of his blue collar corporate job several years ago and turned his hundred year old farmhouse and 5 acres into a pretty self sufficient homestead just because that’s how he wanted to live.
9. Preppers are Gun Nuts:  OK, some preppers are… but a true prepper must balance their security preps with their food, water, shelter, communications, financial, transportation, etc. preps.
10. You Don’t Have to Prepare if You Know Someone Else Who Does:  One of my favorite Army Reserve bosses was a Vietnam Vet, Special Forces Qualified (Green Beret) and senior member of Federal Law Enforcement…I heard him say more than once “I don’t have to prepare, I’ve got guns and know how to use them.”  Presumably, he meant that in the event of a serious TEOTWAWKI situation he would look up a friend who was a prepper and offer his services as security in return for room and board…nah, I don’t really think that’s what he meant but I’m giving him the benefit of the doubt.  In a truly desperate situation showing up at a prepared friend’s home could be a dangerous situation.  Unless your friend has a tremendously deep larder he or she is unlikely to do more than extend you a little charity…after all, would you take food out of your family’s mouths to feed a friend who knew ‘the crunch’ was a possibility and refused to prepare himself?

Have some preparedness myths of your own to explode?  Use comments to add to the conversation.

Related articles

• 120 Powerful Pieces Of Advice For Preppers (thesurvivalplaceblog.com)
• 50 Things New Preppers Can Do To Keep Their Family Safe and Prepared (thesurvivalplaceblog.com)
• Uncorking the Lid on the Preparedness Test (thesurvivalplaceblog.com)
• Top 10 Initial Steps to Preparation (thesurvivalplaceblog.com)

This entry was posted on September 27, 2012 at 10:49 pm and is filed under Prepping, Whatever Your Opinion with tags Preparedness, Prepper, Survivalism, worse case scenario. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.