Posted on 12/05/2012 7:58:13 PM PST by 2ndDivisionVet
A few days ago, I posted this blog: Doomsday Preppers are Socially Selfish. The role of a blogger is to foment discussion an it certainly appears that’s what I did. I very much appreciated most of the 150+ comments – except perhaps the ones that called me ‘stupid’, ‘nuts, ‘arrogant’, ‘ignorant’ – and a few personal emails that were much more graphic.
I wrote this for the emergency management community, who pretty much misunderstood what I was saying. Social media is certainly powerful and I had no idea this would be so controversial.
FIRST .. let me offer a heartfelt apology. The title of that blog was misleading because there is a difference between DOOMSDAY Preppers and DISASTER Preppers. My sister, Marilyn, is a great example of a Disaster Prepper – although she calls it stocking up while working with her community. I asked her what the difference was and she said Disaster Preppers want to prepare for a prolonged power outage (all to common these days), while Doomsday Preppers are preparing for half the world to be destroyed.
For the record, I was a practicing emergency manager for over 20 years before I retired last year. The words 'All Disasters Are Local' are permanently inscribed on my brain. I would NEVER discourage or disparage work being done in communities as part of CERT or any other volunteer group. Those are the folks who are going to save the world. I can also unequivocally state (and I don’t know an emergency manager who would disagree with me) that NOBODY should expect help from their government during the first few weeks of any major disaster. The issues we saw in Katrina and Sandy (among others) only confirm it. The people who needed help right away were the ones who didn’t prepare...
(Excerpt) Read more at emergencymgmt.com ...
You know I’m right about the prepper community’s nutty doomsday tendencies.
Last time you even admitted it was silly — I think you used the word “idiotic” — to prep for some improbable SHTF fantasy. I’m with you 100% that it makes sense to stock up a few weeks worth of supplies so you’re not screwed when the next flood or tornadoe or regional power outage comes. But that’s as far as I’ll go with it.
To say the prepper community isn’t caught up with fantasy BS is to ignore all the SHTF junk they write about day in and day out.
You seem as obsessed with it as most anyone else, I’m sure glad that I do long term prepping, it has sure helped my the last couple of years.
“Valerie Lucus-McEwen”
I live by the rule “Never trust a woman with a hyphenated name”. It’s never steered me wrong either.
/johnny
There is no bright line but that doesn’t mean there isn’t such a thing as too far. You know this. That’s why you acklowledged a distinction last time.
/johnny
What Stash ??? We’re Extreme Couponers, not Preppers. . .
Here's your post (my comment in italics):
What I don't believe in is prepping for an extremely low probably SHTF type scenario.Anyone that does that is an idiot.
In my area, most likely threats are tornados, damaging straight line winds, wildfires, and personal financial events.
Those preps also work for someone in an earthquake zone, or a hurricane, or a blizzard.
I'm not prepping for earthquakes, I'm prepping for tornados, but if the New Madrid goes off (unlikely, in my lifetime), the tornado preps cover me.
/johnny
The book may be a work of fiction, but the premise is not that far fetched. Today, astronomers are aware of a Potentially Hazardous Asteroid (PHA) labeled 2012 DA14 which will miss the earth by less than 25,000 miles or approximately one tenth of the distance between the earth and the moon. Granted, this PHA is not a comet and is a rather small asteroid measuring about 60 yards wide. If it were to hit the earth the impact would be equivalent to a 2.4 megaton nuclear bomb. The resulting crater could be about a mile wide and 500 feet deep. The date of the upcoming close encounter is February 15, 2013. Hypothetically speaking, what is the possibility that if it were to hit the earth, scientists would have the faintest idea exactly where or when the impact would occur? Even if they knew (or guessed) the location of ground zero, what are the odds the local or federal governments would have any ability to prepare for the event or react to the devastation after the fact? I'm not confident.
Prepping for WWIII? Or CWII? Maybe not so much.
/johnny
Your unwillingness to entertain the idea that one more domino could fall.... Well, to me that sounds like believing in the Easter Bunny while denying the existence of Santa. But what do I know? :p
Okay, and now I want to see you say that prepping for a SHTF scenario, as generally understood by the prepper community, is crazy.
Not hypothecially speaking... the last time a large enough object was detected early enough, it was filmed from aircraft as it fell, and picked up after it fell.
Them math guys... They know when and where stuff meets atmosphere.
/johnny
You got some serious control issues going on...
First. Get the prepper community to define SHTF. I've said mine. Oct 2008 market crash.
/johnny
Uh huh. You dodged it. Speaks volumes.
Have a good evening.
“Pretty much misunderstood what I was saying”
Anymore when I read those words, whether from Zero, Costas or whomever, my first thought is, now there’s some great rhetoric: “You were too stupid to comprehend my meaning.”
Word to that. As soon as I see one using a hyphenated name, they go on my 'do not communicate with' list.
I said my personal SHTF mark is the market crash of 2008.
You are the one that had the 'generally understood' thing going on.
You have a great evening.
And remember, out here, somewhere, somone is doing something you don't like.
/johnny
Every communist nation that ever existed has built walls to keep their people from escaping. The need for these walls is because the people who are more productive know that they will be better off outside the walls rather than inside.
For the same reason, those who support socialism realize that no productive person who could, say, leave Kalifornia and move to Texas if the nation split up, would stay in Kalifornia. The socialists cannot afford to have the nation split up.
Many posters on this thread seem to be blind to what is happening in Greece and, more importantly, what is yet to happen.
There is simply not enough wealth in the world to do that which the socialists among us have promised to do. This reality is slowly being recognized.
Another poster on this thread points out that there is a limit to just how long productive people are going to be willing to be "fair" to those who expect themselves to be supported. I predict an UNCIVIL WAR.
I would say she isn't CYA-ing at all. It sounds more like she is doubling down on her own stupidity:
Selfish is defined as concerned excessively or exclusively with oneself, seeking or concentrating on one’s own advantage or well being without regard for others. By that definition, Doomsday Preppers are socially selfish – Disaster Preppers are not.
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