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THREE MILLION PREPPERS IN AMERICA Are Getting Ready For The End of the World As We Know It
SHTF Plan ^ | 2-12-2012 | Mac Slavo

Posted on 02/12/2012 7:41:15 AM PST by blam

THREE MILLION PREPPERS IN AMERICA Are Getting Ready For The End of the World As We Know It

Mac Slavo
February 11th, 2012

In the autumn of 2008, as Presidential hopefuls sparred over whether we had entered a recession or not and well before the onset of the most serious global crisis since the 1930′s, trend forecaster Gerald Celente advised his Trends Journal subscribers to prepare for the worst and plan for the best. “It will be,” warned Celente, “like nothing we’ve ever seen in our lifetime.”

The aware and prepared … those understanding just how out of control society would become, and those who had acquired the skills for survival would stand the best chance of navigating the chaos safely.

But Americans were not prepared. Not by a long shot

Very few had the foresight to predict that the economic system and social fabric of our nation would be threatened with upheaval and disarray. But some, whether through independent education or through intuition, deduced that there was a real possibility of a system shock so significant that life as we know it could be on the verge of a major paradigm shift – perhaps even a complete collapse of our economy and resource infrastructure.

As natural disasters around the world took the lives of hundreds of thousands, space agencies warned of solar disruptions that threaten our power grid, the economies of the world slid further into depression, and tensions between the world’s financial and resource super powers grew, more and more people began to realize that the stability we have come to depend on to live our daily lives was nothing but illusion.

With very few places to turn for support, most headed for the internet, where communities had popped up to discuss possible disaster and collapse scenarios, and ways to minimize the impact on oneself and family. That it was happening or could happen was no longer the question.

The real question was how to survive it when it finally came to pass.

With none of us ever having experienced (or even imagined) such a possibility before, many turned to guidance from experts in their fields – people like Gerald Celente or Marc ‘Dr. Doom’ Faber, who had an uncanny ability to see developing trends, and authors like survival expert James Rawles who wrote the popular economic collapse and survival cult classic Patriots and William Forstchen who penned One Second After, a frighteningly realistic look at what life without the grid might look like. First it was thousands, then tens of thousands of concerned Americans who began learning the essentials of survival by learning from each other with resources offered at web destinations like the American Preppers Network, Doctor Prepper, Survival Mom, Off Grid Survival and Ready Nutrition.

Those who chose to insulate themselves against coming disaster were often vilified or dismissed as lunatics by friends and family alike. And while many chose to ignore the trend which had become quite apparent, those who had the willingness to consider a different reality than had been painted by the powers that be just kept on preppin’.

As global malaise continued and the people began to lose confidence in political platitudes and corporatist solutions, the movement towards preparedness, survival and self reliance grew. After having seen what took place in New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina, many came to the conclusion that if the worst were to happen there would be no government to help, no 9-1-1 to call, and no emergency management agency to distribute food or water.

Today, at the cusp of possibly the most trying times in human history, more Americans than ever before are preparing for the possibility of disaster.

As many as three million Americans now fall into the category dubbed ‘preppers’ – people who are making detailed plans for the end of the world as we know it.

The preppers are an ever-growing group of survivalists who take extreme measures to prepare for a major catastrophic event.

More than 300,000 people a month visit the movement’s website, survivalblog.com, which catalogues how people are preparing for the worst.

The website has been set up by James Rawles, a former US Army intelligence officer, who is one of the movement’s leading figures.

Speaking to The Times, he said: ‘Should the worst happen, it’s become apparent that the Government can’t provide for everybody. And now that realisation is becoming more widespread.‘

‘People invest so much money in life insurance,’ Mr Ralston told National Geographic. ‘This is life assurance.’

He is like some of the people featured on National Geographic’s new show Doomsday Preppers, which chronicles a new prepper each week, delving into their conceptions of the end and what they’re doing to prepare for it.

‘It’s not a hobby, it’s a lifestyle,’ Gloria Haswell told National Geographic. She and her husband spend 50 hours a week getting ready for a climate shift in the poles.

‘These are not just a handful of people living in the mountains,’ National Geographic Channel’s executive vice president of programming Michael Cascio told the Wall Street Journal. ‘They’re everywhere.’

The Journal notes that Nat Geo has begun appealing to a growing subculture that has seen the past disasters – from last year’s tsunami and earthquake in Japan to riots to economic uncertainty – and have wanted to prepare the best they can.

‘The last few years have probably exacerbated the doomsday fear,’ Mr Cascio told the Journal. ‘The world is changing.’

Source: UK Daily Mail

This week the National Geographic series Doomsday Preppers debuted to an audience of four million, a testament to the fact that preparing for disasters – regardless of the kind – is a growing trend, and one that’s popular even among those that have been affectionately dubbed the sheeple. No doubt some of those watching the show, who never considered the possibility of far-from equilibrium events, will take to preparing right away.

Most seasoned preppers will agree that those first few weeks and months of preparedness are the most stressful, with emotions being described by newbies as anxiety and panic. For those just getting started, you should feel better knowing that it’s better late than never.

What you may be experiencing today isn’t panic. It’s a sense of urgency, and that’s a positive motivator that can, with focus, drive you to quickly and effectively achieve your goals.

Panic is what we’ll see from those remaining 99% of Americans who have failed to take measures to protect themselves from the coming devastation.


TOPICS: News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: collapse; economy; getreadyhereitcomes; getyourhouseinorder; prepperping; preppers; shtf; survival; survivalping
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The One Hour Meltdown
1 posted on 02/12/2012 7:41:20 AM PST by blam
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To: blam

ok


2 posted on 02/12/2012 7:43:52 AM PST by Artemis Webb
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To: Kartographer; ChocChipCookie
FYI

The Survival Mom is FReeper ChocChipCookie

3 posted on 02/12/2012 7:47:28 AM PST by blam
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To: blam

And all of those preppers are considered a threat to the District of Criminals. Just ask Nappy at the DHS!


4 posted on 02/12/2012 8:01:05 AM PST by Jack Hydrazine (It's the end of the world as we know it and I feel fine!)
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To: Artemis Webb

Yup.


5 posted on 02/12/2012 8:06:01 AM PST by grobdriver (Proud Member, Party Of No! No Socialism - No Fascism - Nobama - No Way!)
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To: blam
YAWN. Yeah, thanks sport. Been through all this nonsense during the 70's. Same dire prediction, same warnings to prepare, same massive amounts of money invested by the paranoid--excuse me--the "prepared" /rolleyes, same bunker mentality . . . "excitable little fellows" no longer intrigue or interest me.

Ya'll have fun though . . . who knows, one of these myriad of times the fringe might actually turn out to be right . . . even a blind pig finds an acorn every now and then.
6 posted on 02/12/2012 8:17:10 AM PST by Sudetenland (Anybody but Obama!!!!)
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To: blam

We have to prep, invest resources and time because of f’n idiotic leftist politicians and their anticonstitutional laws (For presidents, think heodore Roosevelt, Woodrow Wilson, FDR, JFK, LBJ, Nixon, ‘Toon, and lastest incarnation of idiocy - the Usurper). Throw in, also, for good measure, the black-robed tyrants ( think Wickard v Filburn).

Their names must be held in perpetual infamy, their corpses exhumed to be abused and spat upon, to be finally dumped into the ocean. For those anticonstitutionl tyrants still alive, they should be strung up like Mussolini and their families and sychopants hounded out of what remains of this country.


7 posted on 02/12/2012 8:18:38 AM PST by bkopto (Obama is merely a symptom of a more profound, systemic disease in American body politic.)
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To: blam

Bump.


8 posted on 02/12/2012 8:20:41 AM PST by Jaxter ("Pro Aris et Focis")
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To: blam
The One Hour Meltdown

Thanks for posting the link to that important article. I posted it as a thread a couple of years ago, and it still gets hits:

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/2529196/posts

9 posted on 02/12/2012 8:34:40 AM PST by Windflier (To anger a conservative, tell him a lie. To anger a liberal, tell him the truth.)
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To: Sudetenland

Living in earthquake country, a bit of prep- 3 days to a few weeks - is entirely rational.

And no civilization has survived forever. The Egyptians, Romans, Ming all had going concerns for longer than the US has been around and ‘it’ hit the fan in each case.

That said, the folks who seem eager for such a scenario, along with goldbugs and those who believe in The Rapture, are to me as big an annoyance as any other group out there. If you are *HOPING* for a scenario that involves pain or loss for your fellow human beings (regardless of their religious or political beliefs) they you are part of the problem.

It can become an obsessive hobby and pretty ridiculous, but I read once that the odds of having to fend for yourself due to a disaster of some sort, at some point in your life, are about 40 percent.


10 posted on 02/12/2012 8:43:24 AM PST by RedStateRocker (Nuke Mecca, Deport all illegals, abolish the IRS, DEA and ATF.)
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To: blam
She and her husband spend 50 hours a week getting ready for a climate shift in the poles.

That's just foolish - and unnecessary. They'll burn themselves out from overdoing things and negate all that they've accomplished.

11 posted on 02/12/2012 8:47:12 AM PST by rockrr (Everything is different now...)
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To: RedStateRocker

Exactly. bttt


12 posted on 02/12/2012 8:57:15 AM PST by Matchett-PI (There is no reasoning with anyone deeply indoctrinated into the tyranny of political correctness.)
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To: blam

bfl


13 posted on 02/12/2012 9:06:17 AM PST by JRandomFreeper (Gone Galt)
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To: Sudetenland

You know, it doesn’t have to be a global financial meltdown—keeping extra supplies makes sense for everyone who lives in an earthquake zone, a tornado zone, a hurricane zone, a blizzard zone—in other words, just about everyone. It’s just common sense.


14 posted on 02/12/2012 9:08:39 AM PST by MizSterious (Now that Perry's out, I guess I'll just have to vote for "Generic Republican Candidate")
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To: Sudetenland

You know, it doesn’t have to be a global financial meltdown—keeping extra supplies makes sense for everyone who lives in an earthquake zone, a tornado zone, a hurricane zone, a blizzard zone—in other words, just about everyone. It’s just common sense.


15 posted on 02/12/2012 9:08:48 AM PST by MizSterious (Now that Perry's out, I guess I'll just have to vote for "Generic Republican Candidate")
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To: blam

Good link. Thanks.

Grandpapy’s site has some of the most well tought out, useful, easily implemented advice and common sense information on the net.


16 posted on 02/12/2012 9:19:59 AM PST by Iron Munro ("Don't pick a fight with an old man. If he is too old to fight he'll just kill you." John Steinbeck)
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To: RedStateRocker

Plus the thing to remember is that not every situation means the end of the earth. There are more things that could happen which would throw the US into a disaster of maybe only a year or two but you can still starve in that time. We are planning for that type of event which is most likely to occur. If you can feed and protect yourself for 2 years you will get through almost any eventuality.


17 posted on 02/12/2012 9:30:17 AM PST by Georgia Girl 2 (The only purpose of a pistol is to fight your way back to the rifle you should never have dropped.)
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To: RedStateRocker

Plus the thing to remember is that not every situation means the end of the earth. There are more things that could happen which would throw the US into a disaster of maybe only a year or two but you can still starve in that time. We are planning for that type of event which is most likely to occur. If you can feed and protect yourself for 2 years you will get through almost any eventuality.


18 posted on 02/12/2012 9:30:36 AM PST by Georgia Girl 2 (The only purpose of a pistol is to fight your way back to the rifle you should never have dropped.)
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Comment #19 Removed by Moderator

Comment #20 Removed by Moderator


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