I have a generator, a couple of weeks of food and water and firepower to protect them. I do this in the event of a natural disaster or any other short term disruption in normal proceedings.
I don't envision a cataclysmic breakdown of society as many preppers do. The powers that be have too much to lose in such a scenario.
Instead, I see a slow, several hundred year decent into the abyss of destruction. We will have dozens and dozens of 2008's over the next century or two. We will have lights, heat and food for a while longer. Although, we will certainly need to be more dependent on others to get them and they will become more scarce over that time period.
We no longer live in a growing, productive, enlightened, Christian inspired, first world western civilization. That ship has sailed. The only thing left to do is manage the destruction and surf the slow avalanche to the bottom of the mountain.
While hoarding months or years of food and practicing survival drills for a coming post apocalyptic world aren't harmful, I don't see them as particularly helpful and choose to spend my time doing other things.
What people do everyday in this country is prepare to survive. That's why seed is grown and saved by seed companies and planted by farmers, that's why miners stockpile coal, that's why calves get turned out onto pasture, so we can have steaks in a couple of years. It's also why there are grain elevators, and warehouses across this great land of ours, well, in fly-over country, anyway.
The whole 'prepper' and 'survivalist' label is a recent phenomenon. Mainly used by leftists to denigrate self-sufficient people. Like Americans.
/johnny