Why We “Prep”

Our rationale for "prepping" (preparedness) is to develop resilience in the face of emerging threats to our health, safety, and freedom – whether natural or manmade, intentional or unintentional – so that we are not distracted from the struggle for the soul of our nation. 

The origins of the prepping movement

Prepping in America grew out of the survivalist movement of the 1970s. The earlier context was one of Cold War tensions and the threat of thermonuclear war. With the fall of the Soviet Union, the prospect of a global, apocalyptic nuclear war receded, and has been replaced by a broader and more realistic spectrum of potential threats to the established order – that is, to the conditions of general prosperity, opportunity, and safety that previous generations created, and later generations came to take for granted.

Some who tried to look ahead spooked at every shadow in that dim glass. In the 1970s, it was global cooling – because in truth, we are simply in a brief interglacial period of an ongoing Ice Age, and short-term trends extrapolated forward suggested that the intermission was almost over. More recently, the convergence of a short-term warming trend, simplistic pseudo-science, and a peculiar ideology has replaced the fear of a long winter with terror at the prospect of global warming. The constant across this fifty-year debate over climate has been a conviction that "the sky is falling" and human civilization must radically change or die, though neither has happened and we're still here.

The lessons of history

Some of us, both then and now, have looked at the stability and prosperity around us – a bit more frayed and tattered with each passing decade – with a perspective derived from history, and with an appreciation of trends in population growth, factionalism and competition, resource depletion, and the increasing fragility of complex systems.

We remember grandparents who grew, preserved and stored much of their own food – never sure of what the next harvest would yield – in root cellars that doubled as storm shelters. We asked, how is it that we are wiser than them? America produces vast amounts of food, for internal consumption and for export. But a century ago, our population was largely rural, living close to even if not directly involved in food production. Now we are largely an urban society, or as is the case in much of Wyoming, our communities grew up around extractive industries, or have outgrown their limited agricultural productivity, or have simply been established in areas that are only viable because of the ready availability of electricity, fuels, communication, and transportation. If the complex structure of petroleum-based industrial agriculture and the storage, processing, transportation and distribution of food should falter, we might be wishing for the well-stocked pantries and cellars of a century ago.

Matching actions to threats

There is a great gap between FEMA's post-911 guidance to keep 72 hours' worth of food, water, and essentials in our homes, and the attitude of preppers (and, notably, the LDS church) that it is irresponsible to have less than one or more years' worth of supplies on hand. The gap reflects both different appreciations of the threats we face, and the kind of cost/benefit analysis that we all make, especially when resources are limited. Evolving threats require observation, analysis, a sense of proportion, and a sensible allocation of what are, for most of us, limited resources.

Many of the worst scenarios are in the low probability/high consequence category. The risk of war or terrorism involving chemical, biological, radiological, or nuclear weapons with global impacts is, if anything, increasing in the multipolar instability of the post-Cold War world. Earth's long history of natural cataclysms, such as massive earthquakes and tsunamis, celestial impacts, coronal mass ejections, and super-volcanoes has not ended; we have just been living through a relative calm spell. Nevertheless, the probability of events of this magnitude affecting us and our immediate community, on an annual basis, remains low.

Some decide to gamble on the low odds of these "apocalyptic" hazards, and either ignore them or resign themselves to helplessness if they do arise. You certainly cannot affect whether they occur or not. We'll discuss the logic of different approaches to risk management in more depth elsewhere.

It is not hypothetical anymore

As a state and a nation, we face significant political, economic, and social threats that are well beyond "high probability" – they are imminent or underway. Singly or together, they are going to present tangible physical challenges to our happiness, opportunity, even our survival. How? For instance:

• Expanding government spending, on the shaky foundation of our huge and unpayable national debt and decades of budget deficits, is bringing us closer and closer to the edge of a very high cliff. The current administration is either incapable of exercising fiscal restraint or consciously chooses not to; and past administrations of both major parties have done little better. Already we are seeing inflation rates rising rapidly, compounded with shortages and supply chain disruptions aggravated by things as simple as draconian environmental regulations in California, and as wickedly complex as the misguided pandemic response. Any of a number of triggers could result in national default, currency collapse, and an economic crisis worse than anything seen since the stock market crash of 1929, and quite possibly worse than that.

• If that day comes, the impacts could be sudden and extreme. One would concern the availability of food, that most Americans have long taken for granted. Across the country, grocery chains typically have no more than 3-4 days' worth of inventory on premises, while in larger urban areas there might be that much again in distribution centers. If the trucks stop rolling up to the loading docks on a daily basis – as a consequence of fuel shortages, a breakdown in the credit system or any number of other causes – that inventory of foodstuffs and other expendable goods will be soon exhausted, because panic buying by all those who have not prepared for the day will strip the shelves far faster than "normal" shopping. If we do not have enough stored food to see us through such times, what will our families eat?

• A breakdown in the national transportation and distribution system could affect all other goods and services that are not locally produced or accessed. In 2021, we saw fuel shortages in parts of the country that resulted in allocation of scarce supplies to crews and equipment fighting massive wildfires – and scarcity and rationing for all others. Since the US is a maritime power highly dependent on overseas trade, an unlikely convergence of regulations and inefficiency gave us the "Containergate" crisis, with container ships in a colossal traffic jam off the Southern California coast, unable to unload their cargoes.

• If any combination of human and environmental factors (such as storms, solar flares, terrorist action) cause a failure of the regional or national electric grid, how will our lives be affected by the loss of electric power, communication, heating and cooling?

• The civil disorder that was widespread across the United States in 2020 impacted our mobility and personal safety, depending on our proximity to events. Fortunately, this had small effect in Wyoming. But we do not live in "splendid isolation", and the nation's problems are ours. From commercial trucking cargoes to FedEx, UPS, and the US Mail, what we often depend upon receiving in our Shangri-La originates in and transits through areas that have been impacted by civil disorder that will predictably arise again.

• Freedom and safety of highway travel has been a given for so long, that a great many people on the nation's highways take it for granted. Pandemic lockdowns, fuel shortages, civil disorder, or a host of other causes and events could leave us stranded far from home.

The list could go on, but the point is that there are many events and conditions short of the dramatic and apocalyptic that could have profoundly negative impacts on our lives, and they'll probably come in threes at least, each exacerbating the others; or exploited, like the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic, by those who say "never let a crisis go to waste."

Cold, hungry people don't fight

We are facing a willful, determined assault on our civilization and our constitutional republic. We are far from powerless against it – but our ability to resist could be seriously weakened if we are unprepared for the serial calamities that are coming. Our ability depends to a great degree on our steadiness and resourcefulness as challenges mount.

If we cannot communicate except through the internet or cellular networks, and we lose them through natural or human causes; if we cannot keep our jobs, or if the money we earn and hold loses its buying power; if we cannot fuel our vehicles; if we cannot keep our loved ones warm, safe, and well-fed; if our state, our town, our schools, businesses, and institutions stand up to misguided federal mandates and policies, and in retaliation the federal government withholds funds to which we have grown accustomed – then our ability to engage on the political front will shrink toward zero as we focus on the basics of safety and survival.

The "weaponization" of federal funding to force compliance is very real. In November 2021 we saw the beginnings of broad resistance to the Biden Administration's vaccine mandates, resistance answered by threats of curtailed federal funding. Health care systems, public schools, and many other facets of our lives have grown dependent upon federal "services" and federal funds, direct or indirect. Even hospital administrations and school boards that are not sympathetic with the vaccine mandate feel compelled to comply rather than risk the loss of their federal funding. Brave and imaginative strategies can and must emerge, such as Florida's initiative to replace OSHA – the federal agency issuing and managing the vaccine mandate rules – with a state-level workplace safety administration; and the many court challenges to the vaccine mandates that may stop their implementation.

As another example, states have grown accustomed to declaring a state of emergency in the aftermath of a natural disaster, ensuring open-ended access to federal funds for recovery. What if those funds were denied or simply unavailable?

Because so much federal leverage and power is based on its control over our (the taxpayers') wealth, it remains a strong possibility that resistance to federal dictates will result in denial of federal funding to states, institutions, businesses and even individuals (e.g., Medicare or Medicaid recipients) who have become dependent upon those funds. At the personal level, we must prepare ourselves to accept the challenges and hardships this may entail, and prepare to carry on after pulling our heads out of the federal trough.

How will we, our communities, and our state stop relying on federal assistance in routine as well as emergency situations – assistance that always comes at the price of submission to federal dictates?

What can you do?

Start with the basics of survival – food, water, and shelter – and expand from there to consider your sources of heat, light, communications, mobility, and even comfort. Expand your stockpile of all expendables, and procure tools, technology, materials, and simple, robust alternatives that would get you through times of shortages and disruption. What would you need to keep from being a displaced refugee, an inmate in a federal camp, or a prisoner in your own home, relying on government handouts?

Standing Tall will provide many more specific recommendations in subsequent posts. If you cannot undertake it all at once, do it by affordable increments, but do not delay. Work with trusted family and friends to find mutual solutions. Do this, so that when the time comes to "stand in the ranks" to rebuild our nation, you will not have to be looking over your shoulder uncertain about your family's health and safety.

As Ben Franklin said,

"Those who would give up essential Liberty, to purchase a little temporary Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety."

Self-reliance is the foundation of confidence. Being prepared for adverse events with knowledge, skills, abilities, and resources will keep us in the bigger game. We are concerned with far more than mere survival. We have a nation to take back, and we need to be able focus on that struggle, free from distractions.

In Summary

Preparation for adverse events and conditions is important for all these reasons:

• Prepping is about self-reliance and resiliency in the face of adversity.
• Threats to our survival are possible; threats to our freedom and prosperity are real and worsening.
• Serious and compounding disruptions of our economy and social structure are underway.
• Dependence on the federal government limits our freedom of action against that government's overreach.