The Futility of Preparation

[pamela]

prepping isn't that hard or confusing.
just ask yourself, what do I need to live.
food, water, shelter.
take care of those things.
Prepping accomplished.  

[Six Gun Jim]

I figure it just like being on combat patrol. There are always good odds against you coming back but that doesn't mean you leave your pack and your rifle at the insertion point. There is no point preparing physically if you aren't mentally I'll give you that. If the shit goes down your brain will overload before your food runs out if you haven't got it tuned in. Gotta roll with the death and destruction or it will roll you. -James  

Not really the same thing - if you are on patrol you have information that there is an area that needs to be patrolled and a need to patrol that area - so you should prepare for things that may occur in that area.

On your other point, we agree. The people best apt to survive any situation are the one's who are mentally tough and who can adapt to the situation with a calm and cool head.

No, on patrol you go find out what is there to kill everybody else, and it can be anything, so you bring lots of stuff, a little of everything. All it takes to be "prepared" is access to the basic things you need to live, the scenario is unimportant until it arrives. If you plan for a survivable scenario and allow for mobility it doesn't take a fortune and your every waking hour. Simple stuff like warm clothes and an axe lend to many scenario's. Combat units prepare for missions based on intelligence they don't always trust and by taking from the supplies on base what is called for at a particular moment. Think of your stash as base, when the word comes on what is going down you take what you need and fuck the rest. Or you stay on base, it's bad but not that bad. Point is you can't use what you don't have and you NEVER have everything. -James

[DoomandGloom]

Has it occurred to anyone here that no one can prepare for the unknown and the ultimately we are all victims of chance and random events which are unforeseeable?

I picture one or more of you prepped to the hilt only to find your location or your methods have become totally worthless given the factual circumstances that arise. It's funny, in a dark macabre sort of way.

this world is not new, and we know what has happened in the past, I am ready for everything that happens in the repeating cycles of history.
and I am ready for things that are possible in the future,
and at least I will not be starving in 3 days if the stores stop selling food...

it sounds like you are so pessimistic that you are paralyzed,
I have been ready for many things that have happened in the past and it has helped.
if you are ready for nothing, anything will hurt you.
if you are ready for almost everything, then almost nothing will hurt you.
is is all about how likely you are to make it, not about absolutes or extreme pessimism.

I am being logical. You can not be ready for anything and everything - this is an illusion. The world is random full of chaos and chance can control your fate.  Preparing for doom and events with no knowledge is illogical.

[DoomandGloom]

prepping isn't that hard or confusing.
just ask yourself, what do I need to live.
food, water, shelter.
take care of those things.
Prepping accomplished.  

I think this trend of thought is a misnomer here.

[forager]

I could crawl out of a hole after the Apocalypse and find the Army of God camped under my oak tree.

[thethirstmutilator]

Preparing for doom and events with no knowledge is illogical.

then why are you here? i dont get it.

[DoomandGloom]

Preparing for doom and events with no knowledge is illogical.

then why are you here? i dont get it.

Information is power - there are a lot of smart people here critiquing all sorts of subjects. I also believe doom is possible but ultimately I'm an optimist. If doom strikes in one manner or another I think the best preparation is knowledge. I don't subscribe to the bunker mentality.

I also don't care for comments like this one that suggest somehow because I may disagree with a majority of people here that I somehow don't belong. That mentality frustrates me - because it's part of the problem we are facing.

[pamela]

prepping isn't that hard or confusing.
just ask yourself, what do I need to live.
food, water, shelter.
take care of those things.
Prepping accomplished.  

I think this trend of thought is a misnomer here.

how's that?
no matter what the event a person might think is coming, you will need those three things.
its like having a bit of insurance.
I'll go back and re-read your posts, but what exactly are you concerned about?
that you don't know exactly what events are ahead?
no one does.
you can hedge your bets by having some food put up, a secure place to live and a source of clean water.
if you have to run, or bug out, you have suitable camping equipment.
nothing odd or excessive about any of those things I don't think.

[Six Gun Jim]

How is it that you think we have little or no information?

Are you thinking of how people discuss preparing for inflation or deflation?

It seems to me that we have sufficient clarity to make the basic moves -- get out of debt, store food, grow food, be able to live at a different standard of living, develop your communities.

Are you thinking more of fine-tuning it, picking exactly a certain scenario that will happen?

I think you have no information -the possibilities are endless. Since you are not in control of any of the powers that may influence future events, there is no information you have which could lead to the right preparation. Let me give you an example - during Katrina all the guns and ammo were confiscated. So if you had ten weapons when faced with insurmountable force that preparation may be worthless.

The government has enacted all sorts of legislation that says they can take whatever you own. So storing food may be futile. Growing food may be futile (your land is subject to confiscation). Your choice of a doomstead may be the worst place and your storage of food, your garden, your self-sufficiency may have to be abandoned. These are just some examples of the myriad of things that can negate your preparations.

The other things you speak of are common sense things. We should get ourselves off of debt (because right now we're debt slaves - I have bankruptcy clients who are getting credit card applications the day after they get a discharge because this is how our economy works best - by making debt slaves).

Clearly the better choice is to try and see the changes implemented in the world which would make it the ideal most of us here would seek.

I think most of us have and it isn't working out too well. Last time I checked you're dreaming until after this mess disintegrates and we balance out all the things we are doing now which are unsustainable. We aren't the ones who set all this up and the ones who are have all the chips in the big game. Everybody jumps when the money floats in and that isn't going to change it's going to be culled out by force of circumstance. Life has been monetized, people have been and are trying to change it and nothing has changed. It's over D&G, do gooder potential is zero, we are beyond the tipping point. I don't want that I just get to deal with it. -James

[DoomandGloom]

prepping isn't that hard or confusing.
just ask yourself, what do I need to live.
food, water, shelter.
take care of those things.
Prepping accomplished.  

I think this trend of thought is a misnomer here.

how's that?
no matter what the event a person might think is coming, you will need those three things.
its like having a bit of insurance.
I'll go back and re-read your posts, but what exactly are you concerned about?
that you don't know exactly what events are ahead?
no one does.
you can hedge your bets by having some food put up, a secure place to live and a source of clean water.
if you have to run, or bug out, you have suitable camping equipment.
nothing odd or excessive about any of those things I don't think.

I think the only way to survive any doom is cooperation, sharing, caring, helping one another. I think skills will be more important than stored food. This is the opposite of the bunker mentality. Some people here are for these things - I was directing this post to the bunker people.

I also believe that even these minimal preparations you speak may be instantaneously meaningless in a doomsday scenario of any kind. The variables are unknown and any such preparation could immediately become worthless.

[pamela]

oh, well now I agree with you there, about the sharing and cooperation and all.
You're right.
but we have to get to a place where that can happen.
I expect to share my preps with my neighbors, and work with them growing food and raising animals.
these preps are to get us to the other side intact, with all we've learned, and all our skills, so that we can help and teach and bring change and community to wherever we happen to land.
But I believe, that we have to go through some bad times first.
Some frightening scary times. Hence the food supply and water and all that.

[Six Gun Jim]

prepping isn't that hard or confusing.
just ask yourself, what do I need to live.
food, water, shelter.
take care of those things.
Prepping accomplished.  

I think this trend of thought is a misnomer here.

how's that?
no matter what the event a person might think is coming, you will need those three things.
its like having a bit of insurance.
I'll go back and re-read your posts, but what exactly are you concerned about?
that you don't know exactly what events are ahead?
no one does.
you can hedge your bets by having some food put up, a secure place to live and a source of clean water.
if you have to run, or bug out, you have suitable camping equipment.
nothing odd or excessive about any of those things I don't think.

I think the only way to survive any doom is cooperation, sharing, caring, helping one another. I think skills will be more important than stored food. This is the opposite of the bunker mentality. Some people here are for these things - I was directing this post to the bunker people.

I also believe that even these minimal preparations you speak may be instantaneously meaningless in a doomsday scenario of any kind. The variables are unknown and any such preparation could immediately become worthless.

There aren't many true bunker people here, not at all. Most have stuff for other people in hopes of helping them. Your point is good but your caring and sharing idea of life requires something to be shared right? MAYBE if you put back some things, even a little it will make a difference for you and some others. If not, what are you out? Lots of this stuff is my normal camping gear anyway, I just got VERY good camping gear if nothing goes wrong.  -James

[DoomandGloom]

prepping isn't that hard or confusing.
just ask yourself, what do I need to live.
food, water, shelter.
take care of those things.
Prepping accomplished.  

I think this trend of thought is a misnomer here.

how's that?
no matter what the event a person might think is coming, you will need those three things.
its like having a bit of insurance.
I'll go back and re-read your posts, but what exactly are you concerned about?
that you don't know exactly what events are ahead?
no one does.
you can hedge your bets by having some food put up, a secure place to live and a source of clean water.
if you have to run, or bug out, you have suitable camping equipment.
nothing odd or excessive about any of those things I don't think.

I think the only way to survive any doom is cooperation, sharing, caring, helping one another. I think skills will be more important than stored food. This is the opposite of the bunker mentality. Some people here are for these things - I was directing this post to the bunker people.

I also believe that even these minimal preparations you speak may be instantaneously meaningless in a doomsday scenario of any kind. The variables are unknown and any such preparation could immediately become worthless.

There aren't many true bunker people here, not at all. Most have stuff for other people in hopes of helping them. Your point is good but your caring and sharing idea of life requires something to be shared right? MAYBE if you put back some things, even a little it will make a difference for you and some others. If not, what are you out? Lots of this stuff is my normal camping gear anyway, I just got VERY good camping gear if nothing goes wrong.  -James

I am all for some bug-out gear!

[DoomandGloom]

oh, well now I agree with you there, about the sharing and cooperation and all.
You're right.
but we have to get to a place where that can happen.
I expect to share my preps with my neighbors, and work with them growing food and raising animals.
these preps are to get us to the other side intact, with all we've learned, and all our skills, so that we can help and teach and bring change and community to wherever we happen to land.
But I believe, that we have to go through some bad times first.
Some frightening scary times. Hence the food supply and water and all that.

Pamela - I don't think common sense preparation is a bad thing - short term.

[tofu2u2]

Has it occurred to anyone here that no one can prepare for the unknown and the ultimately we are all victims of chance and random events which are unforeseeable?

Yes, we're all gonna die os something sooner or later. I think someone once said that given a long enough timeline, the mortality rate is 100%