Trying to Convince Freinds and Family

[Matt In Oklahoma]

http://www.fema.gov/areyouready/

I am using the above document to attempt to get my friends and family to at least start. It shows them in writing that our government wants us to "prepare" because of several reasons, such as they will be a few days (LOL) before they can help us, they may not help us , the more we help ourselves the better the overall effort will go (remember the welfare katrina crowd disaster).
It is also interesting because when I have spoken openly about this I get the "oh you know how he is" and "just humor him" stuff from them and maybe this will show them where I'm coming from.
I told them it doesn't say bunker down and surround yourself with the latest whizbang gadgeted guns and hate anyone, it says be ready to take of of yourself and the ones you love for 3-5days. I also told them I will even help you gather the materials for longer term storage and show you how if you need so you do not have to mess with it for extended periods of time.
I dunno, guess we will see.

[Bull]

Frustrating huh? I am doing the same thing with mine. My girlfriend just fell asleep on me while we were watching this: various videos about the state of the economy.

http://inflation.us/videos.html

My best friend, for the last 25 years is totally disinterested in politics and most of the things I'm worried about. It's amazing that you can see eye to eye on so many things, but something as important as this, disagree.

I just read my first paragraph: LOL - what a fun date I am.

Good luck man. I just try to get it in at the right time without overdoing it and hope they come around.

[Bull]

Frustrating huh? I am doing the same thing with mine. My girlfriend just fell asleep on me while we were watching this: various videos about the state of the economy.

http://inflation.us/videos.html

My best friend, for the last 25 years is totally disinterested in politics and most of the things I'm worried about. It's amazing that you can see eye to eye on so many things, but something as important as this, disagree.

I just read my first paragraph: LOL - what a fun date I am. Imagine running a personal add on a dating site: Likes to sit around studying on impending doom. ha

Good luck man. I just try to get it in at the right time without overdoing it and hope they come around.

[arcangel911]

Sadly, I am more of a ghost about it. I am learning the people think you are all doom and gloom and that you are crazy.....

Remember; you can lead a horse to water, but making him drink it is another feat all in itself.

[ViennaAustria]

Same here.
The most important lesson I've learned over the last year is that information in and of itself does absolutely nothing. If their heart made an emotional investment in the common paradigm of society, then they'll just be blocked against all information. And I guess I would be much the same, had not Christ pulled me out of it.

The one thing I know will make me a bit mad is that when I stock up for half a year or so and nobody is in the boat with me, what will happen if SHTF?
Right, my closest family are 11 people with myself, to wich I count my brother's and my sister's families because I sure don't want my little nephews and nieces to starve.
And they are going to want food.
So how long would my 6month supply last?
2 weeks? 10 days?
Might as well have no stock at all and just concentrate on trapping, fishing and hunting skills, on knowledge of edible plants, and on how to train my brother and my brother in law in the same as soon as SHTF.

[Bull]

That really makes me mad too. Especially when I do without in order to get stocked up on what I need. There are nice things I would like to have right now, but I do without so I can have this stuff. They think it's stupid now, but will be glad to use later. Yeah, it's all fun and party time for everyone but me. Then, when they show up how long will it last when spread out?

[Cimarron]

Thanks for posting that link Matt, and Bull. I will add them to my "tools of reasoning" when talking to the family/friends.
Sometimes I get to the point of not talking about any part of it. You get tired of them chuckling and shaking their head with a smile, or their reply of "OK, you do what ever, I'm not worried about blah, blah, blah,

But then, there are those times when your "talking" pays off (or at least seems to be creeping in) I have spent some time talking with my brother in CA. Going over the problems that CA has...which is a LOT. It seems that maybe he starting to become aware of some issues in his area of the world that doesn't look to good. He's starting to ask questions and even starting to gather a few things, and the last good part of news was he is now planning on getting out of Ca (he is in the middle of a large city), maybe thinking of heading to Oregon.

The important thing is he's watching what's going on around him and he's starting to act. Lord willing, he will be able to take control when things go bad, and be able to provide for his wife and two small children

[arcangel911]

ViennaAustria- that was much more poetic then I ever could have written. +1 to you good sir.

Bull- your post reminds me of two fables. The ant and the grasshopper and the little red hen.

Cimarron- if in Oregon, I recommend the area of the Blue Mountains- lots of rivers, cattle and farm land. But there is a lot of nothing around in the area though....

[Matt In Oklahoma]

I give up on them for a while but then I get back at it because I know it's the right thing to do. I'm not asking for PAW supplies just a few days from them. I dunno, this didnt get me anywhere either so ........

[Flagwaver]

Sometimes they listen.

The South experienced a big snow/ice storm this past week (along with most of the US). In Georgia where we live, schools were closed for most of the week, temps went down to 14 degrees at night, Hartsfield Airport in Atlanta was closed, and trucks were trapped on the highways OR WERE NEVER SENT OUT due to dangerous driving conditions.

On the third day, we were able to drive to our local grocery store. We didn't need to buy anything because we had PREPARED for months for any emergency situation; we just wanted to see if the shelves were empty. The entire produce department was EMPTY. (The produce manager told us that trucks usually supply the store every three days but, in an emergency when the trucks can't get through, the available food is gone in 1 1/2 days.) The pre-packaged bundles of firewood were all gone. The bread and milk were gone. And the weather shutdown kept on for three more days. We believe we saw, in a very real way, why we should all stock up at home in order to help ourselves in case of any emergency.

After many attempts to try to get my family to become preppers, after quite a few funny looks, after gaining a reputation as the "doom and gloom" sister, I called my family to see if they were ok with food and heat. You know what they said? "We bought emergency food, water, and other supplies after you made us think twice about having to survive on our own for more than a day."

So, some people DO listen. They may not jump in with both feet but, if what we try to tell our reluctant family members causes them to do small things, maybe they will become interested in doing more.

In a SHTF disaster, we will all be praying that we influenced as many people as possible. One prepared family cannot support several unprepared families.

[Cimarron]

@ Flagwaver

That's great to hear! After you spending some time in talking with your family they recognized a possibility of needing to be prepared and took action.

Glad to hear you got some action.

[Matt In Oklahoma]

@ Flagwaver Thats awesome!

[biathlon]

Good on ya flagwaver. Most of the US lives in some sort of Hollyweird contrived fantasy from the cartoons and movies. Kill your TV. Put it out to the 500 yard line and use it for practice! While we as a group here may see small successes like Flagwavers the sad truth is that we are headed for an absolute catastrophe that will leave untold millions dead. Without some sort of check on human population and factory farming methods the entire planet will look like Haiti or Easter Island. The "minor inconveniences" like the recent weather here, in Australia and Brazil may actually wake some, most of the ostriches will continue to poke their heads in the hole in denial.

[Bull]

My mother was iced in for the entire week in Ga. I finally got over there yesterday and chipped a couple trails through the ice for her and got it so she could get her car to the road. So I used this as an opportunity to say something about the need to prep. She said "I've been fine. I'm all stocked up. I guess I have been listening." So that is pretty cool.

[Matt In Oklahoma]

Bull thats awsome! My mom has listened to me for a while and her bugout is me as it should be. I have added her into my plans for years. I actaully spoke to her the other day about what types of LTS foods she could eat on her diet. She doesn't really understand or care what I am doing on it just as long as she has what she needs when she gets here and I'm ok with that. She only keeps short range items (3-5 days) at her place but she does an excellent job of rotation and maintaining and even picks us up stuff sometimes too.