S & P Blog Article

[610Alpha]

All,

I just put up a 3 part Blog that I found via APN titled "The Five Principles of Preparedness".

https://www.survivalandpreparednessforum.com/entry.php?75-The-Five-Principles-of-Preparedness-Part-1

https://www.survivalandpreparednessforum.com/entry.php?76-The-Five-Principles-of-Preparedness-Part-2

https://www.survivalandpreparednessforum.com/entry.php?77-The-Five-Principles-of-Preparedness-Part-3

[SCinPNW]

Elittle, the above links do not appear to e working.

Thanks,
SC

[Grand58742]

Blogs are approved by 1Admin before being released.

[SCinPNW]

Thanks Grand, I did not know that.

SC

[610Alpha]

Neither did I...cause the links work for me prolly cause I made the blog?

Hopefully it gets approved :)

[Grand58742]

Links are hot now. Decent reading, but some minor disagreements.

The aspiration of having a year of everything. Okay, aspiring is cool and a year of independence from the grid is a great goal. However, the article goes on to say "strive for three months."

Begin by striving to build up a 3 month supply, then double it and double it again. Once you’ve accomplished the first three months, you will have an idea of the amount of time and money it will take to acquire a year’s supply.

I tend to think smaller numbers are better, especially for the prepper who is just starting up. A two week plan is far easier to accomplish and gets a person into the "lifestyle" of preparing better. Most of the items we see (hurricanes, winter storms, tornadoes, etc) are relatively short term, typically about two weeks. Can they go longer than two weeks? Absolutely. However, the two week goal of living off the grid is far easier for some to swallow than a three month goal both financially and mentally. A person starts looking at cost of items for a three month goal and can get discouraged. Three months of the items can...and will get quite expensive. And a person who says "I can't do three months because of cost" will get dejected and potentially stop prepping all together.

But a two week goal is far easier to accomplish. And two more weeks after that, and two more, so on and so forth up to the three month and eventually the year goal. Starting small and seeing how easy it can be is a far better goal than three months. Once you hit that magical two week number and see you can still survive paycheck to paycheck, it is the morale boost needed to continue to prep.

There is a mental component of survival that many tend to overlook when writing such articles. People, by nature, can see the large amount of "stuff" they need for a year or even three months and say "I can't accomplish that; it's too expensive/don't have the space/a waste of money/can't get the family on board since those idiots on TV have ruined it all for us."

But they see two weeks of proper planning and a far smaller price tag and say "yeah, that's somewhat easy to do. Let's go for two weeks and give this a start." Easier on the wallet, the brain and easier to sell to the family. Less likely to fail and get discouraged. Overall, just far easier to accomplish.

But the author does contradict themselves in the 5th principle with the whole 3 month thing.

You consume your supply each month and at the end of four weeks, go to the “warehouse” (aka grocery store, etc.) and replenish your supply with six weeks worth of what was consumed.

So in essence they are endorsing a two week growing principle, but packaged it wrong. And again, ignoring the mental and economical component by saying "Buy 6 weeks of stuff!" Buy smaller amounts, it adds up over time and you still accomplish your goal.

The overall article isn't bad, but greatly ignores the mental component and economic concerns of preparedness. You don't get a person to jump into getting a year or a three month supply of "stuff" right off the bat. You get them there one day at a time. And days will add up to weeks, weeks to months and so on. Can most people afford to grab six weeks of food at one time at the grocery store? Not most as many tend to operate closer to the line than they care to admit. But with selected sales, case lots, etc they surely can get there one day at a time. People are bargain (won't use the word that rhymes with poop-on since it attracts spammers like crazy) shoppers and will wait for a sale to stock up. And it's far better financially to wait for those cans of corn to go on sale in another week and be able to buy another third over what they needed with the same amount of money rather than buy the six weeks right then. Which does tie into the first "Frugality" principle, but certainly isn't mentioned.

Again, I'm not trying to poo on the entry. But it does ignore some realities of life as we know it.

[610Alpha]

excellent assessment Grand!! I guess I took that 3-month 1-year stuff and ignored it in my brain and processed it as more of a suggestion to start some where and build up. I'm not so much a stickler on those things but some people are and you are right it can be a deterrent for people to prep.

All in all I like the general direction of the article, especially the building up skills and being industrious, MIO came to my mind when I was reading those sections.

[610Alpha]

I guess I also kind of took the frugality portion for granted (especially since I am on the Dave Ramsey plan and I am using my blow/bday/christmas money to prep with) in that who wouldn't wait for the sale...if things are tight in the ol budget then why would anyone pay full price and not wait for the corn to go on sale or go to Aldi's and get it for $0.39/can...

I don't think this article is intended for the Newbie but more for someone that has been doing this a while but may not have thought of the Survivalist lifestyle quite in this context so that they may go out and spread the Gospel of Survivalism. I have yet to find a perfect article out there. This probably could handle a little tweeking to cover the newbie but like Protus said in one of his rants about common sense...don't buy food full price wait for the sale...something is always on sale somewhere.

Overall I think it does a pretty good job of putting our lifestyle on to paper in the form of principles.

[Grand58742]

I think the biggest problem we as a group (survivalists, preppers and even those dabbling in it part time) will have to be to dispel the myths and perception created by these idiot TV shows. Watched a couple of them online and figured I'd just wasted a couple of hours of my life so I can't speak for the entire series. Didn't learn anything new except the MSM is either only showing the parts they want to make survivalists look crazy or picked the most crazy survivalists they could to be on the show. Probably a mix of both.

But when it comes down to it, I think we as a group should focus on basic education of the general population and not "Get a years supply of food right now!" kind of talk. We need to show the value of being prepared and bring people along slowly. The other points were valid about living frugally and not keeping up with the Jones and Smiths. Of being independent and learning a skill. Those are good things that anyone should learn. Far too often we see our neighbors cry and scream for help from a plumber when all they needed to do was replace a single pipe fitting. Or spend Lord only knows how much on building a deck when the materials could have cost them a third of what they paid and done the work themselves.

Overall, the article brings up some valid points and I only disagreed with a couple of them. By and large, we are now faced with having to dispel the automatic reaction people will have when they hear you are a "survivalist." The idiots on TV have ruined it for us all. Just like gun owners in the 90s were vilified for owning "evil assault weapons" we are now faced with the same public reaction when they find out you have a years worth of rice stored in your basement. So starting slow is always good especially in light of what's happened. We have to slowly bring people along and show them they can be prepared without being like those idiots on TV. Get them to learn skills slowly, put back food storage slowly, even get them to buy one of those evil assault weapons. But overall, show them preppers are normal people too ya know? It's okay to be better prepared for emergencies and even the "end of the world." But again, one has to go slow with how the lifestyle has been portrayed.

I didn't see if the author really wrote it from a beginner or advanced level. Again, not badly written, but personally I think it could be cleaned up and expanded on. Just my two cents worth.

[610Alpha]

Did I hear you just volunteer to rewrite it? jk

Yeah these shows really are sad...when talking about this stuff to other people I come from the angle of "Weather" and "Economy" related just cause those are things most people have seen first hand. Seems like another string of towns is being hit by tornado's every other day yet most people out there are going along like Gomer Pyle on valium.

The one video that I thought was done pretty well was the Pandemic on the History Channel, that didn't have the kooks on it but showed the importance of being prepared with food, water, security etc.

[1Admin]

I've clicked "approve blog entry" a good DOZEN or more times on these.

EVERYTHING sent as a blog entry shows on my end, including the spam ones that never see the light of day, so would someone let me know if these show now?

Thanks

[610Alpha]

I thought Grand said the links were "hot" which I took to mean as active...post #6 in this thread....but he might be able to see them if has power user access...can someone else verify the links are active to the blog articles?

[Grand58742]

Did I hear you just volunteer to rewrite it? jk

Already did a long time ago lol Different ideas, but same principle focused on the beginner. And minus the frugality portion. Never really went into that so to speak.

https://www.survivalandpreparednessforum.com/entry.php?53-Advice-for-the-new-prepper-Part-1

https://www.survivalandpreparednessforum.com/entry.php?54-Advice-for-the-new-prepper-Part-2