This one’s sort of a rant.
Don’t be a Flutterbudget.
In L. Frank Baum’s novel, The Emerald City of Oz, Dorothy Gale and some of her friends are touring the hinterlands of Oz. They visit various villages whose inhabitants are distinctive, to say the least.
As they approach one community, a woman rushes at them, screaming in panic, “Save my baby! Please, please save my baby!”
Since the party can see that the baby is safely tucked into Mother’s arms, they’re befuddled. When they point out that her child seems to be just fine, the distraught woman cries (I’m going from childhood memory, so bear with me), “But what if I put my baby on the windowsill? And what if the window was open? And what if baby fell out? And what if there was a hill outside? And what if she rolled down the hill? And what if there were lions and tigers at the bottom of the hill and they ate her all up???” Then she runs off screaming, “Save my baby! Oh somebody, please! Save my baby!”
Dorothy and her friends had reached Flutterbudget Center — a relocation community in the Quadling Country where such people are placed.
And why are they placed there? To protect the normal inhabitants of Oz against their unrestrained hysteria.
—–
Awareness of the world’s multitudes of dangers — from supervolcanoes to super-government machinations — can easily turn us into Flutterbudgets (been there, done that).
Yes, the fedgov could declare martial law or try to round up all its critics. Yes, an unprecedented mega-storm could hit your location (been there, done that, too). Yes, a new global plague could strike. Or a meteor. Yes, a chemical plant could engulf you in a cloud of deadly gas. Yes, a jetliner could crash on top of your house. For that matter, a volcano could erupt in the middle of your cornfield or you could be caught in a rain of frogs. Or your entire town could be hit with seven rains of toxic goo.
It happens.
But the reality is, we can’t prepare for everything. You could build a bunker, train with the finest firearms in the world, be ready to fight zombies — and get hit by a truck. Or felled by an allergy. Or get cancer.
You could prepare for hyperinflation, only to find that superflu hits. Or vice versa. You could prepare for six different kinds of disasters — and die peacefully in your bed at 90 after an uneventful life.
But however you personally want to approach preparedness, would you please do one thing? Don’t buffalo newbies, people on a budget, or people who aren’t totally obsessed into thinking that they have to read/do/be/(and in particular) own every possible preparedness-related thing.
For years, our friends and family members have considered us nutty just for having extra food in our pantry or an AK in our closet. Now, finally, after decades of snarking at us … they’re suddenly interested. It might be only a vague, unfocused interest at this point. Or it might be more serious. But they know something’s wrong in our times. They’re feeling the need.
They turn to us for advice.
If you respond: “Well, good. Now you just have to memorize this two-foot stack of books, read every word on these five websites, order six new guns, get night-vision goggles for everybody in the family, order two years supply of freeze-dried lasagna from Utah, buy a personal fire engine (another suggestion from an actual survival guru), attend three different wilderness survival schools, and …”
… there’s no use saying more because you’ve lost them.
We need to remember: KISS. Keep it simple, stupid.
And remember:
The first questions in setting preparedness priorities are:
1. “What bad things are most likely to happen to me?” and
2. “What do I need to cope with that?
—–
Example: Thursday I wrote about four survival basics: air, shelter, water, and food. I dismissed the need to make special preps for air (with several noted exceptions) and went on.
Several people objected to taking air for granted. The subject of gas masks came up.
I have nothing against gas masks. I used to have one.*
If you live near a chemical plant, you might want one. Or if you’ve assessed your risk factors and determined that a chemical attack is high on your list of likely problems. If you engage in activities that could result in tear gas being hurled at you, ditto. If you’ve already got lots and lots of preps and think a gas mask would be a handy addition, why not? They’re not terribly expensive. If you’re up for doing all the research on how they work and when they won’t work, how safe they are (or aren’t), and what kind you should have, go for it. On the other hand, as commentor Matt, another points out, ordinary dusk masks from the hardware store can come in quite handy and aren’t so bizarre or intimidating to most people.
But the real issue is: If you think anybody who is compiling basic preparedness guidelines should say, “Be sure to get a gas mask for everyone in the family,” you want something that is simply going to push ordinary people away from preparing for the ordinary emergencies or hardships for which millions of people ought to be better prepared. In fact, it’s going to push people away from the very concept of self-reliance, which is a damnable shame.
Ditto for thousands of other outre objects, activities, and skills of “prepper” culture.
You don’t tell first graders they have to read Proust.
You don’t teach calculus before the times tables.
You don’t advise people on limited incomes to buy caviar.
You don’t tell newcomers to the lodge that they have to have all the secret handshakes and lore memorized before the next meeting.
You don’t advise sedentary 70-year-olds to get off the couch and run marathons.
So why, oh why, oh why, do so many of us insist that preparedness is all or nothing? Why do we insist that everybody needs to rush out and save the baby from lions and tigers at the bottom of the hill when the baby is — for the moment — safe and comfortable?
—–
It’s so true: “The perfect is the enemy of the good.”
Better to start small and develop a habit of preparedness than to think you have to have it all — and end up either doing nothing or doing only a few random things because you’re too baffled and overwhelmed to think straight.
—–
Preparedness can get very complicated very quickly. Our job should not be to make it too complicated, too quickly.
I’m sure most of this is done out of sheer enthusiasm, or concern for others, or Flutterbudget-style panic, or personal experience that leads us to think everybody should have whatever might have helped us.
But in a recent comment section Underground Carpenter pointed out that there’s also a strain of elitism running through the preparedness/survival movement — an arrogant notion that the prepared are superior to the unprepared. Not merely superior in degree of preparedness, awareness, or good sense, but innately superior.
The word “sheeple” (which I loathe) implies this. It says that those who don’t share a certain level of awareness, who aren’t standing up and taking care of themselves, are in fact members of some other — and lesser — species. A species that will eventually become food.
You see it in the words of lots of gurus — especially in survivalist novels, which often express a grotesque triumphalism. “Our kind” will prevail to rebuild society in our own image. “Those people” will get what they deserve.
In that toxic way of thinking, the prepared (on some level) actually want the unprepared to stay that way — so they’ll stay inferior and can be beaten by their “betters.” Convincing friends and neighbors that preparedness is too hard, too expensive, or too just-plain-bizarre is certainly one way of ensuring an absurd and fragile “superiority.”
Reality is far different. First of all, as as most everybody here understands, preparedness isn’t about gearing up for TEOTWAWKI. It’s about surviving and thriving in hard times — which for most of us means either short-term disasters or longer-term and highly undramatic financial difficulties. It’s about being, or becoming, more independent.
And being independent — of outside control — implies being mutually dependent among our neighbors and friends and within our communities.
And that means that our best interest lies in encouraging others to be prudently prepared. Which means they need to start somewhere. Which means that our own interests lie in encouraging even the smallest, most seemingly inadequate, steps toward preparedness. Which means not overloading anybody’s brain, anybody’s time, or anybody’s budget.
Gas masks and night vision equipment? Sure, some people may need them. But we’ll all be a lot better off in difficult times if our neighbors have even token bug-out bags or a week’s worth of extra food in the pantry.
—–
* There was even one time when I could have used that gas mask. But it was in a circumstance when not one person in a million could have anticipated needing a gas mask and nobody would dream to keep one handy. I just gasped and choked along with everybody else through what — blessedly — turned out to be a short but scary few minutes.
Sure TEOTWAWKI is unlikely. However… remember “the Black Swans“- those highly improbably events that no one could have predicted but which have a huge impact. They happen all the time and our world now is almost entirely the consequence of Black Swans past- both good and bad. Expect the unexpected. Be adaptable.
Survival preps are fun, and they should be fun. If you make them fun people will want to join you. If you make them tedious and serious they will call you names.
One of my relatives is slightly interested in picking my brain about survival preps. I have given her a few simple tips. Nothing overwhelming. I have checked out a few of her survival items and helped her with a couple of simple things. She keeps saying she wants to get together to discuss more, and always tell her I am available just about any time. But I don’t push.
I notice some people mentioning having cards and games to entertain the family. I have another thing to add, my reproduction Victrola and some foxtrot 78s. It wouldn’t entertain for as long as games or books, but with a little winding it plays some loud, screechy-scratchy tunes that my daughter finds amusing and likes to dance to. And it drives her mom crazy. A double win.
Quality of life is a big deal. Make sure to include some simple preps that will make your life suring the hard times- whether they last an hour or the rest of your life- more pleasant.
Well, I thought I typed “…make your life during the hard times…”
😉
Kent — Really good tips about dealing with both hard times and other people.
On black swans … sure, it’s true that the world changes in unexpected ways. But by definition, you can’t make specific plans for black swans because a black swan is something nobody sees coming. And TEOTWAWKI isn’t a black swan, by definition, because so many people are anticipating it and planning for it. (Nassim Taleb has complained that people are seriously misusing his term to mean any sort of big event.)
I’m not saying TEOTWAWKI won’t happen — any more than I’m saying a superplague or a supervolcanic eruption won’t happen (which, come to think of it, are just specific forms of TEOTWAWKI). Just saying (as you’re doing re your relative) that planning starts with the simpler things.
Oh boy, yet another book on my list. Thanks, Kent. 🙂 Seriously, that looks like just the sort of thing I enjoy reading.
FWIW, I don’t own a gas mask, and it’s pretty far down on my list of things to buy. And I have no intention of doing anything to cope with an EMP.
I owned four M-17 protective masks and 8 extra filters at one time. It wasn’t a huge expense but it has still been a waste. Good stuff Claire. I suspect at times I’ve been a little more “elitist” about all this than was helpful to those wanting to ask about prepping. I’m older now and don’t need to feel that way. One of my greatest achievements was getting two woman ready for bad weather events last year. I kept it very simple and only one of them needed to use what we’d discussed but both were very proud and became “confident” in being ready. Obviously with only a little less than a week to get ready there was no chance to make elaborate preps, but the water, food, shelter, light, heat (which did not become necessary for either one), clothing, plus some basic car (maintenance and fuel) and bug out preps allowed them to feel prepared and at the end they both made comments to me based on their experience which I hadn’t thought about.
This is the best thing I’ve read on the subject in a long time…when you honestly thing about the basic needs for food, water, aid, shelter, defense, etc…it’s mostly the same basic packing list for any disaster.
Personally I’m a fan of doing it in “goals” the way a lot of people have written about…like step 1 is a week of stored food, step 2 is build up to a month, etc. Not only does nobody have the money to go out and buy 2 years of stored food, a full armory and whatever else all at once but doing so would cut out all the experience and lessons learned that come from building up to that level gradually. Taking small steps lets you get to know your preps more and more at every step…if you took one giant leap you’ll end up with a bunch of shitty food and a bug out bag that hurts your back and holy crap honey you just spent $4000 on night optics but we forgot to buy trash bags!?
And forget a bunch of stupid super-specific crap. I’d store away a pickup truck load of scotch before I bought some headache inducing night vision device.
Great article. We’ve been prepping on and off for a while, and I’ve gone through the Flutterbudget thing a couple of times. I’ve learned that it’s only overwhelming when you dwell on the biggest picture possible.
You’re spot on in personalizing it down to the basics.
I used to keep a gas mask in my car’s trunk. I don’t anymore, since NDAA. Imagine trying to explain it away to the nice officer….
BTW we were pulled over and harassed recently. The authoritay didn’t like that he couldn’t see in the rear windows of hubby’s work van. When he learned we were returning from work in Colorado, he grilled us both for a good 30 minutes. Arkansas authoritay thinks Colorado is the new Columbia, apparently…
Excellent, again!
You’re absolutely right about the elitist attitude. “Super-preppers” have either forgotten or are ignorant of the whole idea of division of labor. If I am a gunsmith and my neighbor is a gardener then we’re both better off. Friends and neighbors who are also prepared will be able to lend support (not charity) if TSHTF.
Even if I don’t like my neighbor and he doesn’t like me the neighborhood is safer with both of us alive and well.
More great stuff, Claire. And I’d say that building good relationships with friends and neighbors is something far too many “preppers” may neglect.
An interesting mental exercise for some who think they can become totally “self sufficient” might be to contemplate what they’d do if they broke their leg….
Did that once… was mighty glad for good friends and neighbors. And I’d only lived there for two weeks!
If you gas mask is not physically at hand (on your person) when you need it you are already way behind. They are actually designed to allow an individual to move away from or through a contaminated area, not stay in place and function well for anything more than a short amount of time. I beleive a well sealed vehicle and GOOD bag would be of more value.
My advice to people has always been to prepare for the most likely natural disaster in the area and the posibility of unexpected job loss. Having a couple months worth of food on the shelf makes losing a job less scary. Having money on hand (if possible) for a months or two of expense is great, but probably the hardest prep to make.
Thanks for this Claire!
I prep, but not in an all consuming, prepguru way. We do it as part of our normal existence. Life still needs to be fun. Getting too caught up in preparing for the end, and living life in anticipation of the end, can be a real bummer.
Living rural, we already have many of the supplies prepgurus are saying we need. I’d love to live by the 2=1, 1=none mantra, but sometimes 1 has to be enough. We have a gen, love to have another but… We have food and guns, love to have more but…
Since neither one of us is big on vacation or travel (like Glenda the good witch said “There’s no place like home”), we spend our extra cash for the things to help be more comfortable and self-sustaining at home. We bought a woodstove to get away from the need for streetgas for heat (saving $300/month all winter long, woo hoo) We got chickens to raise our own foodstuffs. If we have extra money after the month’s bills are paid, we try to rotate purchases. One month we may buy bullets, then the next freeze drieds, the next month maybe some silver.
Yeah, it can be easy to get caught up in all the things other people think you need, but we’re all the best judges of our own situations and needs.
Thank you, thank you, thank you Claire. It’s nice to see some preparedness sanity and I think you’ve nailed it perfectly IMHO. When I started to embrace preparedness several years ago, there were no such voices of sanity, and I found the whole TEOTWAWKI business to be beyond overwhelming. In the end, I convinced myself to take baby steps, and while I’m no James Wesley Rawles, we are a lot better prepared than the average bear(s).
In my past professional life, I had a job that was riddled with uncertainty and hazards. What I found, was that no matter how hard I tried to prepare for every contingency, whatever I prepared for never seemed to be what happened *this time*. And so it goes with preparedness. A much more generalized strategy I think, is preferable to trying to anticipate every contingency. Similarly, in that past career I found generalized keen preparations combined with a *flexible mindset* were infinitely better than trying to predict every possible bad outcome.
Great article!
Maybe the “preparedness” name has outlived it’s usefulness. Self-reliance and grid-independence (transportation, industrial ag, etc) might be better terms these days.
After all, DHS makes a decent muddle of “preparedness” — (Red Cross isn’t much better) — and honestly, after looking at their list — it was all stuff any family that had/has kids keeps on hand. I grew up with all that in the house – and so did my kids. Done my share of travelling in blizzards, ice storms, hurricanes… (young & stupid, yes I was. I guess that’s called “experience” in hindsight.)
Hurricane preparedness winds up the same way… yet THE most useful item to have after a storm is some sort of wagon or trailer, for hauling tree debris… rakes… different kinds of saws… and when someone creates a solar-powered air conditioning unit — I guarantee they’ll sell a boatload!
There are a couple of likely SHTF scenarios that bother me; seem likely and even immanent right now. Those shift… in and out… but as has been mentioned, most of the preps for all those are basically the same.
Thought of your preparedness series while reading this:
“The paradox is that the state of emergency was the normal state, while ‘normal’ democratic freedom was the briefly enacted exception.
… we are entering a time in which a state of peace can at the same time be a state of emergency.” …
http://www.washingtonsblog.com/2012/10/the-real-reason-america-is-drifting-towards-fascism.html
Common sense in prepping? What *are* you thinking? Do you want to crash the whole industry, when it’s just getting started again?
Lessee …. “realistic assessment,” “realistic preparations,” and “practice.” Oh, and “don’t let the perfect be the enemy of the good.”
So far so good. 😉
I’m not so much calling TEOTWAWKI a “Black Swan” as I am the trigger that might cause it. If it happens it probably won’t be due to any of the causes we are thinking of. And those same sorts of causes probably won’t trigger TEOTWAWKI, until they do, but they still might trigger “The End of the Week As We Knew it”: Just a minor inconvenience that gives you a chance to use the stuff you’ve been prepping with and see if you can spot any holes in your plans. Think of it as an unexpected vacation with adventure.
Ah, gotcha, Kent. I like “The End of the Week as We Knew It.” Might have to steal that line.
You all may be interested in this prediction from yet another “expert”. I’d say we are already in a mess.
http://www.cnbc.com/id/49500213
I’ve been slow to follow this series, but Claire, this is another Capital-R resource.
For me, I think the money shot is embedded here:
“Better to start small and develop a habit of preparedness than to think you have to have it all…”
Kazam. The pitfall of thinking of “preparedness” as a destination, rather than a journey, is that once you “achieve” it–hell, even as you approach it–you run the serious risk of falling victim to the exact same absolution-fantasy thinking that makes all modern politics possible.
How many times have I observed that all politics is the attempt to absolve oneself of the responsibilities of…hell, life, by having “law” “take care of it” “for me”? Once it’s on parchment, it’s “fixed”, right? Having a state means we’re absolved from providing for our own defense…having laws means we don’t have to negotiate with people, but can direct their actions through enforceable “law”…having a centrally controlled currency means we don’t have to worry about valuation…regulations mean we can “count on” things to be a certain way…
…every damned bit of it is an attempt at absolution for what we would otherwise have to deal with directly–honestly.
And so it is with preps, isn’t it? That’s how I read Claire’s comment about making “a habit”. Being “in a habit” means you’re engaged, thinking, unconstrained by checklists, milestones, and other boxes no less confining than the mentality of viewing the state as fait accompli.
I love these observations–especially since so many of them wind up right back at simple, unified, timeless truths.
Thanks, Claire.
TEOTWAWKI is not likely to happen … althought it could. But, of course, the end of the world would make survival prep an exercise in futility. The end of civilization as we know it, leaves some wiggle room for survivors. The book “Lucifer’s Hammer,” by Larry Niven and Jerry Pournelle, is a really good story of such a happening.
All that end of the world or civilization stuff to one side, hyper-inflation, major food shortages, and many other evils of our National Socialist type of government could have a severe impact on most of us. But then, if things do go to hell in a hand basket, you can be sure the Statists thugs will be stopping everyone, checking papers, confiscating things, and even rounding up the malcontents and putting them in concentration camps.
Since most of the population lives in the cities, they’re not going to have much choice. Those of us who live closer to nature will have a better chance.
I live with my sister and her husband (we’re all in our 60’s) in the lower foothills of the Sierra Nevada mountains in California. I’ve been telling them that we may have to make do with ground squirrel stew and acorn mush. (Yes, we have some water filters, beans, rice, whole wheat and a grinder, among some other things.)
My brother-in-law is a hunter–or was, he hasn’t gone hunting in four years–and has several rifles and a couple of shotguns. The deer are thick here, but if things go bad, they will be thinned out pretty quickly. Ergo, ground squirrels and acorns. Pemmican is something people should look into, or learn how to make for themselves. It’s high fat and protein and the Northern Plains Indians and early French explorers swore by it.