Is "preparedness" a state of mind?
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The whole Covid show was quite interesting in regards to prepping. It highlighted (at least in my community) two different attitudes towards prepping. One being deemed more socially acceptable than the other. Prepping against future pandemics (seemingly more socially acceptable) and prepping against something more like government overreach (deemed more anti-social). Both justifiable to a degree, though each came with their fair share of neurosis.
It was interesting talking to everyday people at that time and seeing the different ways in which they were going about it. Some just went all out for stockpiling food and other consumables, some put in place more self-sufficient measures (growing food/raising livestock etc). I know a few that stocked up on tools, books, med-kits, hunting gear etc. I did notice water was often overlooked.
I can certainly see that in some situations it can escalate into something problematic if not kept in check. It does have a tendency to become obsessive and mask other issues. Though, whether that's just part of working through something else or potentially a problem in itself seems to depend on the individual.
I try to keep a fairly broad view on this stuff. For my lifestyle and where I live it makes sense to me to have some back-up supplies, literature and knowledge on subjects that could prove useful, but I don't obsess over it (not to say I haven't looked down that road in the past).
Self-sufficiency, an awareness to the fragility of a lot of our infrastructure and the potential for the unknown to catch you off guard all seem like fairly reasonable things to keep in mind.
Like many other terms, it's pretty broad and subjective. I'm sure there are quite a few who would view me as a 'prepper' and quite a few who wouldn't. I just do what seems sensible at the time and go back to work.
It was interesting talking to everyday people at that time and seeing the different ways in which they were going about it. Some just went all out for stockpiling food and other consumables, some put in place more self-sufficient measures (growing food/raising livestock etc). I know a few that stocked up on tools, books, med-kits, hunting gear etc. I did notice water was often overlooked.
I can certainly see that in some situations it can escalate into something problematic if not kept in check. It does have a tendency to become obsessive and mask other issues. Though, whether that's just part of working through something else or potentially a problem in itself seems to depend on the individual.
I try to keep a fairly broad view on this stuff. For my lifestyle and where I live it makes sense to me to have some back-up supplies, literature and knowledge on subjects that could prove useful, but I don't obsess over it (not to say I haven't looked down that road in the past).
Self-sufficiency, an awareness to the fragility of a lot of our infrastructure and the potential for the unknown to catch you off guard all seem like fairly reasonable things to keep in mind.
Like many other terms, it's pretty broad and subjective. I'm sure there are quite a few who would view me as a 'prepper' and quite a few who wouldn't. I just do what seems sensible at the time and go back to work.
I think keeping it in check is the key here, Covid was a good example.
We all washed our hands more for longer, and used antibac spray/gel when this wasn’t an option. We wore masks when required, avoided unnecessary touching.
Some people I work with implemented a full decontamination routine, spraying everything with god knows what. Boil washing clothes, the works.
When it becomes all consuming it can become an issue.
I do feel that some people actively hope that the bomb drops, the zombies rise or the drones are released so they can test/justify their actions and prove the “sheep” or “sheeple” (hate both these terms) that somehow they were right all along.
We all washed our hands more for longer, and used antibac spray/gel when this wasn’t an option. We wore masks when required, avoided unnecessary touching.
Some people I work with implemented a full decontamination routine, spraying everything with god knows what. Boil washing clothes, the works.
When it becomes all consuming it can become an issue.
I do feel that some people actively hope that the bomb drops, the zombies rise or the drones are released so they can test/justify their actions and prove the “sheep” or “sheeple” (hate both these terms) that somehow they were right all along.
Maintaining faith in an Unknown. Like dying and meeting your God after being a devout zealot.
There are many mindsets & big overlaps. For us it's self sufficiency (is that survivalism?). The ability to get by without big input from the outside world. We produce our food, fuel, soap etc. We try to learn skills so that we can do many things for ourselves - be that seed saving, construction or chimney sweeping. Is that healthy? It is for me. When life revolved around work & unreasonable demands from ungrateful bosses we were often stressed, worried about redundancy, mortgage payments & just exhausted. So we aimed to change all that. Covid came & went & really didn't change things much. The fuel price crisis after the Ukraine invasion made no difference to our wood burning range or solar panels. Threats of hosepipe bans & drought don't affect wells and rainwater capture.
For me, if dreading Monday's, living in crime ridden polluted cities & worrying about price rises is "normal", I'll pass.
For me, if dreading Monday's, living in crime ridden polluted cities & worrying about price rises is "normal", I'll pass.
I remember the world ending in the 1950’s. Now that was a proper “World End”. It was on the wireless and everything.
“Unfortunately” for the more extreme Preppers various “Armageddons” predicted so far this century have been damp squibs.
The biggest one, Covid, was unanticipated* and a perfectly normal society handled it without going to the barricades.
*Of course it should have been anticipated. Hannah Fry did predict it in 2018 with her programme “Contagion”. Unfortunately she didn’t suggest a date. Her last words were “……….it’s not if but when.”
“Unfortunately” for the more extreme Preppers various “Armageddons” predicted so far this century have been damp squibs.
The biggest one, Covid, was unanticipated* and a perfectly normal society handled it without going to the barricades.
*Of course it should have been anticipated. Hannah Fry did predict it in 2018 with her programme “Contagion”. Unfortunately she didn’t suggest a date. Her last words were “……….it’s not if but when.”
Thats bit needs a bit of refinement. - Definite barriers were put in place. From country to country to highly ineffective plexiglass panels popping up in shops and marked 'standing zones'
I think it prudent to keep a pantry of staples. To keep food I know we use, to turn it over, keep it fresh.
I can/jar/dry and freeze in season, and I know how long things last.
But, and it's a big but, that all takes experience, it all takes time and effort.
Thing is though, if that's your 'mindset' then just little by little and a kind of seasonal rote develops.
It needn't be expensive, buy things on special deals to build up a stock of things you actually use...coffee for instance, olive oil.....or even chocolate eggs reduced to 10p after Easter's by, or jars of mincemeat for 30p instead of £2.50. (makes a brilliant fruit cake or bread, or pudding
)
Rice and pasta, flour, cornmeal, dried milk and potatoes, oatmeal, broth mix and barley and lentils. Those are staples.
Grow your own herbs, they do fine on a windowsill if you have no garden, for a small family that's very do-able.
Seasonings like chilli, grow well as pot plants.....but it takes a bit of effort, and for too many people I think they can't be bothered to make any effort beyond door dash or the supermarket.
It's not just food though; we need some consumables. For most that might be toothpaste, soap and shampoo, deodorant and shaving stuff. Toilet rolls, kitchen towels, foil and bin liners, laundry liquids, etc.,
A little extra, so that you can buy on special and keep it organised, is just prudent.
No panic when the weather shuts down transport, no panic when something like Covid, or heaven forfend you're too ill to go out ....I have really good access to supermarket deliveries here, not everybody does though.....or no panic you suddenly find yourself really really watching the pennies. You can get by carefully and comfortably for a bit. No panic if someone else needs a bit of help either, quietly share. It's normal, family and friends and neighbours do this with gluts of crops like rhubarb, apples, fish, etc., anyway.
Is it a mindset ?
Hmm.
I think it is, I think, for me it's as @Wildgoose said in post No6, when he described his parents, and then add in a bit of the practical next step
When my Granny died over fifty years ago, and my Mum and my Aunt were clearing out presses (cupboards) they found six big glass sweetie jars at the bottom of one. They were packed full of sugar....so 42lbs of sugar....Granny was born in Victoria's reign, had lived through two world wars, and she was never going to be without sugar again !
It's not just us though. My eldest's girlfriend is Italian, and during lockdown she beat me in the squirrelling
J.reckoned she had six gallons of olive oil stashed away
and we're not going to discuss the amount of flour we had between us 
I can/jar/dry and freeze in season, and I know how long things last.
But, and it's a big but, that all takes experience, it all takes time and effort.
Thing is though, if that's your 'mindset' then just little by little and a kind of seasonal rote develops.
It needn't be expensive, buy things on special deals to build up a stock of things you actually use...coffee for instance, olive oil.....or even chocolate eggs reduced to 10p after Easter's by, or jars of mincemeat for 30p instead of £2.50. (makes a brilliant fruit cake or bread, or pudding
)Rice and pasta, flour, cornmeal, dried milk and potatoes, oatmeal, broth mix and barley and lentils. Those are staples.
Grow your own herbs, they do fine on a windowsill if you have no garden, for a small family that's very do-able.
Seasonings like chilli, grow well as pot plants.....but it takes a bit of effort, and for too many people I think they can't be bothered to make any effort beyond door dash or the supermarket.
It's not just food though; we need some consumables. For most that might be toothpaste, soap and shampoo, deodorant and shaving stuff. Toilet rolls, kitchen towels, foil and bin liners, laundry liquids, etc.,
A little extra, so that you can buy on special and keep it organised, is just prudent.
No panic when the weather shuts down transport, no panic when something like Covid, or heaven forfend you're too ill to go out ....I have really good access to supermarket deliveries here, not everybody does though.....or no panic you suddenly find yourself really really watching the pennies. You can get by carefully and comfortably for a bit. No panic if someone else needs a bit of help either, quietly share. It's normal, family and friends and neighbours do this with gluts of crops like rhubarb, apples, fish, etc., anyway.
Is it a mindset ?
Hmm.
I think it is, I think, for me it's as @Wildgoose said in post No6, when he described his parents, and then add in a bit of the practical next step
When my Granny died over fifty years ago, and my Mum and my Aunt were clearing out presses (cupboards) they found six big glass sweetie jars at the bottom of one. They were packed full of sugar....so 42lbs of sugar....Granny was born in Victoria's reign, had lived through two world wars, and she was never going to be without sugar again !
It's not just us though. My eldest's girlfriend is Italian, and during lockdown she beat me in the squirrelling
J.reckoned she had six gallons of olive oil stashed away
and we're not going to discuss the amount of flour we had between us 
No disrespect, but that seems like a bit of a blinkered view of those years.
There was another side to it. A side where society descended into tribalism, where the role of law was beginning to cross a line that would have been very difficult to come back from, where communities broke down, people became fearful of their neighbours and disowned members of their own family. And, yes, people starved too.
Not saying that it was all like that, but it happened, a lot. Not everybody rode it out in comfort.
I know it wasn't easy on a heck of a lot of people.
My younger son had cancer, in those first hectic days when no one knew enough, the Govt. locked down vulnerable families very quickly.
We were locked down hard before the majority of the population.
Neither my husband or I have ever had Covid, not even in the years since. We were careful, we were thoughtful about it, not paranoid, we just behaved rationally, sensibly.
We were very lucky, but we know other people who have still not come out of 'lockdown' because their immune systems are really compromised, or they've become 'locked' into the mindset.
We were incredilby lucky in the UK, we're good in a crisis, but no, I agree, not everyone had an easy time of it.
My younger son had cancer, in those first hectic days when no one knew enough, the Govt. locked down vulnerable families very quickly.
We were locked down hard before the majority of the population.
Neither my husband or I have ever had Covid, not even in the years since. We were careful, we were thoughtful about it, not paranoid, we just behaved rationally, sensibly.
We were very lucky, but we know other people who have still not come out of 'lockdown' because their immune systems are really compromised, or they've become 'locked' into the mindset.
We were incredilby lucky in the UK, we're good in a crisis, but no, I agree, not everyone had an easy time of it.
I speak from my own experience and from observing the community around me.
Britain did very well during Covid. Hindsight is of course still poking away for horror stories. Yes some people died alone and that is horrible. They still do and that is just as horrible. British society as a whole coped.
Difficult, yes of course it was. It’s bloody difficult right now as well.
Breakdown, the need for a vigilante army or to sneak off into the woods with flint and steel - hardly.
A years supply of dried food wasn’t going to help.
All we had to do was eke out what we had and obtain what we could.
A neighbour volunteered to bring prescription meds to the door. Many of us shopped for each other.
Being prepared to do that is what I called prepared.
At no point did we buy any extra toilet rolls. The two of us have always kept half a dozen as a buffer stock. That buffer never ran out.
Exactly.
My son in Law, previously he was probably the fittest of all my family, is still suffering long Covid. He’s coping, his standards and principles remain as they were. His contribution to society remains, as it does for most of us.
Just a thought!
Did any of the more advanced Preppers break out their stash during Covid or did they keep it for an emergency?
I'm not sure what you mean by optimum/optimal but thinking on your other comments -I think the routes to a certain mindset could be tracked back to a few experiences or hard learnt lessons. I heard the quote the other day that " Shared suffering aides the diminishment of a societies barriers ' and I could see that why that occurs and could be attributed to why people of a similar certain age whom have gone through historic events and come out the other side can display certain make-do-&-mend and sight stockpiling via a Pantry. Ironically the people in later years have ( mostly ) the most acquired wealth that their respected frugality is no longer needed - but its a hard trait to change -not that they should.
The other point is probably a bit more judgemental from myself but I think we all have a friend or acquaintance that just despite nudging or helping , can't get their collective s##t together.
Or it maybe that they are really relaxed and have a healthy perspective on lifes up-&-downs whilst I am somewhat more coiled up and wanting/needing to try to perceive lots of mentally draining ' what -if' scenarios.
From what I get of speaking to other people like me I think certain hardwiring to be inclined to act in certain ways is often due to childhood catalysts.
A thought has occurred:
How many - I wish there was a different word than “peppers” - have military experience or close military roll models.
Is the militaristic imagery that I associate with “prepping” a necessity or an identity tag or some other aspect of the mindset?
Or is it an another illusion that says more about me than anyone else!
How many - I wish there was a different word than “peppers” - have military experience or close military roll models.
Is the militaristic imagery that I associate with “prepping” a necessity or an identity tag or some other aspect of the mindset?
Or is it an another illusion that says more about me than anyone else!
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I think there are vast sectors of society who felt pretty let down and even abandoned. Just pointing out that those experiences are equally valid and the idea that Britain dealt with it 'very well' is disputable.
Let's not forget that we came pretty close to effectively ejecting a large percentage of our population from society for not taking their medicine. Who knows how that would have ended up had some of the measures spoken about been implemented. It's certainly interesting when looking at 'preparedness' in society.
I think you maybe projecting a little or because Prepping in the USA where state to state is easier to obtain and hold legally than the UK/Europe maybe getting the two conflated?
Maybe you're the only one that can describe your associative idea of what it is you are describing ?
Yes, rotation is simply achieved by putting the new items to the back of the shelf and moving stuff forward. I mainly stock up on what we commonly use when it's on offer or when the shop has items in as some things seem to be poorly stocked. That way I save money and don't have to go shopping that often. I don't worry about using stuff up as we have a range of items but like to keep a decent stock in case something happens such as my Mum spending a few weeks in hospital again and my OH having to fend for herself.
Summer and autumn months are heavily subsidised from the garden.
I hope there will never come a huge event, but for me a huge event is something like war, not Covid. That said, i don't see myself as a prepper but i do have skills and own things i use for bushcraft that i can use in case of emergency. Plenty of knives, waterfilter, burner(s), stove, candles, fire-starting kit, durable clothing for cold weather, did i mention knives?
I also have gear like a power generator etc, but using that gear might attract people that are prepped via firearms and a different mindset of how to be prepped. You need to be able to take care of those people too and don't draw attention to yourself. If you can't, your gear and food supply will change from owner faster than you think.Similar threads
