The Prepper Movement -- a Growing Network Preparing for the World's End

http://www.asylum.com/2010/05/19/preppers-a-growing-network-preparing-for-world-destruction/


May 19th 2010 By Wendy Rose Gould


The Prepper Movement -- a Growing Network Preparing for the World's End




If the proverbial you-know-what hit the global fan, would you be prepared? The answer to that question is most likely a big, fat no.

After all, it's hard to develop life skills (e.g., growing/storing your own food, filtering water) while playing myriad video games or scrounging the Internet for funny videos to post on Facebook.

Turns out, though, that while you may not be concerned about mass chaos and world destruction, a growing number of people are.

Meet the Preppers
Asylum readers, there is a posse of self-sufficient men and women out there who make it their goal to be prepared when disaster strikes. They call themselves "preppers."

From natural catastrophes to economic meltdowns to nuclear blowouts, the preppers' collective goal is quite simple: to carry on as usual, even when catastrophe strikes. Think backyard fallout shelters of the 1950s or Y2K shenanigans -- only circa 2010.

The whole prepper movement may seem pretty zany. So zany, in fact, that you'd think only a miniscule amount of people would actually be partaking in it. Wrong.

Over recent years, a huge community of preppers has developed. Perform a simple Google search and you'll turn up plenty of prepper-related stuff, including the Web television portal Prepper TV, survival blogs, podcasts (such as DoctorPrepper and PrepperPodcast), and forums that cover everything from a woman's perspective to recycling to how to handle dead bodies.

There's even a rash of YouTube videos offering tutorials on such topics as how to construct your own nuclear bomb shelter, what firearms you should own, and how to earthquake-proof your stored food.

The Potential for Disaster
"People are waking up to the fact that they cannot always rely on outside sources for their personal safety and survival," Tom Martin, CEO of the American Preppers Network, tells Asylum.

"A 'sh** hit the fan' scenario happens to just about everyone sometime in their life," he says. "Preparing and having a 'prepper' mindset will lessen the impact of whatever disaster it may be that you might experience in your life."

Fair enough. But is it really necessary to spend hundreds of dollars on packaged emergency food -- like this $999, one-year supply of freeze-dried "food" sold at Costco? According to customers who have purchased this product and others like it, it's completely worth all your hard-earned dinero.

"No one can predict the future, but our economy sure isn't what it used to be," explains Stephen Bedford (pictured, above). His wife runs the website The Survival Mom, and both are committed preppers. "We can't afford to live like it's still 2005."

Don't Make an "Unwise Decision"
"Some things like food, we use all the time and then replace them, because it is the lifestyle we choose," Gary Hartley, who runs the United States Prepper Networks, tells Asylum. "I would be extremely happy if some of my preps never got used. I'd pass them on to my son and be even happier if he never had to use them."

"Remember this," he continued. "It is better to have it and not need it than to need it and not have it. Not prepping is an unwise decision."

The Prepper Mindset
As with any group, the prepper clan is made up a variety of mindsets. While some opt to stock up on pre-packaged products, others, like Martin, invest their time and money other ways.

"I spend more time learning skills, tips and ideas than I do money on equipment," he tells Asylum. "Survival is an instinct; preparedness is not. Preparedness has to be learned."

Hartley agrees. "In my opinion, it is more about taking personal responsibility for yourself and your family and being more self-reliant and less dependent on outside sources in an emergency," he tells us.

And there you have it. Preppers get off on learning life skills, storing away massive amounts of long-lasting food, and talking about the end of the world as we know it.

It all begs this question, loyal readers: To prep or not to prep?

Americans stock up to be ready for end of the world

Americans stock up to be ready for end of the world

Recession and the constant threat of terrorist attacks have given new life to the ingrained survivalist instinct


Tess Pennington, 33, is a mother of three children, and lives in the sprawling outskirts of Houston, Texas. But she is not taking the happy safety of her suburban existence lightly.

Like a growing army of fellow Americans, Pennington is learning how to grow her own food, has stored emergency rations in her home and is taking courses on treating sickness with medicinal herbs.

"I feel safe and more secure. I have taken personal responsibility for the safety of myself and of my family," Pennington said. "We have decided to be prepared. There all kinds of disasters that can happen, natural and man-made."

Pennington is a "prepper", a growing social movement that has been dubbed Survivalism Lite. Preppers believe that it is better to be safe than sorry and that preparing for disaster – be it a hurricane or the end of civilisation – makes sense.

Unlike the 1990s survivalists, preppers come from all backgrounds and live all over America. They are just as likely to be found in a suburb or downtown loft as a remote ranch in the mountains. Prepping networks, which have sprung up all over the country in the past few years, provide advice on how to prepare food reserves, how to grow crops in your garden, how to hunt and how to defend yourself. There are prepping books, online shops, radio shows, countless blogs, prepping courses and prepping conferences.

John Milandred runs a website called Pioneer Living, which is one of the main forums for discussing prepping. It provides a range of advice for those who just want to store extra food in case of a power cut, to those who want to embrace the "off the grid" lifestyle of America's western pioneers. "We get inquiries from people from all walks of life. We had a principal from a school asking us to talk to their children. We have doctors and firemen and lawyers," he said.

Milandred lives in Oklahoma and, should society collapse around him, he is well placed to flourish. Indeed, he might not notice that much. His house has a hand-dug well that gives him fresh water. He grows his own food. He has built an oven that needs neither gas nor electricity. He can hunt for meat. "If something happened, it really would not affect us," he said.

There are several reasons for the rise of prepping. The first is that, in the post-9/11 world, mass terror attacks have become a fear for many Americans. At a time when US diplomacy is focused on preventing Iran getting nuclear weapons and terror experts continue to warn of "dirty bombs" on American soil, it is no surprise that many Americans feel threatened. Added to that paranoia has come the recession. Suddenly, millions of Americans have been losing their jobs and their homes, reinforcing a feeling that society is not as stable as it once seemed.

Hollywood has caught on. A succession of films, such as 2012, The Road, The Book of Eli and Legion, have tapped into an American Zeitgeist that is worried about the end of civilisation.

"Prepping masks a wide range of stances and ideologies. But the more people are prepared, the more they are likely to have an apocalyptic way of thinking," said Professor Barry Brummett, of the University of Texas-Austin.

Even government officials have accepted that the financial crisis posed a threat to social order. In recent testimony before Congress, treasury secretary Tim Geithner admitted that top-level talks had been held on whether the US could enforce law and order in the wake of a collapse of the financial system.

Certainly, Tom Martin agrees. He runs the American Preppers Network, which helps provide a wide range of resources. Martin, a truck driver who lives in Idaho, believes that more and more people will become preppers. "Millions of people now have the mindset that they want to be prepared for something, but don't know what to call it," he said.

That rings true with Pennington. In the 1990s, survivalism was the province of anti-government militiamen or loners in the woods. But preppers are more concerned with stocking up on food and water and relearning skills so that they can fend for themselves.

To that end, Pennington has set up a website called Ready Nutrition, which teaches basic food skills to prepare for a time when pre-packaged goods at a supermarket might not be available: "Prepping is not taboo, like survivalism. There is no negative connotation to it. We are not rednecks. In many ways, our ancestors were preppers. So were the Native Americans. It is just going back to being able to look after yourself."


* guardian.co.uk © Guardian News and Media Limited 2010