Why I Am Not A Prepper

A prepper is someone who busies herself preparing for the coming global economic, commercial, cultural collapse. He does this by hoarding goods and making plans against that inevitable day.

If you really don't believe this is inevitable you might read, The Five Stages of Collapse by Dmitry Orlov, or any number of other such tomes. They rarely agree on matters of timing, but they all agree that it is a matter of when, not if. Or, you can just ignore the whole thing, which is what most people do.

Preppers come in all varieties. Some are political, some are not. Some are racists, some are not. They can be right or left wing. Some are violent, some are not. What they have in common is the belief that if they just take the right steps, the will survive.

Of course, on this point, they are all wrong. Some might survive longer than others, but none will survive the long term alone.

They believe in hoarding guns, ammo, explosives, food and everything else you can imagine. This will allow them to defend themselves and eat.

Alas, when the collapse occurs, there will be far too many others, both private and governmental, who also have guns, etc. who will want to take their stuff, and will.

Oddly, few preppers have any military training. They read Soldier of Fortune and think they are trained. They are not.

As Napoleon pointed out: God fights on the side with the heaviest artillery. They won't have it.

As for me, I know I won't survive. I'm 62 and not really in fighting shape. I am also a published critic of the government. I expect the government will perform its paybacks very quickly. An AK-47 isn't going to change that.

What should you do? Not for me to say. But trained, organized, well armed soldiers and police will always defeat untrained, disorganized, poorly armed civilians.

And even if the authorities disappear, the famished masses of survivors will be eyeing you hungrily. I'm told human tastes like pork. I don't intend to find out.

I will live in a civilized society or I don't care to live at all.

And, Jesus, I didn't even mention zombies...