Fear Uncertainty Doubt.
It is our lot in life to live in a little bit of Fear. Fear of the furure that we think will be worse than what we have now. Fear of the unknown. It is good for us to feel that way as it is what is driving us to prepping. It makes us consider the way things could be, how we can prepare for that and it makes us learn more about the skills we will need so we can prepare for that future.
After a while though, uncertainty kicks in. Nothing has happened, you have spent money that could have been used elsewhere and time that you could have utilised elsewhere. It looks like nothing is happening as trigger points you thought would make a difference simply drift by without a hiccup. People still are dumb and nothing has changed so why should it ever change?
Doubt makes it’s appearance. How could I be so wrong? Even seasoned preppers and people you respect start to question the situation and you start to look at what you are doing. Am I wasting my time, effort and funds on something that will never happen?
What a dilemma you are in. I can assure you though that all of us go through this. It is usually when something goes wrong and you need some additional funds or you read someones negative comments. Many of us will give up at this point and become disheartened. So far though you are right, no events have occured and you have been wasting your time, effort and money. Most newbies fall away at this point after a couple of months prepping. It is all too daunting.
The only thing though is that suddenly, unexpectedly you could be thrown an event that we need to have prepared for and if you have let your stocks dwindle and your supplies go you will have to survive of your wits and what little preps you have. On the plus side having prepped and having learnt things from books and web sites you are better off than most.
The way I look at it is simple. I have no idea if an event will occur. I have decided that the chances are good and so I prepare. A lot of my spend is on goods that I would likely buy anyway I am just buying them in advance. Things like tins of food, toilet rolls and so on.
The rest is like an insurance policy. Look at house insurance, expensive isn’t it? Yet most of us don’t claim off our insurance year after year. We pay extra from RCCB units on the power supply instead of straight fuses, you also spend extra on smoke alarms. How many of you have ever needed these? Prepping is no diffirent. So I buy goods that I may never use but they are there just in case I need them. Items like drills, arrows for my bows and this makes up the bulk of the prepping for me but I have a lot of items.
I also buy things I will never use unless there is an event. Items like water filtration equipment, spectacles, rope. This list is also extensive and it could be classed as wasted, but if something happens it will be worth a lot more to us. Life.
So although many of use have periods of FUD. We may stop prepping and reduce our spend I would suggest that you simply keep what you have, spend the funds on food stores and leave the rest. Food will always be consumed and it is always going up. This way it can save you money and is the basic insurance policy you can have.
However, try and not let FUD push you down. Uncertainty and Doubt are always unwelcome but there all the time. Try and see it as insurance for your house. Something you would rather not do but the alternative is worse.
There’s a saying I’m pretty sure a lot of “ex” will know and recognize. “Hurry up and wait”.
That’s prepping in a nutshell, Hurry up and wait for ?????
Having said that,
I remember a cartoon with two old crows sitting on the telephone wire. One turns to the other and says:-
“Sod waiting, lets go and kill something”. :))
great article SD and outlines an important fact of prepping, its inevitable to go through it!
i also think that we should prep as much as possible, but without disrupting our everyday life, or from enjoying life as it is, we all agree that an event is inevitable, but when is a different matter, and therefore we should enjoy what is available to us right now 🙂
and i tihnk having items we’d never use unkess theres an event makes them worthless till the day we use them, but then they are priceless…and lets face it, a few quid on some water filtration equipment that becomes priceless, its a pretty good deal 😀
I read your FUD article this morning and decided to pop in to the local government office (Ripley for Amber Valley) and ask them what their ‘resilience’ and emergency preparations are. I was pleased when gentleman in charge of local authority emergency procedures met with me in person. He would neither look me in the eye or give me a straight answer and would not give me any hard copy of ‘resilience’ plans due to ‘sensitive information’. The gentleman tried to engage me in making fun of ‘doomsday’ theories; told me there were no ‘bunkers’ in the area; and tried to steer the conversation toward discussion of the ‘loony’ fringe. He could not give advice for a mother with 2 young children on how to deal with an emergency situation. His only advice was to “…get in, stay in, tune in…” in the event of an emergency (go inside, stay inside and put the radio on).
There are no evacuation plans for the public in Amber Valley, I discovered. The local emergency prep involves ONE annual meeting of the emergency services & voluntary organisations pretending there has been a gas explosion! There are no contingencies for EMP (solar or nuke), radiation or natural disaster (by the way -there is a small nuclear facility in Rolls Royce, Derby -only 8 miles away!). Disheartened by the lack of local authority organisation, I spent the rest of the morning on the Cabinet Office website, reading the governments legislation on emergencies.
I was not too scared of an emergency before – but I am now! The government can and will repeal all civil protection law, disband any groups and destroy the property of any group or individual they deem necessary and can even charge for emergency services. AND do all this without going through parliament. I suggest you read it -it is scarily enlightening how unimportant the individual human is.
I shall continue to prep enthusiastically for myself and my family -knowing that there will be no support from the powers that be, BUT with the comfort of knowing that others like you, are doing the same. If FUD occurs to you, just think what a poor set up your government has and the enthusiasm will return 🙂
AXON, your area is not alone, Devon too has no emergency plans except for using the local “Little Chef” and a School in case of heavy snow on the A30 Trunk road (Devon into Cornwall), apart from that they have no contingency plans at all!!
Hi bigpaul, thank you for reading my ‘rant’ -it makes me wonder what on earth will happen, it seems martial law is the only available government option or outcome in an emergency situation!! eeek!!
“Martial Law” may be invoked for Londonistan and some of the major cities but they havent got enough Police or Army to cover the whole of the “United Kingdom”, they can recommend you go to this or that “Emergency Centre” but i dont think they’ve got a hope in hell of trying to enforce anything outside the major population centres, anyway if we’ve all “Bugged Out” how the hell are they going to find us anyway?? i havent seen a Policeman to speak face to face to for about 13 years! they just dont have the manpower and anyway i think all the coppers are on 3 year contracts, whats the point in them upsetting the residents when they could be out of a job in 3 years? as for the Army they keep cutting the squaddies and amalgamating the regiments and the numbers get less and less, if they keep on this way they’ll be lucky if they have enough to control a chimps tea party!!
Your rant is very appropriate Axon.
My wife was talking to a Lincolnshire flood alert person who confidently told her she would have 20 minutes notice of flooding.
SWMBO, How is that notice given?
Him, A telephone call or texts
SWMBO, We have no phone.
Him, Your neighbour will have though.
SWMBO, No neighbours
Him, It’ll be on the radio.
SWMBO, What station?
Him, Dunno but we were thinking that would be an option.
SWMBO, What if it happened in the middle of the night?
Him, We’re trying to work out contingency plans for the population centers
SWMBO,Which centers of population?
Him, Lincoln would be one
SWMBO, and?
Him, That’s still under discussion.
SWMBO, So until you’ve discussed it what happens to us?
Him, We telephone or text you.
I just couldn’t stop laughing!!!!!!!!!!!!
I think the whole U.K. governments like that for any emergency, the old phrase “pppppp” “Proper planning prevents piss poor performance” springs to mind or I should say the lack of.
B.P’s on the right track I’d say, even if the balloon went up and the police recruited every retired bobby they could, they’d still be undermanned, and as for the Army or any of the forces, I think a great deal would head off home, I certainly would have done, sod her majesty. I think also as with every “emergency” that we have, the people would be the last to know anything, that’s why I keep a weather eye on the news channels online and elsewhere, even a few hours prior notice before the mass of sheeple find out would be a great advantage no?
All you have to do is look at last years Riots, the Police couldn’t cope and had to call in reinforcements from all over the country, and this was for a smallish number of rioters, just imagine a much larger number of rioters…not for TV’s or mobile phones or IPods but for FOOD!!! they just wouldn’t be able to cope, and areas such of mine which dont see a Copper anytime will be left to fend for themselves.
Packing in prepping because such and such event never happened is a bit like stopping wearing your seatbelt because you havent gone through the windscreen yet, or canceling your house insurance because you havent had a fire yet.
Maybe if you were just planning for one event, like the Apoconobbers (Prof Brian Cox’s words, not mine 🙂 ) then maybe you would pack it all in next year but other than that I dont understand why you would.
I can understand why people get fed up with talking about it on forums and blogs but I could never actually stop prepping. Most sheep dont prep because they are ignorant of the risks or expect the government to help, preppers know otherwise so for a prepper to pack it all in by choice seems to me to make them worse than the sheep, as the ex-preppers know the risks but choose to ignore them
In my very humble opinion 🙂
People evaluate risk differently for several reasons. Either they don’t understand that it may be unlikely but the impact is great or they do not understand exactly what the risk is. It depends on reactions.
We ignore the risks of a car accident even though thousand occur every day yet a one in a billion, billion chance of getting irradiated from a dirty nuke causes panic.
One in a billion chance of this, two in a billion of that and so on may work out to be a small chance but the impact is great. We chose to prepare for that. Others choose to rely on government.
People handle risk poorly.
It can get to a point when you can begin to be less focussed on prepping and by this, I mean you have already accumulated supplies and kit to cover a multitude of circumstances. When you’re at this stage, you’re feeling more secure about the uncertain future. I’m pretty much at this stage myself. I continue prepping but not at the frantic, bank account emptying rate that I started off with. The fear hasn’t gone away, I am in no doubt all my prepping will serve me well as I believe it’s only a matter of time before it’s put to work for my serious survival needs.
But, being so heavily focussed on the ‘what ifs’ of whatever future event will occurr can be a heavy burden which is why I am kicking back a little more these days and not spending ALL my disposeable income on the usual and not so usual stuff. Sure, some here will spend every available penny on their preps … Good luck to them! Personally, I also have a’normal’ life and like to enjoy it if I can! FUD? No way! 😀