Doing your best

When you are looking at prepping you are simply doing what you can to improve your chances of survival after an event. It doesn’t matter what the event is everything you do to prepare for that event improves your chances. However, there are people out there, myself included, who look at each scenario and consider worst cases. This is why we consider people breaking in after our preps and mass exoduses from the cities tearing down every house across the country for every scrap of food they can find. Many of these scenarios are not really survivable and it frightens us and makes us wonder why we are prepping at all.

The reality is though that there are several events that are not survivable. Our sun going supernova, and a major asteroid strike to name but two. We think about then and then we ignore them just as most of us do about death in general, there is nothing we can do so let us just get on with life and ignore it. Many scenarios though are survivable so we prepare for them. The after effects like the mass exodus we do what we can and hope that it isn’t as bad as we can imagine. For most of us that will be the case, for many of us it will be reality and if we have not considered it for our personal situation it would be life and death.

Never forget prepping does not guarantee survival. Your underground bunker wih 100 years supply of MREs, a nuclear reactor for power and an entire self contained eco system could very well be contaminated with the latest bird flu virus that wipes out 100% of those infected.

So far our species has been lucky. Most of the organisms on this planet are now in a balanced state and although there are many deaths few are from biological issues like viruses. Most are from issues such as tornadoes, quakes and floods. Nature though doesn’t care. If we had not learnt about sanitation and how to deal with disease then she could very well have bumped us all off by now ready to try again with another species.

It is all very frightened and daunting but we must always remember we can only do our best. Everything we do improves our chances, every item we put away, every scenario we consider and spend time thinking about how to resolve improved our responses and therefore our chances. Conversely every scenario we don’t think about and every action we don’t perform keeps our chances static. We are no worse off than the average person but then we do think that most of them will starve to death in less than a year.

So when you read on this forum about inner cities being run over by people willing to tear your throat out for a tin of beans then consider what you can do. Can you move? Not everyone can. Can you hide? Again not everyone can. Can you become that person that everyone fears. After all they are going to be the survivors in there, it could be you. On the other hand you may be able to lock yourself away somewhere, grow some food indoors and avoid any contact if you can’t move away.

The point is though that as nobody knows exactly what will happen we have no idea what the aftermath will be. A fatal bird flu won’t have people entering every house, especially those with warning signs. So even if you only have the capability to put a few tins away that could very well be the difference and if enough time elapses then those stores could be substantial. For all we know there may be no real collapse just a disruption in the supply chain that has everyone without food for a month. What you consider pitiful stores then will keep you very comfortably and with, potentially, martial law to protect you those wanting to take it could be kept under control. You just don’t know.

Just do your best. It is all you can do and if anything does happen you will be better off for it.