What are people planning for, seriously.

I ask this because i am new to the prepper thing, ive researched what is needed for me and my family for our survival, none of which i will discuss in specifics.
However in my research i have found some people who are prepping for WW3 it seems, people who buy thousends of dollars of MREs(lol), or tens of thousends of rounds of ammo for a small arsenal of weaponry that some small countrys would be proud to field.
What i have come to understand is that a majority of these people are looking forward to SHTF, actually looking forward to anarchy and disorder and think they are Rambo and Donald Trump rolled into one.
Ive seen people who think they will be able either take out a small town or become king of that town by barter, both of which i think are very very unrealistic.
Realisticly i think one can only look after yourself and your family and trying to take advantage of a SHTF situation is a great way to become another victim of that situation, especially for the Rambos, that golden BB is out there guys be realistic. Although i do advocate some of the same things i discuss, i refer to the extent of things i found, i believe in being armed and prepared, but how many guns do you need, and does your family eat MREs every day to cycle through them to insure freshness, if so your rich to afford all those MREs, or single.
Get land and learn to work it, get food(food you and your family actualy eat today and can store for years, MREs total waste of $), get water and a well, get silver and gold, and get the hell out of the citys before the 40% devaluation of the dollar like Bernanke said he would do, and yes he actualy said he would do it. If your in a big city when SHTF, well good luck.

www.federalreserve.gov...

I think most of the people planning for stuff like that are already a little loopy in the head...

Unless they know something I don't their is no reason to suggest ww3 is going to break out. IF ww3 had a big possibility to happen, yes I can see people stockpiling for it... But for now? Enjoy the life on earth before WW3, because after there may be no Earth.

reply to post by 1947flxible


You can't run to the store and buy a fire extinquisher once your house catches fire. You can't take a trip to Lowes to buy a generator after six feet of snow and ice have knocked out your power for three weeks and closed the town for 4 days. You can't run to the police department, get your permit, wait 5 days, then go to the gun store and buy a firearm and ammo when your house is being broken into by burglars, foreign soldiers, or even domestic soldiers.

Prepping is what it is, preparing. When is the right time to prep? Anytime. When is the wrong time to prep? When it's too late. How can you know when it's too late? You can't.

Best explanation I give you, I'm afraid.

eta>
Getting land and working it, digging a well and utilizing it are both awesome things to do... if you can afford it, but like anything in this world, nothing is a guarantee. A drought may leave your land unworkable, an earthquake trimmer may contaminate your well. A snow storm may still leave you hold up for days or weeks in the winter (or longer as rural roads are typically cleared after urban roads.) No place you can live is beyond preparation for a natural or manmade event.

reply to post by 1947flxible


Myself, I'm hiding out until the idiots kill themselves off. To be truthful, I'll be the hunter/scavanger of old. All the while, I will be trying to make it to family. All without causing any drama to anybody...specifically, myself.

reply to post by 1947flxible


I have been through a natural disaster,many times.
Hurricanes can be pretty bad.
I don't live in hurricane country anymore because I was smart and relocated.

You can prepare all you want until IT really happens to you and you forgot to buy a can opener while having a pile of soup in cans to eat.
Then you improvise.
Some people just over react .
We are humans,we are adaptable to a certain extent.

People are planning for the end of the world as they know it in 2012.
What they don't know ,is that maybe it is the end of the world as they know it,but not the end of the world.

We've all decided that we are a survival culture, we have witnessed and experienced earthquakes, tsunamis, tornadoes, ice/snow storms, wild fires, house fires, droughts, dust/sand storms, flooding, power outages, unemployment, homelessness, Etc and we've woken up to the fact that only we can take care of ourselves, its our culture and if we don't learn to do these things for ourselves then we will only become victims, and no one really wants to become a member of the victim culture

The first things we learned in boy scouts and as children where to be prepared and to duck and cover

reply to post by 1947flxible

Yes I agree with you in wishing everyone in the city good luck...if something happens. Gold and silver? Well, if you have the cash sitting around to buy that, why not buy things to help you be self sufficient instead of buying another form of money?

reply to post by 1947flxible


You've been a member of ATS for over 2 years, so hopefully you understand the countless situations that people prep for... nuclear war, hurricanes, pole shifts, alien landings and Christ' second coming.

How we prep and what we store will vary greatly depending on what scenario each individual believes may happen. While a farm in the country with fresh well water, animals and crops may be advantageous in the case of economic turmoil, in the case of a biological or chemical attack all those advantages could disappear instantly. MRE's may not seem to be a very economical choice for food storage, but if you're traveling, in the bush, or are faced with compromised food sources, MRE's may very well be your best friend.

reply to post by 1947flxible


Since i tried not to live in fear. I'm not prepared much. I got the basic first aid stuff tho.
The way i see it, without judging anybody, is the cost of food.
Coffey, peanut butter, chocolate pretty much all raw food is skyrocketing at this very moment.
Theres absolutely no conspiracy behind this, hard winter in 2011 combined with drought in the south a tsunami plus a couple of hurricanes are just a few reasons our food is gonna get much more expensive in 2012. Now find the real numbers on unemployment and you might get a recipe for disaster, like i said, i'm trying.

If i could give a star to FugitiveSoul i would. I also believe that when or if events happens and your effected, how fast you can adapt to the situation in a clear state of mind is what will really make the difference to you and your family surviving or not. If you really want to be prepared read some survival books and take class' that will teach you exactly what to do to in an emergency (I've taken a hands on course provided by "St.Johns Ambulance. Very popular here in Canada. msg me if your interested ) , not just a 2012 type of emergency.. any kind i.e car accident, hypothermia, fire, etc since these are more realistic scenarios that could happen to you during your lifetime. Btw the best thing you can do for yourself and loved ones is to have first aid kits at home and in every vehicle and carry pocket sized multi-tool. If there is a zombie apocalypses your shotgun and supplies at home wont do you much good ..

I completely agree that there are some people who take it to over-the-top levels. What I do not understand about the people who are looking forward to a SHTF scenario is WHY...A lot of the things that one would have to do during a situation like that is possible to do right now.

One can go and live in the woods, off the grid, and receive the same satisfaction. I think they may be looking forward to the lawlessness, which says a lot about that person. I haven't noticed too many people like that on ATS, but I too have run across them on other sites. I hardly ever discuss the topic of "survival" on any forum, and rather just make preparations here and there just in case, and am definitely not looking forward to a SHTF scenario.

I suppose some people are looking forward to using all of their equipment, but like I said, go live in the woods. I think a big part of it is that these people know that in a SHTF situation they will be, to an extent, "powerful." This may be their way of being the "ruling class," similar to what you alluded to in your opening thread post...

So personally I believe this says a lot about the personalities of individuals like this, and the qualities and traits represented by their behaviors and comments are probably not desirable for normal people, and a psychiatrist would probably condemn these actions as unhealthy as well.

Another thing to take into consideration is whether or not these individuals have a family that they must look after. Most of the preppers that I know with families, are definitely not looking forward to a SHTF occurrence, but they want to be prepared because there is always that small chance, which seems to be growing, of everything toppling over.

I think this is intelligent, although I do not condemn or think ill of anyone who doesn't make preparations for these possibilities...So anyone who is looking forward to a situation where society collapses, and they have a family, in my opinion are worse than those who exhibit this nature but do not have families.

I do not "like" to judge people, although I suppose I do just as much as an average person, but even without really judging people of this nature, I think it is okay to tell them that they are "wrong" and are exhibiting character flaws or complexes that really should be looked into by a professional. I suppose there are those who will disagree with me, but I still cannot see how "hoping" or "looking forward to" a total collapse of LAWKI is a good thing.

On a different note, and addressing part of what I mentioned earlier, I think people, myself included, judge other people, or think or talk ill of them, because it either enhances or reaffirms one's feeling of superiority, even if on a subconscious level, or there is simply a need to break down other individuals' thoughts, comments, and actions because it provides some other type of satisfaction or self-verification.

There could be other reasons I suppose, but for most people they are no doubt very subtle. For instance, I feel no conscious reason to say what I said about people like those of the current topic, and the only reason I say they could be bad people is because that is what I think/feel.

I am just thinking out loud here, lol, and sorry for going a bit off the deep end and hijacking your thread. To ensure that I do not cause a derailment, I ask that other users do not make too long of a response dealing only with the off-topic issue I created, but rather just ponder it when you get a chance...We should all make an attempt to learn more about ourselves.

So all in all, I understand what you have written OP, and I can relate with your thoughts as well. And for all of us, maybe we should make a conscious effort to not be so critical of others, as well as cynical in our everyday lives. Not calling anyone out except myself, lol.

reply to post by JiggyPotamus

Just like the military, a lot of people have spent a lot of money in preparation and equipment and need to know how well it and they performs under the most rigorous conditions.

reply to post by JiggyPotamus

What I do not understand about the people who are looking forward to a SHTF scenario is WHY

Because it is a good excuse to escape their sucky life.

Its because they think life is like a video game, and you get free do overs all the time...They dream of being something that they are not, nor will they ever be...and the only way they can make themselves to be something they aren't. They have no real grasp of the real word and how mean, nasty and violent it can truely be.
I hope that they never get to live out there fantisy...except in video games and there ignorant little mind.

Economic collapse and its comming

well personally I'm prepping for a big economic collapse and I want it to get over a done with because the sooner it happens the sooner I can get on with worrying about other things.

I can understand the urge to day dream about carving out some amazing life after some hypothetical disaster but in reality any world changing event isn't going to be pretty or fun.

Reply to post by 1947flxible

You should check out a show called The Colony.....its a reality show where a group deals with a SHTF situation. The producers throw the colonists all types of curve balls...and they have psychologists picking apart the colonists emotion etc. You could probably learn a thing or two from watching that. Bartering would probably be the most successful way to stay alive though imo.


Posted Via ATS Mobile: m.abovetopsecret.com

What I'm planning for is NOT WW3. I am planning for economic collapse and chaotic events.

And even if you're NOT expecting these things, there are natural events , hurricane, tornado, etc.

If you fail to plan, then you plan to fail.

And yes, people on here might be a bit crazy, but that is what makes ATS a great website.

What am I preparing for? I honestly don't think it matters, because I'm not fortunate enough to either a) foretell the future or b) buy in to anyone who claims they can. So not knowing what the future holds, seems to me anything could happen. Preparing for one specific scenario seems rather inefficient.

With that in mind, I prepare for zombies.

I'm being serious. If you're prepared for a zombie apocalypse, a tornado really isn't that big of a deal.

Originally posted by Unit541
What am I preparing for? I honestly don't think it matters, because I'm not fortunate enough to either a) foretell the future or b) buy in to anyone who claims they can. So not knowing what the future holds, seems to me anything could happen. Preparing for one specific scenario seems rather inefficient.

With that in mind, I prepare for zombies.

I'm being serious. If you're prepared for a zombie apocalypse, a tornado really isn't that big of a deal.

Right on brother.

Me too. Zombie apocalypse. Economic collapse or any of those things will not change much. Zombies, different story.

And well thats what I was told would happen so its not like its something impossible to me.
I will show you 5 percent of what I have in info...
So ok, I am a contactee, who was told and shown the moon was hollow, taken inside with hundreds of other people, told there was a flood inside when the water jacket that protected the ship from cosmic rays burst 2 mya when someone on the earth fired 2 missiles huge 20 km long missiles at the moon in some sort of war, maybe like the stories from India of Rama. So ok I found this difficult to believe so I looked and found this...
www.lpi.usra.edu...
and the more I looked the more it seemed possible. Aparently only one of the two missiles exploded and the second didn't, and it was found on the far side of the moon.
www.lpi.usra.edu...

So ok, now they had my attention and so then I learned a whole bunch more stuff but never believed 2012 was any more than some south american quasi religious story telling until I was told that after the flood inside, that was where people landed was south america. So I looked there and the Ica stones told the same story and even showed the missile hitting the south pole of the moon.
So then I looked at the Aztec calendar, and it was a cross section of the hollow moon.
upload.wikimedia.org...

That was when it began to get interesting. You could see where the missile hit on the bottom, you could see the water jacket inside. And in the center, Hal 9000 and it started to make sense. Hanuman, from Indian mythology was the ships computer, he had mutinied, and in 2012, he was going down.
And so I thought well what will that mean when he goes down does he do anything will the moon crash into the earth what? And so I was told that he runs software, that provides a consciousness signal to the brains of man.
ANd that there were two signals and two computers, but only one was going down, the one that provides sentience, not instinct. The one on the left here, not the right.
upload.wikimedia.org...
And in that painting that signal is symbolized by Christ.
Then I was told not everyone would be affected because some people like myself were on a different machine like the one depicted in the background of that painting and the machines are elsewhere far away but do the same thing.
Then I saw that corny old movie Plan 9 From Outer Space and saw that other people knew about this and had been telling people since about the Roswell crash. Maybe even earlier. Just using sci-fi and movies to say they knew something.
So I don't know if it will happen, but that is what I was told, and shown and so that is what I prepared for.