I can understand the sentiment for wanting to turn people away if resources are limited. I certainly can understand the concept of being reluctant to help those who had every chance to prepare for whats coming and refused, even laughing in your face while they did so. Believe me I am not immune to this mentality myself.
The older I get the more I realize we all have talents, we all have value and not everybody close to us are going to have the same future time sense of direction us preppers or sustainers have. If having undesirable "friends" showing up at your place after the collapse moves you in a direction that you feel you need to inform them through threats of violence they will not be welcome, maybe you need to evaluate what you call a friend.
Of course much like the line attributed to General Pickett in "Killer Angels" if the people I am speaking of would be undesirable in a post collapse world, well....
"They will not be asked to join the ever decreasing circle of my friends."
Now that being said I realize I have the luxury of having resources to take several people in when the time comes. People who do not have life quite so easy as me currently but they still have valuable skills, work ethic, intelligence and the ultimate of survival skills an innate teamwork mentality.
There are many people out there that simply cannot intellectually fathom what is coming. It isn't even just a sense of denial either or a misplaced need to party, but a simple matter of not being able to connect the dots of an abstract problem. Doesn't mean they would be worthless in a collapse situation, we cannot all be economic or sociological Einsteins seeing with certainty what is coming can we?
I am not berating anyone either. There are many preppers out there who simply do not have the resources to take refugees in, friends or family period. They certainly have the right to turn people away. If I was in that position though I wouldn't have friends who didn't already understand that from the get go.
Those of us with the ability to take others in, yes even those others who do not share our talent for forecasting doom, should by all means plan on doing so.
For instance. I have a friend I have known since childhood. He is dirt poor living in a one room apartment. His wife took him to the cleaners paying child support for a daughter that isn't even his biological offspring. While his wife was cheating on him he put up cameras in his house trying to catch her. He did catch her in the act but also got some footage of the daughter walking around in a towel when no one was home. Now he is a felon and a sex offender on top of being taken to the cleaners. If he loses his job he most likely will be an inmate and then a convict. Yet I can tell you from experience this man would not hurt a fly except in self defense and works like that plow horse from 'Animal Farm". You could hand him a bag of gold and come back a year later and there would be nothing missing.
Is he a prepper? Nope. He cannot see beyond his own problems anyway and has little interest in something he can do nothing about. Yet I would take him here in a heartbeat when TSHTF.
I am simply saying if you have the resources by all means plan on taking people in whether they are preppers right now or not. They may still have value to offer.
Keep Prepping Everyone!!!
What you say makes sense and caused me to think about things differently. There are some neighbors near us who would be good to have around in the critical period when we enter into a new "dark age"(a veterinarian and a retired MD are two). On the other hand the two farmers that border our land pretty much swim in the shallow end of the gene pool. They are chemical based farmers and I can see them being worthless when their stupid nature is added in. They do have lots of cows though so they will probably not come to me for food. A subdivision is a mile away and another 2 miles which are a big unknown. Many variables come into it with the biggest being the time of year, summer is not too bad but winter will be a nasty situation as cold hungry people are not pleasant.
ReplyDeleteSf - I think hunger and the loss of television will change most people's IQ level much faster than we think possible. Once reality hits if the person is able to admit their faults and knuckle in they would still have value. Those who fall apart or refuse to listen though need to be set aside.
DeleteThis is the preppers dilemma. Never an easy solution, but one that has to be answered on a personal level, and a lot of that depends upon your preparedness level for your family. I won't take anyone in if it meant my family starving in short order. Prep long and prep deep.
ReplyDeleteK - Certainly not. You cannot endanger your family but you never know what someone would have to offer. Even the very old make excellent babysitters and bean shellers, not to mention sentry duty. I think night guard duty is sometimes tailor made for older persons as some (not all) seem to be able to operate on much less sleep.
DeleteI so agree. Unfortunately, those that I wouldn't share with are worthless cousins who are just too darn lazy to do for themselves. Forget prepping, I'm talking about day to day life, they are always asking for a handout. They don't get it from me, no matter how much they poor mouth. But, others do help them, which is why they don't help themselves.
ReplyDeleteDFW - I could see even a worthless person working out if they were able to see the days of scamming to get by are over. But if they can't change their ways then you are correct no point in messing with them.
DeletePP - this is another great post to get people thinking. one of the reasons we chose to move to the Manor was that although the people in our area are pretty lazy and only work seasonal jobs - in a pinch these people are tough as nails and were raised by people who are tough as nails. all of them hunt, all of them fish and all of them have worked on somebody's house at one time or another. they may be considered lazy cape bretoners who only work seasonally, and therefore go on the pogey for half of the year - but when it hits the fan, these people can be relied upon to pull together and help each other - they already do that now. they are a strong, tight community and we thank our lucky stars for having selected the exact right place for us to bug out.
ReplyDeleteone other thing - you know that i am of the opinion that the more, the merrier. everyone here knows that we know how to grow food, a few have shown interest in learning but in a crunch - trust me, i'll be teaching all of them how to grow food. and i've got a bunch of my trusted seeds saved, vaccuum-sealed and ready to hand out to all. i also have invited people from all over the world to make it here if there is any possibility of their being able to do so. but only people who i believe would make a great addition. like i say - my belief, in such a small community, on such a small island with tons of resources - the more, the merrier.
much love buddy! your friend,
kymber
Good one something to ponder
ReplyDeleteI think the homesteader wing of the prepper community is likely to be in a better position to be able to support others.
ReplyDelete