What is a prepper?

Doomsday Preppers

 Survivalists and Preppers have gotten a fair amount of attention over the past few years. My theories about this renewed interest include, an increase in natural disasters, a down turning economy, major terrorist events, global struggles, civil unrest and the media. Sensationalist news programs paint a grim portrait and shows like Doomsday Preppers, and other National Geographic specials about the end of times, including Mayan 2012 predictions, impending raptures, Nostradamus type naysayers and end of the world disasters show a gritty new reality. 

These scenarios, however, are only part of why people might want to learn more about prepping and survival. There is often simply an interest in returning to the basics of living life off the land and homesteading. If you take a look back in history, you see that in the days of the caveman, life was survival. Whether, early man spent his days hunting, looking for shelter or starting a fire, he was surviving. Only since agricultural, industrial and technological revolutions have taken place do we rely less on basic survival skills to live. As technologies grow, society progresses and urban centers continue to expand many people may have this renewed interest in a less modern lifestyle.

The following is Survival Preppers take on prepping and survivalism:

 

     Survival prepping is preparing. Preparing is making ready or being ready for an unknown. Prepping is forethought to a, “what if” with a mind set for survival. What if the power goes out? What if there is a natural disaster? What if there is an economic collapse, a deadly virus or a nuclear bomb? What if the world as (you) know it comes to an end? Scary thought, I know, but that is the mind set of a prepper. A prepper is a person preparing, also known as a survivalist. And while your mental image of a survivalist may be a guy in army fatigues with guns strapped to him fighting off hordes of zombies and living in a mountain shack far from the prying eyes of the government, I assure you that is only a very small percent. Instead, the average prepper is just a person who bought storm shutters before hurricane season or keeps a flashlight handy for when the power goes out. Chances are you are a prepper already. Maybe you bring an umbrella to work in anticipation of rain. Maybe you have a spare tire and insurance for your automobile. The mind set of a prepper may seem pessimistic; however the goal here is to elevate fear with the security that comes with being prepared. Of course, it is unrealistic to think you can be prepared for every emergency situation, but the point is that you are actively thinking about the possibilities of an emergency and what you can do now in order to keep you and your loved ones alive and safe in the event of a disaster.

Do you agree? Disagree? Why? Tell me what a prepper is to you.