A Psychologist Talks About Normalcy Bias and Situational Awareness (Why Don't People Prep?)

DestinySurvival.com ^ | September 7th, 2012 | John Wesley Smith

[diamond6]

Ping to read later.

[EdReform]

Prepper ping

[IDontLikeToPayTaxes]

Good article. Thanks for posting.

[gov_bean_ counter]

Mrs GBC used to give me the business about planning stops on shopping trips based on never making left hand turns out of parking lots without the benefit of a 4-way stop or traffic light.

How hard it is to plan, just a little???

[JRandomFreeper]

The worst normalcy bias I ever saw was Sept 11, 2001. That event certainly clued me into who around me was going to be an asset during any kind of non-normal situation.

/johnny

[Disambiguator]

Mrs GBC used to give me the business about planning stops on shopping trips based on never making left hand turns out of parking lots without the benefit of a 4-way stop or traffic light.

That's good advice. I've observed that most collisions involve someone making a left turn. It's a bad idea both practically and politically.

[Kartographer]

Preppers’ PING!!

I think what’s going on right now is some of the worst normalcy bias I’ve witness. When you see some of the comments I have from what should be informed conservatives on prepping it bloggels the mind that they just don’t get where things are headed.

Another good article on Normalcy Bias from our own ChocChipCookie’s blog: Survival Mom

Normalcy Bias: It’s All in Your Head

http://thesurvivalmom.com/2010/12/29/normalcy-bias/

[gov_bean_ counter]

It's a bad idea both practically and politically.

HA! So true.

[Kartographer]

Someone the other day described what’s happening perfectly; they said it’s like being in a car wreck you are driving along you see a car coming at you he’s not stopping for the red light there’s no place for you to go you know for sure he is going to hit you and then everything slows down like a scene from some action movie the car coming seems to be crawling you can even see the surprise on the other drivers face. When he hits you the flying glass seems to hang in the air for a second and all the time there ain’t a damn thing you can do, but pray you survive.

Personally I we will see something much like the collapse of Argentina ( http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7yerKMQc7-w&feature=grec_index )but on a global scale.

As far as the election either way it goes I believe we will soon see social unrest, the closer the election gets the more things will become like walking a mine field and a miss step and things can and will exploded.

Despite the CDC’s tongue and cheek presentation for National Preparedness Month, there really are Zombies, just not the kind from George A. Romero films. They have been fed from the Government’s stash and walked among us for years now and many have been caught on film, but it was in a movie it was for real:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2JtPLyYpyyA

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D4F8ob9nlfY

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o2Ykj92c9v8

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fnpqBb_7PJ4

These and many more like events show (Flash Mobs, OWS, etc) that we have a large entitlement minded population that is violent prone. I think that during a collapse you will see many small businesses wiped out by flash mob looting, and once started it will quickly spread to rape, robbery and murder for murder sake. You will see what I call ‘pocket pogroms’ and if you ain’t ‘Amish’ you better not be around when they come.

I am very much in agreement of the author of this article about what we can look forward to:

When The Music Stops – How America’s Cities May Explode In Violence

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2926391/posts

Many of these ‘zombies’ will think no more about killing you to get ‘stuff’ than zombies in the lastest horror flick and do it just as gruesomely as any of the worse scenes in those same movies.

Many of you who have read my post know I often refer to this quote from Star Trek Deep Space Nine: “Star Trek: Deep Space Nine: The Siege of AR-558 (#7.8)” (1998)

Quark: “Let me tell you something about Hew-mons, Nephew. They’re a wonderful, friendly people, as long as their bellies are full and their holosuites are working. But take away their creature comforts, deprive them of food, sleep, sonic showers, put their lives in jeopardy over an extended period of time and those same friendly, intelligent, wonderful people... will become as nasty and as violent as the most bloodthirsty Klingon. You don’t believe me? Look at those faces. Look in their eyes.”

It has repeated been shown throughout history that this is what happens to people once placed under such stressful conditions and yet you would be surprised how many people don’t realize the transformations that can take place under such conditions. And because of their ignorance many won’t even live long learn.

If you want to learn what happens I suggest you read some of Selco’s firsthand experiences in Bosnia:

A Survival Q & A: Living Through SHTF In The Middle Of A War Zone

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2798007/posts

Clearly there’s a storm coming, as great as a hurricane and like you do when a hurricane comes your way you either prepare to weather it or you become a victim of it.

For those who are just starting or are old hands at prepping you may find my Preparedness Manual helpfull. You can download it at:

http://tomeaker.com/kart/Preparedness1j.pdf

NOTE! THIS IS A FREE DOWNLOAD. I DO NOT MAKE ONE CENT OFF MY PREPAREDNESS MANUAL!

For those of you who haven’t started already it’s time to prepare almost past time maybe. You needed to be stocking up on food guns, ammo, basic household supplies like soap, papergoods, cleaning supplies, good sturdy clothes including extra socks, underwear and extra shoes and boots, a extra couple changes of oil and filters for your car, tools, things you buy everyday start buying two and put one up.
As the LDS say “When the emergency is upon us the time for preparedness has past.”

Or as the bible says: A prudent man sees danger and takes refuge, but the simple keep going and suffer for it.
NIV Proverbs 22:3

“There is no greater disaster than to underestimate danger.
Underestimation can be fatal.”

[Marcella]

ping

[Carriage Hill]

First time PhotoBucket use; testing HTML tags:

[Marcella]

ping

[bgill]

The evil that resides in the WH will be giving the nation the business far and above any Mrs GBC could give on left hand turns. That evil is what we should be preparing for. Prepare for many more days like today between now and January. Prepare for day after day after day of this if he wins.

[running_dog_lackey]

Your tp to food ratio seems low.

[bgill]

The weekly grocery ads are pages short this week and there is nothing really on sale. In fact, they’re running a whole page of “Everyday Prices” which sets off red lights that we’re looking at a huge jack up of prices any day.

[Carriage Hill]

You’re right. Those are Scott 20-roll (1,000 sheet/roll) packs and I only have 6 of them so far. So, unless I use the “Sheryl Crow Method” (heh), I’m way short. I’ll be picking-up another 6 20-roll packs this Sunday trip, and another 6 every week, until I fill-up the top tiers.

I plan to fill-up the top-tier shelves w/ 20-roll packs, 4 on bottom, dbl-stacked = 160 rolls per shelf top x 6 shelves. The PTs are 16-roll packs. 2 shelves of PTs, 3 16-roll packs x 2 shelves.

I have 10 more shelf units to set-up to store 360,000+ rounds of ammo, for 8 calibers, on the lower 4 of 5 shelves. More TP and PT on those shelves top tiers, too.

We also have a 40’x20’ underground “Safe Unit” w/ 3’ below deck storage, but this is the Farm’s basement “staging area”.

Visualize 2x this size’s width (scroll down for mfgr pics):

http://www.atlassurvivalshelters.com/aboutus/nbc/shipping/

[E. Pluribus Unum]

I do the same thing. There is grocery store next to where I work. Everybody tries to go in and out from the main drag. All you have to do is use either of the side streets to get in or out and you don’t have to mess with crossing traffic. It’s FASTER to turn onto one of the side streets.

[Carriage Hill]

You’re spot on; no coupons in the papers, but the local Giant and Weis do have many in-store/shelf 5-for, 10-for specials, so I stock-up on those, bigtime. I withdrew a lot of $ from bank today in 5s, 10s & 20s. Plus, I have 500+ rolls of nickels, dimes and quarters, in large ammo cans. SHTF is coming sooner than many realize.

[Chickensoup]

I am not sure but I think that all cameras in cell phones have a dohicky that encodes location and date of the photo which can be decoded by people with the right software. Sort of like secret directions to the store.