Are Preppers responsible for the unprepared?

World Net Daily ^ | 12-8-12 | Patrice Lewis

[dynachrome]

Last week on the website Emergency Management, there appeared a blog post written by an emergency manager named Valerie Lucus-McEwen in which she made a grave error in judgment. She called doomsday preppers “socially selfish.”

She based this startling conclusion on the National Geographic’s “The Doomsday Prepper” series and concluded that because the people featured in this show were spending their OWN time and their OWN money to stockpile their OWN resources in order to prepare their OWN families for whatever disastrous scenario they foresaw, they are selfish. Specifically, as another emergency manager phrased it, this is “a level of indulgence that is selfish and counter-productive to providing for the common good.”

snip

I, along with many in the prepping community, found this attitude disturbing to the point of creepy. It was exacerbated by the follow-up comments as she replied to reader questions. “It really doesn’t matter how much food you have or what you buy with your money,” she writes in a comment. “The tipping point is how you use it. … Is it something you are planning to hoard or are you working in your community to make sure everyone else is prepared also. I’m not sure how else to say it.”

[goodwithagun]

No! Also I have not donated to hurricane Sandy relief, nor have I given money to other charitable orgs. I give my usual tithe on Sunday and that is it. I haven’t even taken tags off of our church’s giving tree. I’m not holding a grudge, I’m simply holding those people to the standards they’ve voted for.

[greeneyes]

Well she’s wrong on so many levels. Preppers are helping the community. Every prepper is one less person/family the community has to worry about helping for the common good.

Everyone has the ability and choice to prep for whatever emergency they think is likely.

The Lord helps those who help themselves(and not to your stuff).

Charity begins at home.

Consider the story of the Little Red Hen, and/or the ant and the grasshopper.

Now if the Little Red Hen or the ant wants to help the lazy takers and the ant wants to help the grasshopper they can, but not to the detriment of their own family.

It would be well though, if you have neighbors that aren’t preparing and can’t be convinced to prepare, if you decided now what you will do.

If you do not want to shoot them, then you had better put some stuff by for them too. JMHO.

[dynachrome]

Donating lead to the unprepared? (haha)

[Eye of Unk]

Survival of the fittest, the strong the prepared.

The communist herd will have to either get rid of their idiotic herders so they can forage where the grass is gree, or they will die.

The bottom line is this, America is being invaded by a consuming flesh disease, its called communism.

And that disease wants nourishment so it can consume the body.

Let it starve so the body will survive.

[Chode]

kinda like the writer mutt that was whining about how unfair it is that some have generators after Sandy went through...

[Paladin2]

The prepers can include a stash of pocket Constitutions and brochures on how to survive w/o gov't in their stash to hand out to those who are unprepared.

Those who weree against the Boy Scouts can be shot in the butt.

[AUTiger83]

She is so completely wrong . . . Preppers are the most GENEROUS to the completely unprepared. How, you ask?

1. We generously fund FEMA through the outrageous taxes we pay.

2. We will use our own supplies, rather than use FEMA aid, thereby ensuring more people can be helped.

How much more selfless can preppers be?

[2ndDivisionVet]

Some are too poor to do much of anything, though.

[50mm]

I’ve been told it’s foolish to think you can repel ALL the zombies. That’s not what I’m after. I just want to punish as many as possible of the ones responsible for the coming collapse. I’ll die with a smile on my face. /fantasy

[FlingWingFlyer]

November 6, 2012 taught me one thing. Worry about yourself and your family. Screw everyone else. Barry says he has their back. He can worry about them. Maybe he’ll fly over in a FEMA helicopter to do a photo op while they are starving to death.

[rlmorel]

You are fortunate, though, in that your environment (which I guess at from some dialogue we have had) is conducive to it.

You live in a small, rural town where a lot of people know each other, and I think that would make a big difference for the better.

I think the premise that "Preppers" are selfish is completely a product of modern liberalism. I have a lot of respect for many preppers, who I see as simply being responsible, not selfish. Gosh no.

I think preppers have the same mindset when it comes to money and living within their means, for the most part, and if the rest of America had conducted themselves in the same manner for the last forty years, we wouldn't be in a situation where responsible people have to consider what is going to happen when gasoline, food and water disappear along with law and order.

I hate it, and I just realized why last night.

I would classify myself a a very low order prepper, just doing things like buying equipment with an eye towards ruggedness, functionality and portability, and keeping it available and in good shape.

I just bought a camp stove, and I found myself thinking "Okay...the ones with the little propane canisters are nice and convenient, but...how about the one that can run on both that and coleman fuel. Or better, this one that can use gasoline, diesel, jet fuel or kerosene? Hm. Just do away with the stupid canisters, I won't be able to get them anyway when..."

When what? When everything goes to Hell? And that mindset had metastasized into nearly everything I do.

And I hated to realize that I take for granted with surety that it is coming, I don't even question it. That just sucks.

I live in New England. Except for the politics, I love this area. It is beautiful, historic and interesting. It has mountains, oceans, lakes and cities all within easy driving distance. It's great. But this is not where I want to be when everything goes down, but...I don't have much choice.

I love my wife. But she isn't leaving. She doesn't see things the way I do, so she isn't leaving. This is her home, she has never lived anywhere else. So I am staying. Because she is my wife. I will just do the best I can, come what may.

But if I weren't married to her, I would be long gone already.

I admit, cripplecreek, I do envy you somewhat. You guys sound like the kind of people who could band together and build a fort of logs in the woods, and not choke each other to death in the process.

[Josa]

The same argument could be made that if she is saving any of her money for personal pleasure and not using it to help others, she is being selfish.

[bgill]

Incidentally, Ms. Lucus-McEwen admits that she herself wouldn’t make it more than a week or two without outside assistance

That right there should have earned her a pink slip. Though not under this administration. You can bet they're taking names of every prepper post out there/in here in cyber space so they'll know who's door to knock down to spread the wealth.

[concerned about politics]

Is it something you are planning to hoard or are you working in your community to make sure everyone else is prepared also. I’m not sure how else to say it.”

It's not my job to do all the work for them while they play. Maybe they should be doing something to help themselves rather than goofing off - d'ya think?.

It's not like they haven't been warned. So, we did our part. If they chose not to take our advice - offered for free, BTW - what else can we do? If that's their deathstyle choice, who are we to judge?

No. We're not prepping for anyone else. We still don't have enough for ourselves yet.
It must really suck to be them. Too bad they didn't prepare for themselves like everyone else, right?

[Hound of the Baskervilles]

Barack Obama is responsible for the unprepared.

[Kirkwood]

The first rule of emergency management is to take care of yourself. Seems she has a lot to learn.

[cripplecreek]

I admit, cripplecreek, I do envy you somewhat. You guys sound like the kind of people who could band together and build a fort of logs in the woods, and not choke each other to death in the process.

Its a true small town thing and I don't mean a town of 5 or 10 thousand. I grew up in a town of around 300 people and live in one half as big now. People here trust each other and relationships have grown over the years.

We don't lock our doors partly because we trust each other and partly because we watch out for each other. Lots of elderly people here and they often need help for little things like climbing up on a ladder to change a lightbulb.

[Kickass Conservative]

They should make Valerie watch the old Twilight Zone about the guy who built a Bomb Shelter for his Family.

All his Neighbors thought it was silly until the day they thought the Ruskies were going to attack.

[Eye of Unk]

The Obama mindset culture is first off he has the stash and the cash to feed them.

And that preppers are just the same as the rich, and the rich are being taxed.

I suggest every single prepper out there do a 180 degree swing on the internet from now on and start posting complaints they must hunt down preppers so they can survive because they failed to prep.

Seriously we should all wear prepper camo, start complaining about lack of prepping materials because of no income, flood the internet with rage against the economy because it would not allow you to stockpile.