I absolutely FEEL this video! My story has been very similar, just on a slightly longer timeline. In the 80's I was in Boy Scouts, which got me very interested in wilderness survival and emergency preparedness. Following 9/11 and Hurricane Katrina I got really into actual survivalism and spent several hours every day on an internet forum (remember those?) packed full of everything from bug out bags to nuclear prepping, from military tactics to conspiracy theories. It was only by the grace of my circumstances that I wasn't able to afford to go completely nuts about it, financially. Thank goodness for that! And one day I just sat back after 4 hours of conversation with people I didn't know about the scariest possible situations in the world and thought to myself, "I'm spending so much time prepping for awful things that might or might not ever happen that I'm not living the life I currently have!" So I logged off, ditched the worries and spent many years entirely outside those circles. In truth, I went a little too far the other way. In the last couple years I've lost both of my parents and my inheritance has allowed me to buy my own townhouse outright. And now I'm able to actually afford to make *reasonable* preparations, keeping them in my basement utility room that doesn't have a window I need to fill in. 🙂 I'm still moving in and getting the furniture I need, but I've also included things like a rack for water cooler 5 gallon jugs and many of the things you've mentioned in your videos that I've watched. And now (by searching UA-cam for "liberal prepper") I've found your channel, which is so much better and healthier than practically every other prepping channel out there. So thank you for that. I will thoroughly enjoy watching my way through your video library and really look forward to everything you share with us in the future!
I agree with this thought process. I prep for emergencies, but I still have fun, hobbies and adventures. I was actually painting rocks to make a mosaic while listening to your video.
I’m not aiming for self sufficient, I’m aiming for a level of resiliency on our farm to the point that my young kids won’t even know when the next “thing” happens Basically, I want to live a life that’s very well insulated from outside events. Not avoiding them, but actually enjoying and relishing in the lifestyle we’ve already created.
Thanks for this video, Bruckie. To be honest I initially cringed at the title because I have had similar comments made to me in a very negative tone. The context was different and I don't at all think your attitude is like theirs! I agree it is very important to find joy in life and not put the actual living of life as a someday future goal. But I think a caveat is important: Our pleasures in life should be within the bounds of not doing harm as much as possible and not worsening current and future disasters. I think part of responsible prepping is also doing what we can *right now* to reduce the harms we may be causing as part of a capitalist society. We succumb to fatalism if we treat the things we are prepping for as entirely out of our control. Basically, I just want to emphasize that part of the community aspect of prepping is taking responsibility for how we live before disaster hits and ensuring we are not making what inevitably comes even worse for ourselves and everyone than it needs to be. This is wider than just making sure we have enough food stores to share when the food runs out; it means we have to look at the whole system we are part of and whether we can change it so that doesn't happen. I think we can do a lot more than we realize! Maybe some folks won't see this as prepping but I think these things are inseparably linked. Would love to hear your responses!
For example, sure we can't stop every storm, but we have collectively and individually made choices that affect the weather and we can still make choices that make an overall difference in the weather to come. We can't stop a pandemic, but we can certainly take measures to stop spreading it ourselves and we can advocate for better clean air regulations, etc. We can't prevent all wars, but if we live in a democratic nation we can vote and we have collective power as citizens to affect government policies through protesting, lobbying, etc.
I absolutely FEEL this video! My story has been very similar, just on a slightly longer timeline.
In the 80's I was in Boy Scouts, which got me very interested in wilderness survival and emergency preparedness.
Following 9/11 and Hurricane Katrina I got really into actual survivalism and spent several hours every day on an internet forum (remember those?) packed full of everything from bug out bags to nuclear prepping, from military tactics to conspiracy theories. It was only by the grace of my circumstances that I wasn't able to afford to go completely nuts about it, financially. Thank goodness for that!
And one day I just sat back after 4 hours of conversation with people I didn't know about the scariest possible situations in the world and thought to myself, "I'm spending so much time prepping for awful things that might or might not ever happen that I'm not living the life I currently have!"
So I logged off, ditched the worries and spent many years entirely outside those circles. In truth, I went a little too far the other way.
In the last couple years I've lost both of my parents and my inheritance has allowed me to buy my own townhouse outright. And now I'm able to actually afford to make *reasonable* preparations, keeping them in my basement utility room that doesn't have a window I need to fill in. 🙂 I'm still moving in and getting the furniture I need, but I've also included things like a rack for water cooler 5 gallon jugs and many of the things you've mentioned in your videos that I've watched.
And now (by searching UA-cam for "liberal prepper") I've found your channel, which is so much better and healthier than practically every other prepping channel out there. So thank you for that. I will thoroughly enjoy watching my way through your video library and really look forward to everything you share with us in the future!
Absolutely, all this
I agree with this thought process. I prep for emergencies, but I still have fun, hobbies and adventures. I was actually painting rocks to make a mosaic while listening to your video.
I’m not aiming for self sufficient, I’m aiming for a level of resiliency on our farm to the point that my young kids won’t even know when the next “thing” happens
Basically, I want to live a life that’s very well insulated from outside events. Not avoiding them, but actually enjoying and relishing in the lifestyle we’ve already created.
Thanks for this video, Bruckie. To be honest I initially cringed at the title because I have had similar comments made to me in a very negative tone. The context was different and I don't at all think your attitude is like theirs! I agree it is very important to find joy in life and not put the actual living of life as a someday future goal.
But I think a caveat is important: Our pleasures in life should be within the bounds of not doing harm as much as possible and not worsening current and future disasters.
I think part of responsible prepping is also doing what we can *right now* to reduce the harms we may be causing as part of a capitalist society. We succumb to fatalism if we treat the things we are prepping for as entirely out of our control.
Basically, I just want to emphasize that part of the community aspect of prepping is taking responsibility for how we live before disaster hits and ensuring we are not making what inevitably comes even worse for ourselves and everyone than it needs to be. This is wider than just making sure we have enough food stores to share when the food runs out; it means we have to look at the whole system we are part of and whether we can change it so that doesn't happen. I think we can do a lot more than we realize! Maybe some folks won't see this as prepping but I think these things are inseparably linked. Would love to hear your responses!
For example, sure we can't stop every storm, but we have collectively and individually made choices that affect the weather and we can still make choices that make an overall difference in the weather to come. We can't stop a pandemic, but we can certainly take measures to stop spreading it ourselves and we can advocate for better clean air regulations, etc. We can't prevent all wars, but if we live in a democratic nation we can vote and we have collective power as citizens to affect government policies through protesting, lobbying, etc.