Prep or drown?

Yesterday I read about an upcoming programme at Discovery Channel: Doomsday Preppers. It’s about people that fear the worst and also prepare (prep) to the extreme for that: living in houses with shipping containers as a core, piling up huge amounts of foods and water, being self-reliable in terms of electricity, military drills for self-protection...

It’s interesting to think about how the people featuring in the documentary see risks of possible (but to them, certain) disasters. They are sure that something will happen, even if they don’t know when exactly the volcano eruption or financial crisis will hit. That’s a solid enough basis to entirely design and live their lives, prepared for the worst. The lesson is that too much risk awareness is also not such a good thing - and that not only extreme carelessness (‘I can’t believe you live in a flood plain/under sea level’) but also extreme preparedness exist.

Does it not come to mind, that if preppers are the only (few) ones so well prepared and with lots of resources, it is also most likely that other, less prepared people, will eventually find them and won’t knock on the door friendly, to ask for a cup of soup? Don’t try to survive by yourself, but try to survive with your community!

I’m going to check out at least one episode – for those of you more interested in movies on similar themes, The Road is a good choice!