No…and yes.
I get this question all the time. Like many who feel as I do, being prepared is just being a responsible adult. As the head of my household it is my responsibility to maintain the safety and well being of my family. I work to earn an income to pay for things like a nice place to live, food, clothing, vacations, etc. But I also lock my doors because it would be irresponsible otherwise. I don’t let the kids play with knives or matches because that would be irresponsible.
I believe that it is also my responsibility to make sure that my family always has something to eat, and clean water to drink. If government officials decide that they want to cover up and deny that the local water is poison then the responsibility is still on me to provide that clean water. I will not simply lay down and die because when I turn on my faucet poison comes out; I will do what is necessary to ensure that no one in my family goes thirsty. Having a supply of long term water storage is one of the most important things I can do to protect my family.
Luckily, where I live the water is fresh, but who knows what tomorrow will bring. The cost to hold on to and maintain the water storage is so minimal that it truly surprises me that more people don’t do it.
I believe that the same argument can be made for food, fuel, clothing and security. Granted if you were to go out and purchase all these things tomorrow, it would be expensive, but building up slowly over time is a very cost effective way to protect yourself and your family. Most people when they ask you if you are a “Doomsday Prepper” are really asking if you are a hoarder or crazy person that thinks the world is going to end at any moment and they assume that I have a secret bunker and live in a constant state of fear and paranoia. I do not live in fear. In fact quite the opposite. I have prepared my house and my family for every needful thing, and I cannot tell you just how well I sleep at night.
Of course when people talk about “Doomsday” they usually speak of things like EMP, economic collapse, martial law, riots, nuclear war… any scenario where it is the end of civilization as we know it.
Yes, sure… I agree.
These things are possible and some of them maybe even likely. The truth of the matter is that here in the United States we are fairly protected, but in other parts of the world doomsday has already or is currently happening. Governments using weapons on their own people, roving bands of murdering thugs beheading and raping wherever they go, little or no food, water, constantly living in fear, starvation, disease… How naive would I have to be to believe that those things aren’t possible here? They have before. What about a more personal and private doomsday? Losing a job in a down economy, being evicted from your home, becoming injured, your union goes on strike… these are things that are happening now and probably to people you know. I choose to prepare for all manor of doomsday both large and small because anything can happen and because I am a responsible adult.
So if you don’t ‘prep’ am I calling you irresponsible? Well… yes. Just like I would call you irresponsible for not locking your doors, for not feeding your children, for not paying your bills… because I believe that all these things are on the same level. You don’t need to have everything in place right now, you just need to be doing something about it.
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