Aside from the obvious reason like not advertising my intentions, there are other things at play too….
Do we now believe that our national power grid is in better shape than it was two years ago? NO; the physical components of the grid are way past their expected life span and NO software program on this planet can fix a hardware issue!
Do we now believe that reliance on government agencies to take care of us in times of disaster is a good plan? NO; these ‘government agencies’ are not really ‘taking care’ of us during disasters, unless you count a Band-Aid as taking care of. Hurricane Sandy should be a good reminder of just how these agencies take care of us. Do they offer some ‘useful assistance’, YES, however even these ‘government agencies’ tell us we need to be prepared to take care of ourselves for 3-5 days.
Do we think that the food in supermarkets is safer to eat and a dependable source for our dinner table? NO! I am a long time ‘health food’ or ‘organic’ consumer, mostly because of some really intense allergies. Then there is the fact that when you look at historical statistics (that have at least some quantifiers like ‘per 100,000’) we can see that ADD, ADHD, cancer, birth defects, various food intolerances (gluten and lactose especially) are on the rise in the overall population. And that is on top of the fact that the U.S. no longer carries the title of ‘healthiest’ and ‘longest life span’ nation.
I would also add that our medications are questionable since our government is under the influence of corporation,s that donate millions of dollars to political campaigns and hence ‘own’ said candidates if they get elected (federal corporatism).
Do we think public schools under Common Core are now paragons of education? NO, Common Core is an offshoot of the ‘No Child Left Behind’ program that was started back in the 1980’s and according to the federal department of education, ‘shown no significant increase in literacy’. Or if one gets their hands on an old public education text book on US History, you can see that history has 'changed' since the federal government took over. This is on top of the fact that one can go out to the US Patent web site and see that the number of patent filings have reduced drastically since the 1960’s and are continuing to fall. This means that our ingenuity and inventiveness skills are decreasing, not increasing. All signs of not only a poor education system, but of a lack of individual self-reliance and self-responsibility too.
Do we believe that our legislators are competent and work tirelessly to ensure our freedoms are maintained? NO, since the mid 1800’s the legislative branch (along with the executive and judicial branches) of our government has been taken over by lawyers that are ‘career politicians’ and not the everyday day person, Statesman, acting as a representative guardian of their constituents wellbeing and interests. We now have a federal dictatorship government ‘of the Democrats & Republicans, for the Democrats & Republicans, by the Democrats & Republicans’. Our tax dollars now pay for; political party internal functions such as determining who is their top candidate (primaries) and national conventions; lobby organizations, special interest groups and unions receive tax dollars too. That’s right, these entities receive millions of tax dollars per year! I don’t know about you, but I can think of quite a few other programs that deserve that money.
Do we feel our world is now a safer place with scanners at airports, cameras on every street corner, surveillance through all our electronic devices, and drones patrolling overhead? NO not with all of this under the leadership of the first ever government entity that can bypass the Executive, Legislative and Judicial ‘check and balance’ branches of our government under the guise of a “perceived immediate threat to U.S. National Security” – IE: The Patriot Act and Homeland Security.
Although the fact remains that the most likely crisis, disaster, emergency or hazard that any of us are likely to face in our lifetimes fall under the usual natural and the more personal (illness, injury, crime, financial) disasters, these all require an acceptance of personal responsibility for ourselves, our families and yes, our communities.
This responsibility has historically been the ‘norm’ for U.S. Citizens until the advent of our Federal Dictatorship. The US would have never beaten the most powerful army in the world to become its own nation, would never have expanded west and would not have half the ‘inventions’ or conveniences that we take for granted today, if the average citizen did not take on responsibility for themselves before looking elsewhere.
Bottom line: All of us Preppers are still here, doing our thing - quietly, under the radar and behind the scenes. Oh you might here about some of us here and there when we help a community in crisis (like A.N.T.S. Americans Networking to Survive, Baptist Relief, Red Cross). Other than that we do not need ’15 minutes of fame’ or a ‘pat on the back’ to feel good about ourselves or to prove our worth to our community and country.
Prep On ;-}
TNT