What If SHTF Never Happens?
Dr. John Woods 04.26.18
Are you a betting person? What would the odds be of a catastrophic natural disaster happening near enough to where you live to destroy all you have or at the very least drive you out of your comfortable domicile? What about a meltdown of that nuclear power plant you did not even know was within 100 miles of home? Economic collapse with rioting in the streets, or a wholesale terrorist attack in your state? Could happen–might not ever happen.
It is a given that the entire focus of prepping is being able to survive virtually any disaster. To be able to sustain life at some level after the event occurs. We go through all the development processes to prepare. We sit down to do a lot of planning. We make a lot of notes even to the point of filling notebooks with list after list of things to do.
As the planning processes proceed, we begin to implement various stages of our plans. Everybody tackles this differently with their own set of priorities. Many start by concentrating on the security aspects of personal defense safety and/or property security, specifically the safety of their primary residence. If they elect to create a possible Bug Out location, then they plan the same for that. Priorities are a personal thing.
Many others work to target amassing the essentials of living during tough SHTF conditions. First, this usually means the most important stocks of water, food, medicine, fuels, survival gear, tools, and even long term goods such as obtaining a consistent source of water via a water well, water collection options and a more reliable source of food by gardening however minimal or extensive.
Once immediate needs are taken care of with a system in place then a prepper can begin to concentrate on longer term survival. The tough part here is that nobody can really predict how long a SHTF might last. A hurricane, tornado, or massive fires are terrible, destructive events, but they tend to be short term if the local, state, and federal governments step in to help to supply goods and services. We survive those, eventually.
But, what if none of the most severe long term disasters never happens? Have we wasted our time and money preparing for the eventuality of something that may never occur? Prepping and survival is a high risk business. How realistic is it to sit around and do nothing? Are you willing to roll those dice?
