It’s been over 21 years since I realized that not all is right in the world. The ice storm that knocked out power in eastern Canada for days for most and weeks for some was a wakeup call that really hit home. Unfortunately, I spent the next 10 years or so spinning my wheels in my preparedness planning. The reason for that was the abundance of information available at the time. I spent countless hours researching online, at public libraries, and evaluating everything.
I realize now that it was the worst time to become a prepper. The prepper movement was really ramping up at the time. There certainly was no shortage of reading material to review. It was a time that everyone and their crazy uncle had something to say. The problem was that it was mostly regurgitation of someone else’s thoughts. Bad advice was being circulated in prepper circles like a zombie virus taking over a city. Few people, if any were actually verifying the information that was simply copied and pasted onto various forums, blogs, facebook pages and other sources of information.
Perhaps you were once duped into some if this bad prepper advice. Don’t feel bad, it’s all part of the learning cycle that many of us have navigated, myself included. How many new preppers started stockpiling precious metals for trade purposes after SHTF? Perhaps some went out and built a ceramic flower pot heater and bought thousands of tea candles to power them. All this because someone regurgitated some really bad advice.
Today’s new prepper has a great advantage over us that started 10 or 20 years ago. These days preppers are thinking for themselves. Many have asked themselves “would I part with my precious supplies for some silver coins?” or “how can these tealight candle possible heat anything bigger than a tiny closet?”.
Today’s prepper has realized that practicing with their gear and gadgets reveals weaknesses and strengths. When asked about certain topics, more and more preppers are replying with a sentence that starts with “I tried that once and…” instead of “I read somewhere that…”.
The new prepper has a serious advantage today over those that started 10 or 20 years ago. The junk advice has been exposed, the useless gadgets disproven, and the silly conspiracy theorists are being rebuked by the prepper community at large.
It’s never been a better time to become a prepper!
