Prepper Values Are Rooted in the Great Depression

Every family still has some oldsters who lived through the Great Depression.  Stories about hard times are passed to later generations.  Many hard-won values still linger in today’s profligate world, but are ridiculed as old-fashioned, no longer relevant in a society with the “world’s highest standard of living,” as the iconic photo’s billboard also ironically proclaims.  Back then, there was no bailout once mistakes were made.  If available, charity was saved for those who had already exhausted all reserves of self-reliance and dignity.

      The year 1933 brought forth leaders who were desperate to rescue their stricken nations with socialistic schemes.  Comfortable middle-class people in Europe knew how lives could be made even grimmer during the decade and into the next.  A woman from 1945 Berlin who hid while the Soviet Army ravaged the city recently recalled her mother’s chilling warning in the starving weeks afterwards: “Never trade our valuables for any meat.” Why?  Human tissue was being traded without disclosure.

       Governments may be seized by foreign forces—or captured legally from within.  My last two posts suggest how millions of migrants invading Europe will push the ethnic populations to cultural extinction.  The same social dynamic is happening across the Atlantic.  Mainstream media and establishment political machines are confident that they can smother upstarts like Trump and Cruz.  Early dissent is always welcomed so long as it can be later defeated by vested power brokers.

      The novel Patriot Dawn is set in a futuristic America where civil war breaks out when the government bubble falls apart, going well beyond prepper tactics to provide a how-to manual for armed insurgents: “When tyranny consumes America some will stand and fight” as “the Resistance rises.”

      Preppers today don’t pooh-pooh away the idea that national catastrophe may be just around the corner.  Survivalism remains a growth industry throughout the West.  Grids and networks and food supplies may end abruptly, resulting in social chaos and anarchy.  Choose propane, not natural gas.  Have a private well, not city water.  Live on the outskirts.

     Unlike Patriot Dawn, being a prepper or survivalist is largely seen as an individual’s response to chaos.   This is why another writer lists by number “12 Bad Strategies That Will Get Preppers Killed” to help avoid misconceptions.  Who knows, perhaps old grandpa may be culled for neglected wisdom.