Preparations

As in for Disaster Day, The Day After, SHTF, TEOTWAWKI, etc. Getting ready for emergencies natural or manmade. And, the particular subject of this, why so damn many people won't do ANYTHING toward it.

Kim just had a post on the subject with a guy relating the shitstorm he ran into for daring to say I stated, as you suggested, that I would *NOT* help them in an emergency unless they first took measures to help themselves. Basically was called everything from heartless to uncaring to genocidal, etc. All the things that you can be called for telling someone you ain't their emergency service, so they need to worry about taking care of their own precious ass.

Kim's reaction to this was about what you'd expect(What a bunch of dicks.). Og has his own thoughts here. It's really a fascinating thing to read of how these people don't want to take any preparations for themselves, and expect to show up at the home of someone who HAS prepared and be taken care of. And then, among other things, threaten to report the prepared guy to the police for 'hoarding'.

I'll leave the serious lectures to Og & Kim, they being better with words than I. I'll throw in something else as to possibly 'Why?'

They don't want to admit that there COULD be a problem that would require serious action.

In one of the Flashman books, Harry Flashman is getting ready for a journey. He opens the case and considers the pair of dueling pistol within. He tells how beautifully made they are, the finest product of a master gunsmith. Accurate. And he tries to talk himself out of packing them. But at least he's honest about why; "Because if I packed them, I would be admitting that I might need them". Which, I would submit, is one of the big reasons those people- especially the women- went absolutely bugfuck on the guy. He just told them that if there were a real disaster, they'd better have made preparations, and they didn't want to have to consider that. At all. Period. No question in my mind that there's a large amount of 'The government/someone else is supposed to take care of us', but that, I think, is also a part of this: they're using that as another key to not thinking about the potential problems.

Hell, look at Katrina, before and after it hit land, from the people who wouldn't evacuate to those who wouldn't prepare to that idiot Nagin actually turning down offers to take people out of the city to those sitting around afterward bitching that "The gummint's RACIST/UNCARING(fill in the blank) or they'd be taking care of us!" And all the excuse-making: "These are poor people, they can't afford (fill in the blank), You Are Blaming The Victims!" and so on.

I'll put this fairly bluntly: for the most part(I recognize there are a few exceptions), if you can't get to the dollar store and buy a cheap flashlight and batteries(sometimes even a radio, and they're only $5 at Wally World), if you can't save some bottles for water and buy some canned goods well before the hurricane makes landfall, then screw you. Yes, it's nasty and heartless and so forth, but I'm sick to death of people taking no responsibility for themselves, and bitching and whining that someone isn't saving them fast enough/well enough/etc. Remember the bitch saying "You expect us to eat this?" and throwing down the MRE? Food good enough to keep a fighting man going, but not good enough for her tender palate. My thought, then and now, was "Then starve, you idiot". Still is.

So you've got two big factors, the "Someone else is supposed to take care of me" mindset and the "I don't want to admit this could happen" mindset. Gonna get a lot of people killed. Has before, and will again.

If you're wondering, I'm not satisfied with my own preparations yet. I need to take Doc Russia's list and get a proper first-aid kit put together, not just the assorted meds/bandages/etc. in the house. I need to put more water in storage on a rotating basis, and some more emergency food in easy-to-grab-and-go form. And a particular set of firearms/ammo/knife for bugout duty.

I'll throw in, since the subject of Kim's post was in Washington, I especially find in amazing that they didn't want to prepare. They get earthquakes and severe storms even if you discount the potential of terrorist attack. They just recently had a combination of high winds and heavy rain that caused all kinds of problems, just to remind them. And yet...