Our Little Secret

Do you feel like you have to hide your preparedness efforts? Are you afraid of ridicule from friends and family? Are you paranoid that someone will want your preparedness? Do you find it prudent to keep your plans under wraps? Should you tell anyone of your plans? Do you feel like you have to take your first steps into preparedness?

If you answered yes to any of these, I am with you. Certain government agencies profess preparedness, be ready, and so on, yet there is an element of group shame in it, strange confidence that everything is going to be OK, though every summer the tornadoes come through, the heatwave, the snow.

You should not act too much on those feelings, it is prudent to have a conservative approach to voicing your preparedness plans.

[perfectpullquote align=”full” bordertop=”false” cite=”Frank Herbert in Dune” link=”” color=”” class=”” size=””]A beginning is the time for taking the most delicate care that the balances are correct[/perfectpullquote]

Start somewhere

On your way to realizing your preparedness plans, you have no reason to advertise. You can remind anyone you want of the usual emergencies that affect your area, maybe hint that your friend or family should have some insurance against these. “Do you have a flashlight and some batteries?“

Being ridiculed, Noah-like can be attributed to someone’s lack of preparedness though they know they should have ‘something’ or an unfortunate case of normalcy bias. There is nothing you can do or should do in this case, you don’t have to evangelize preparedness as I am (unless you want to), but I am doing this as a business and that is the purpose of the business. You are also, probably, not a shrink and can’t help those who feel like what you’re doing is a waste, unreasonable, or foolish.

Your job, in this case, is to continue with your plans, don’t allow anyone’s opinions of what you are doing stop you, you might reevaluate, but when it counts, being prepared is better than the alternatives.

The Psychological Looter

Paranoia will ruin your plans, period. You aren’t living in Mad Max or The Road, God forbid we get there, The guy selling fruit at the corner is not looking at everything you do and what you are squirreling away.

You should not put a “Food and batteries here” billboard outside your apartment, that’s common sense. Paranoia is thinking that someone is trying to look through your window for the location of those batteries. Or you may just have a pervert for a neighbor.

Loose Lips…

Keeping it hush has major advantages, one of them being security. If a snowstorm is your major concern your plan of having extra comforters around may not be a secret.

If you are in a powder keg location and are constantly thinking, “what happens when the next race-related flare-up happens?” then we are talking about plans that are more than just extra comforters. Anything you have planned to avoid or escape unfortunate, but dangerous, events like those in Ferguson, MO in 2014 and 2015 fall under what the US Military calls Operations Security (OPSEC).

In this case, your plans are your operation, and the security is keeping quiet about them!

The Voice of Reason

In Conclusion, you are who has to keep your plans private or public, the risks or rewards are yours. You may have to tell your family and friends and that might be private enough for you. Or you may have to keep your community prepared for an emergency.

Any choice you make will impact your approach to preparedness. Always choose wisely to improve the chances of your plan working out.