Normies secretly know they're living an unsustainable life
I almost never talk about preparedness with people in any kind of a direct way. Most people who are not into prepping just don’t get it, and unfortunately having more than 3 days of food is “crazy” to a large segment of the population.
But, living in a rural place off the grid, it inevitably comes up that we produce our own electricity with solar panels, harvest rainwater, burn wood for heat, and, if needed, could hunt for sustenance. Most of the time this is just a curiosity to normies and people living in cities, but, every now and then, something interesting happens.
Whenever there’s a news story of some impending danger or disaster, or sometimes even just when discussing disasters in fiction (such as one of the never-ending stream of zombie apocalypse movies), almost in unison people will say things like:
“Well I’m glad we know someone who lives off-grid on a homestead, if something happens, we’ll just come to you!”
I kid you not, I hear this at least once a month from somebody.
When the news started to be abuzz with drones and possible aliens around New Jersey, my coworkers said, almost in unison, “Hey, you should send us your address so we know where to come if the aliens invade!”. They laughed, I laughed, but I knew that a part of them was serious.
A month ago I was talking to a guy I bought some firewood from, and he casually invited himself to my homestead if “things ever go to crap”.
We have friends who, right before the election, said, “If things turn violent and there’s civil unrest, can we come camp out at your property?”
Personally, I don’t mind. I don’t see regular people as the enemy. The way I see it, the more, the merrier. In a serious, prolonged, wide-scale disaster scenario, you’re going to want all the help you can get. More people means more work getting done, more firewood getting cut, more food getting grown. I don’t see people as a burden, I see people as community, and I’m happy to help to the extent that I don’t endanger my own family’s survival.
That’s why I store extra tents, sleeping bags, blankets, and mattresses. If friends, family, or neighbors had to crash at our place for a while, we’d have them covered.
But I think this trend of people inviting themselves over to preppers’ homes is interesting, because it comes from people across the political spectrum. Lefties, Trump supporters, libertarians. Anybody who isn’t already living off-grid on a homestead instinctively knows that their lifestyle is fundamentally unsustainable, that just-in-time deliveries are fragile, and that sooner or later supply chains will get disrupted again.
They know this deep down, even though they won’t admit to it, or, unfortunately too often, do anything to prepare themselves.
What do you think? Have you had people invite themselves to your property? Or are you perhaps planning to bug out to a relative’s homestead in a disaster scenario?
I've been chewing on a pretty hot take that a majority of the "normies" see what we see but they just choose different priorities. It's why you'll often hear them say "why do you get yourself down with all that stuff?" The point isn't that they disagree with observations, it's that they prioritize living well with how things are, rather than trying to resolve problems. This can be defensible if it truly is out of our hands, but my criticism would be that a lot more is within our power to fix than many people believe.
I don't have a pulse on people "inviting themselves" to other people's places, but at minimum I would find it rude without a pre-existing cooperative relationship.
Fantastic observation. I live on land in northern Michigan, and while I am not fully off the grid, I could stick in a woodstove, and a handpump and probably make it on fish and game and a garden in a pinch, going to enjoy the techno toys while they last. Anyway point is, is it looks like I may get a couple of sets of visitors this summer as well as family that comes up, many people I think know our system is brittle and on edge, a dying empire even, perhaps.