If It Works Well, It Is Ours, by Old Bobbert

I’m so glad you asked about dealing with these non-preppers. This is a great topic. As a general rule, a non-prepper, most of the time and in most circumstances, simply does not see a need for “our” quality, variety, and/or style of preparing for some potentially serious problem that will, in turn, have an unexpected negative influence in their personal lives. It’s all just vague to them. Or to put it another way, they have heard that sermon before and they ain’t buying it, not then, not now, and not tomorrow.

They are honest, generous, sincerely caring for others, like the ideal fellow prepper, with every aspect of good character and tremendous integrity. They are the great unwashed unprepared majority. Does their preparedness message radiate from every smile and twitch of their inquisitive observant eye and even their body language radiate their preparedness message to us? No! No! And again no. But they will be polite and courteous. If that is your only topic, please go away. And that’s true about most of the good ones– the nice folks.

A Tale: Something “Good” Became “Nothing”

Before we get any deeper into the topic, allow me to share a personal true tale about the very good people in our very small community of about 200 homes and a population of just over 500 hearty souls. Right about 12 years ago, we formed a terrific CERT (community emergency response team). It was well done by the book. I should know, the books and training materials are on the book shelves in my den. Then about five years ago, we had to admit to ourselves that the CERT team actually did not exist at that time. We asked ourselves what had caused the team and the town to no longer care. Did we do something wrong? No. We did our leadership parts quite well. We did almost everything and did it well indeed. It was determined that the collapse was caused by nothing.

Seven years of nothing but monthly rah rah meetings, semi-annual training exercises, and copies of a national news letters with nothing new, and nothing better. There was nothing that was educational, exciting, and nothing to brag about but just lots of nothing. We, as leaders, failed to satisfy our various member’s needs to be a real part of something bigger than themselves and give them someplace where their interests were couched. Everyone lost a lot.

Overcoming Good Folk’s Prepping “No” Switch

So what can we, as preppers who sincerely care about and want to help others, do to overcome obstacle within “good folks” who seemingly have an emotionally-driven and permanently turned-on “No” switch?

1. Stop being the preparedness pusher.
2. Stay ready to gently answer prepper questions, only if and when the “no” people ask on their own.
3. Stay ready to email positive stories, such as successful rescue stories and the people who made it possible.
4. Be ready to invite the “no” people to go with you to advertised sales at stores that sell prepper stuff plus lots of other items.
5. Stay ready to do volunteer prepper type work at any type of church, school, civil group; then, when you can, talk to your “no” people about helping with set up, serving, driving, or anything that can showcase prepper’s good hearted efforts.
6. Email to your “no” people, with attached Internet documents from major sources and trustworthy sources of interesting documentaries and old TV series or stories showing any interesting information and laughter about a slower, nicer, safer, more gentle lives, and life styles. Do not talk about how bad it is now or do any comparisons. Do none of that.
7. This a very important thing to always do, every time; never befriend and then dump the nice person who wanted to do prepper work with you. A friend is a friend, even when in disagreement.

The Not-So-Nice Non-Preppers

We all have met the others– the not so nice non-preppers and the anti-preppers. They’re “the too proud to hear any story that doesn’t see themselves in the starring role.” It seems we have to acknowledge the profane existence of the “what’s in it for me?” types. These “nons” are everywhere. We all know at least one, and generally we have only mentioned preparedness to them because that is the only topic we have that we think they don’t know. At the time it seemed very safe. We were wrong there. Oops. We sure missed on that call.

The “Un-Prepper”

Watch out for the unbeliever with big potential. The “un’s” as compared to the “nons” and the “anti’s”, or the more casual “tomorrow between 4 and 6 pm, please” types. They will innocently waste your time and degrade your positive attitude to the point that you will need the 12 steps of preparedness rejection recovery. So read Rawles’ big books. Go to prepper meetings. Don’t let the “anti’s” use you wrongly.

Yes, in our church, my wife and I do co-host the weekly (Wednesday evening at 7:50) 12 step addiction recovery meetings. We were asked to be leaders there and we said “yes”. Now we love it greatly. They know we are 25 year preppers. Actually, a lot of the recovery stuff and the prepper stuff are fully interchangeable. From a sound preparedness viewpoint, if it works well, it is good for us.

Then we have the big, big group of “nons”, the too “niceys”. They are the forever nice gentle slow moving, slow talking, too eager to smile, not too distant neighbor. Do not, I say again do not buy that slow facade. It is very likely they sincerely believe that you are just plain wrong. They seem to feel somehow obligated to look you right in your overzealous eye and talk very slow in short words so as to not offend your seeming preference for small words and ever so slow listening ability.

Being Right Doesn’t Make You Good (and Vice Versa)

Well now, listen up partner. They are wrong, and you are right! That’s probably today’s only good news about you. Yes, you are right, and perhaps even righteous in your desire to help others.

But your bad mouth taste of tired shoe leather is coming shortly. So how is that you ask? Preparedness is not on their agenda. It just ain’t there. Sorry about that fact of life.

This is just one of the missing facts of adult life that was omitted from your high school gender segregated personal health glasses. Sorry about that. But they don’t do prepper stuff.,

Here it is. Remember this simple fact of preparedness life. Just because they are wrong, and they are very wrong, it does not make them bad. Now for your personal bad news of your day. Ready or not, here it is. Just because you are right, and you definitely are very right, being right does not make you good. Not even a little bit of yesterday, not even an almost started today, and sincerely not even tomorrow, not even a one in a million chance for tomorrow does it make you good. And as is usually true when there is a visiting speaker speaking to the choir during rehearsal, there is always an opportunity to mess with the choir’s performance attitude. Of course, I am going to run out to the tippy tip end of the tree limb I am standing on and say this; I do know that you are the good guys (and girls). I am clearly stating for the record, being “good” has never ever made a good person who is wrong suddenly become right, so learn to live with it.

Improving Through Divine Help

A person who sees a need to improve himself or herself always has a fabulous set of character rebuilding tools available through divine help in changing lives for the better. I believe that help is never strictly owned by a single denominational group. Even non-church folks, who may be totally non-believers at least as far as I believe, can ask and receive that type of support and inspirational lift. I like James 1:5 a lot.

If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God, that giveth to all men liberally, and upbraideth not; and it shall be given him.

It is a message for everyone everywhere all of the time.

The Prepper Put Downers

And finally we have to acknowledge the pathetic existence of the awesome “prepper put downers”, the forever not nice “snickerers”. We have come to recognize them at 100 yards as easily as though they were attached to the target return pully at the ten yard prepper indoor pistol range. By the way, ten yards (30 feet) is about eleven feet larger than the average indoor/outdoor average “3 shots fired I missed and he lost”. At 19 feet, the snickerers are a difficult, mean-hearted situation looking for an honest prepper person opportunity they can quickly dominate so as to snicker at you when they think you are not listening or looking. Those people are everywhere.

I tried living away from all of them, but they were the sales clerks, the service technicians, and the “whatever I wanted to be busy doing official designated watchers”. There they were, watching me, while I am shopping. I can see them counting my selections from the clearance carts. Their eyebrows twitch every time I put the giant size of anything in my cart. They watch us. Their treatment to us just isn’t right. We have rights to our special bits of different types of knowledge. We do. Yes, I am sure that we do.

What Can We Do?

So, what can we do? Well, first ask what we can not do. That list is very short and more than very sad. And it’s totally undeniable. So I affirm with my left hand resting on a worn copy of JW Rawles’ newest nook book, of which I can’t remember the title, but it is a good one “for sure”, as they say in the very much too-near west coast. Here we go on Old Bobbert’s not going to work list:

1. We can not fix them.
2. You can not change them.
3. We can not teach them.

Avoid and Ignore the Snickerers

Remember that the snickerers are sort of useless in a SHTF situation, and we are sort of helpless to do anything good for them. So, just avoid and ignore them rather than commit apostasy from preparedness because of snickerer’s mean-spirited influences. And, as is always the general rule, there are always exceptions. No good deed ever goes unpunished.

We Can “Show and Tell” the Snickerers

What we can do is to do the kindergarten class learning skill referred to as today’s “show and tell”. Yes, we can teach by example! Then, by our confident body language, our powerful posture, our unending “I don’t care” appearance and our easy-to-spot “I don’t care” about non-believer stiff-chin projections, we do the single thing we can for them. We may cause them to want to change themselves. Yes, we can teach by example.

We want them to feel, down deep where they hide from prepper reality, that we are not worth even a few seconds of their valuable time and snickerering posturing. They must come to see, even at only a tiny glance, that we just live different and smell a little different. That new smell is probably my tic, flea, and mosquito “under arm” killer named Permethrin SFR. I’m expecting another gallon next week. It’s less expensive by the bigger size container.

I changed myself into someone they do not want to waste time on. I did it, and I know you can do it, too. First, I stopped referring to them as snickerers, even weeks ago.

Continuing with the snickerers sit-rep, I have successfully moved myself from giving them bad status to no status. None! They are simply not as worthy of my time as are the too nicey guys, the sheeple, and the slows, just to name the most common nice-guy others, who are by far the majority. Avoid the snickerers at all costs.

The “Cakers”

The Reese cuppers are okay, and the Costco cheese cakers are a delight to work with. Personally, I prefer to deal with the caker’s difficulties with my favorite large spoon in a bowl. I miss nothing this way. I have learned that when dealing with a caker with prepper language and insider jargon, I love ready whip and frosting. Finger painting pictures goes a long way to inner satisfaction, and the cakers are smiling when we come back for additional prepper high-end training. Still, we go slow and easy with the new folks’ enthusiasm and innocence. Give them a real self-help responsibility, some real time serious work for to do, and most especially, stay in contact in between introducing them to the rest of the group. Remember, just being new is tough enough. We, who are experienced, can work at not making it even more difficult.

Preparedness is Serious

Being very serious for a bit, preparedness is a serious topic and for a serious reason in very difficult times most folks new in this endeavor will gain the most benefits more easily if we have primed their pump with historical facts presented in a positive environment in our homes, at a time and situation chosen by the new folks.

Never Use Demeaning “Newbie” Word

I try to never use the term “newbie”. Why? Because just doing grab and dump always fails. Why does it fail? Because it is not kind-hearted and is very much demeaning. It’s more than a little insulting, and we should try, as may be possible, to talk with both the heart and the head of the family, and never leave the hubby, or your spouse, out of the conversation, not at all. Why, you ask? Because it does not work!

Share With Like-Minded Others

Again, here’s a little seriousness. We who have happy experiences as preppers, do have a serious personal obligation to share the knowledge (wealth) with like-minded others. There, we finally got to that wonderful name of the type of person that we should be trying to interest in preparedness. It’s someone just like us in the areas of thoughts about family, the importance of looking to the future, valuing our national history, our national character, and defending the principles of personal freedom and personal liberty that the founders founded our republic on so long ago.

When the king’s soldiers came into their homes and work places, the people who were prepared to be free saved the new nation from failure. They grabbed oppression by the throat and shook themselves free of the king’s rule, twice!

SurvivalBlog Writing Contest

This has been another entry for Round 72 of the SurvivalBlog non-fiction writing contest. The nearly $11,000 worth of prizes for this round include:

First Prize:

1. A $3000 gift certificate towards a Sol-Ark Solar Generator from Veteran owned Portable Solar LLC. The only EMP Hardened Solar Generator System available to the public.
2. A Gunsite Academy Three Day Course Certificate. This can be used for any one, two, or three day course (a $1,195 value),
3. A course certificate from onPoint Tactical for the prize winner’s choice of three-day civilian courses, excluding those restricted for military or government teams. Three day onPoint courses normally cost $795,
4. DRD Tactical is providing a 5.56 NATO QD Billet upper. These have hammer forged, chrome-lined barrels and a hard case, to go with your own AR lower. It will allow any standard AR-type rifle to have a quick change barrel. This can be assembled in less than one minute without the use of any tools. It also provides a compact carry capability in a hard case or in 3-day pack (an $1,100 value),
5. An infrared sensor/imaging camouflage shelter from Snakebite Tactical in Eureka, Montana (A $350+ value),
6. Two cases of Mountain House freeze-dried assorted entrees in #10 cans, courtesy of Ready Made Resources (a $350 value),
7. A $250 gift certificate good for any product from Sunflower Ammo,
8. Two cases of Meals, Ready to Eat (MREs), courtesy of CampingSurvival.com (a $180 value).

Second Prize:

1. A Model 175 Series Solar Generator provided by Quantum Harvest LLC (a $439 value),
2. A Glock form factor SIRT laser training pistol and a SIRT AR-15/M4 Laser Training Bolt, courtesy of Next Level Training, which have a combined retail value of $589,
3. A gift certificate for any two or three-day class from Max Velocity Tactical (a $600 value),
4. A transferable certificate for a two-day Ultimate Bug Out Course from Florida Firearms Training (a $400 value),
5. A Trekker IV™ Four-Person Emergency Kit from Emergency Essentials (a $250 value),
6. A $200 gift certificate good towards any books published by PrepperPress.com,
7. A pre-selected assortment of military surplus gear from CJL Enterprize (a $300 value),
8. RepackBox is providing a $300 gift certificate to their site, and
9. American Gunsmithing Institute (AGI) is providing a $300 certificate good towards any of their DVD training courses.

Third Prize:

1. A Royal Berkey water filter, courtesy of Directive 21 (a $275 value),
2. A custom made Sage Grouse model utility/field knife from custom knife-maker Jon Kelly Designs, of Eureka, Montana,
3. A large handmade clothes drying rack, a washboard, and a Homesteading for Beginners DVD, all courtesy of The Homestead Store, with a combined value of $206,
4. Expanded sets of both washable feminine pads and liners, donated by Naturally Cozy (a $185 retail value),
5. Two Super Survival Pack seed collections, a $150 value, courtesy of Seed for Security, LLC,
6. Mayflower Trading is donating a $200 gift certificate for homesteading appliances,
7. Montie Gear is donating a Y-Shot Slingshot and a $125 Montie gear Gift certificate.,
8. Two 1,000-foot spools of full mil-spec U.S.-made 750 paracord (in-stock colors only) from www.TOUGHGRID.com (a $240 value), and

Round 72 ends on September 31st, so get busy writing and e-mail us your entry. Remember that there is a 1,500-word minimum, and that articles on practical “how to” skills for survival have an advantage in the judging.