Hugh,
People often can accept and understand, mentally, some horrific issue they have experienced, and yet they cannot accept it psychologically. Police, who have been shot and survived, have been interviewed, and almost invariably they will state that they could not believe that someone was actually shooting at them. Mentally, they could see what was going on; they could see the gun and hear the shots, but psychologically, they simply could not comprehend that someone was actually shooting at them.
I think the same psychological dynamic goes on in the whole collapse/economic depression scenario. You may have intelligent people who truly understand the awful economic data, the derivatives, ebola, wars and rumors of wars, and so forth, but they simply cannot accept/comprehend the reality of the situation. I was the same way. I have watched the economy and the government deficits for years; mentally I could process the information. However, suddenly about 18 months ago, I awoke one morning to discover that something in me clicked; I crossed a certain psychological threshold, and I accepted this collapse IS TRULY GOING TO HAPPEN. I think we preppers need to understand this in our discussions with other people. They may be very good people, but they’re people who simply have not crossed that “psychological threshold”. Keep up the good work, Chap.