Hugh,
It is never possible to insure or prepare for every event. You can only do what you are able and what is prudent.
The one thing which should be different about the Redoubt vs. other “preppers” goes back to DeToqueville when our country was young.
But the scene is now changed, and gradually the two ranks mingle; the divisions which once severed mankind are lowered, property is divided, power is held in common, the light of intelligence spreads, and the capacities of all classes are equally cultivated; the State becomes democratic, and the empire of democracy is slowly and peaceably introduced into the institutions and the manners of the nation. I can conceive a society in which all men would profess an equal attachment and respect for the laws of which they are the common authors; in which the authority of the State would be respected as necessary, though not as divine; and the loyalty of the subject to its chief magistrate would not be a passion but a quiet and rational persuasion. Every individual being in the possession of rights, which he is sure to retain, a kind of manly reliance and reciprocal courtesy would arise between all classes, alike removed from pride and meanness. The people, well acquainted with its true interests, would allow that in order to profit by the advantages of society it is necessary to satisfy its demands. In this state of things, the voluntary association of the citizens might supply the individual exertions of the nobles, and the community would be alike protected from anarchy and from oppression.
Each one prepares as best he can and seeks to be as independent as possible, but through those “voluntary association of the citizens” we are prepared to help each other. If one is struck down with misfortune, it is his neighbors, and with current technology it means the entire Redoubt are “his neighbors”, are to help.
Remember the story of the Good Samaritan? (Luke 10) A man was attacked by thieves. A priest and Levite just passed by, probably muttering about how this beaten man should have been more careful or going to form a commission to do something about robbers on the Jericho road. A Samaritan showed him mercy and helped him, when he couldn’t help himself. The answer to “who is my neighbor” is “he who shows mercy”. The Bible can be reduced to two commandments– Love God with everything you have, and love your neighbor as yourself.
We must start now. If and when TEOTWAWKI comes, we will all have to band together. We must be a community.
I Corinthians 12:12-26: “For as the body is one, and hath many members, and all the members of that one body, being many, are one body: so also is Christ. For by one Spirit are we all baptized into one body, whether we be Jews or Gentiles, whether we be bond or free; and have been all made to drink into one Spirit. For the body is not one member, but many. If the foot shall say, Because I am not the hand, I am not of the body; is it therefore not of the body? And if the ear shall say, Because I am not the eye, I am not of the body; is it therefore not of the body? If the whole body were an eye, where were the hearing? If the whole were hearing, where were the smelling? But now hath God set the members every one of them in the body, as it hath pleased him. And if they were all one member, where were the body? But now are they many members, yet but one body. And the eye cannot say unto the hand, I have no need of thee: nor again the head to the feet, I have no need of you. Nay, much more those members of the body, which seem to be more feeble, are necessary: and those members of the body, which we think to be less honourable, upon these we bestow more abundant honour; and our uncomely parts have more abundant comeliness. For our comely parts have no need: but God hath tempered the body together, having given more abundant honour to that part which lacked: that there should be no schism in the body; but that the members should have the same care one for another. And whether one member suffer, all the members suffer with it; or one member be honoured, all the members rejoice with it.”
We shall not survive if everyone is merely their own family on their own land and doesn’t care for anyone else. Is that not a description of the cities, where people are depending on government to provide, where there is no collective preparedness, and where neighbors don’t help neighbors but rather point to government? And the churches are worse; many have no charity except the phone number or email of every government aid agency in their contacts list.
In my area, we are each prepping in our own way as no one wants to have to ask for help, but also we have specialists and we know we can count on each other. We are a body, not a bunch of individual cells or dismembered organs. That should extend across the Redoubt and even beyond. Jesus prayed that we all “may be one”:
John 17:20-23: “Neither pray I for these alone, but for them also which shall believe on me through their word; that they all may be one; as thou, Father, art in me, and I in thee, that they also may be one in us: that the world may believe that thou hast sent me. And the glory which thou gavest me I have given them; that they may be one, even as we are one: I in them, and thou in me, that they may be made perfect in one; and that the world may know that thou hast sent me, and hast loved them, as thou hast loved me.”
The example that will convince the world, especially the good but non-Christian neighbors, that Jesus was sent of God will be our unity.
– Redoubting Thomas