The Relevance of Prepping in Today's World

For many Americans, the term “prepper” often conjures up images of paranoid weirdos wearing gas masks and hoarding large stockpiles of baked beans & rice in their basements, while prophetizing about catastrophes and muttering old cliche statements like “The End Is Nigh”. But prepping is more relevant to everyday Americans today than most are willing to admit.

As an emergency medicine physician with a low level military background (US Army Reserves, 91 Bravo), my training in both fields placed a heavy emphasis on preparation. Why? Because if I am well prepared for the disaster on the other side of those ambulance bay doors; then I can do a better job of bringing order to that chaos when it arrives.

Chaos is a part of life. We have all encountered chaos to some degree, and can recall the stress that accompanied the scenario. Perhaps it even left a permanent imprint on our psyche, eliciting panic or shudders of fear when the memory resurfaces. Chaos erupts when a reckless driver slams into our vehicle while driving our elderly parent to the grocery store. Or when our child falls ill of some devastating disease. Or when our appendix suddenly ruptures. Or even just when unexpected bad weather rolls in to ruin our weekend plans. Chaos comes in all shapes and sizes and it does not discriminate. It is part of the natural world. Chaos is inevitable.

Although many people may not actively see themselves as preppers, various forms of prepping exist and are an integral part of most people’s day to day lives. We purchase automobile insurance as a form of financial prepping for unforeseen fender benders. Medical insurance is a form of preparation that many embrace “just incase” catastrophic health issues or unexpected injuries arise. We set aside money in various ways to either prepare for our retirement, or to save for rainy days. We keep candles, flashlights, and batteries at home in preparation of power outages. Yet the stigma associated with being a doomsday prepper will not allow any association of prepping beyond these socially acceptable forms for many people.

Throughout history difficult times have made lifelong preppers out of every day citizens. Yet time passes, wounds heal, and people forget how crucial to survival preparation can be. Many of us had grandparents who had been children or young adults during the Great Depression or WWII, where resources ranging from food, to goods at the local store, to capable bodies at the town factory… were all in short supply. Those same people would often continue some form of preparation for similar disasters into their golden years, despite things having long returned to normal. They would use every scrap of food to stretch meals, saving animal byproducts to make things like bone soup. That fear of hunger was so powerful, and I’m not talking about the “I-missed-lunch-today” kind of hunger. Hunger that arises after days or weeks of not having food will magnify the limbic system of the brain, shut off the prefrontal cortex, and result in behaviors a person would never otherwise believe themselves capable. Less than 100 years ago during WWII the Russian government released a campaign of posters discouraging people from the cannibalism of deceased loved ones that was taking place.

That’s how bad it can get.

And the human brain does not soon forget that level of desperation. So it’s really no wonder the behaviors of being frugal carried into the golden years.

But in today’s American society we live in the definition of a world of abundance. The bounty of food that always seems within arm’s reach. The convenience with which we can obtain things like food, water, and medications, having those essentials and more delivered to our front door just by opening an app on our phone. This latest tech boom has the power to make us all lazy and complacent if we let it. Some effectively argue that it already has.

As a massive fan of the post-apocalyptic genre, one of my favorite quotes related to prepping is from the movie The Book of Eli starring Denzel Washington, where he tells the young and curious Mila Kunis about the world that once existed:

“People had more than they needed. We had no idea what was precious and what wasn’t. We threw away things that people kill each other for now”.

I hope that we never reach this level of desperation, as do most other preppers. But the difference between a prepper and the rest of the world, is that we are not willing to simply leave that up to chance.

In the spring of 2020 the arrival of COVID-19 was a slap in the face for us all. Or a wake up call, and a premonition of whats to come.

What it showed everyone, is that despite our public health policies, and despite our Emergency Action Plans that are on file at every community hospital, we as a country were MASSIVELY unprepared for the global pandemic. We could not even get adequate PPE for our frontline healthcare workers in the ER. Basic goods disappeared from local grocery store shelves. People got into fist fights over things like toilet paper and hand sanitizer. And since that time we still haven’t been able to agree on basic scientific mitigation efforts ranging from mask wearing and distancing to vaccinations. The ugliness of human selfishness that rises to the top when self preservation and mob mentality takes over is alarming and problematic to say the least.

 

But relatively speaking, COVID was a fairly weak pathogen. A deck chair on the titanic compared to what could (and may) come for us eventually. Yet despite its relatively low mortality rate, societal chaos ensued. It begs the question; What would the world look like today if COVID shared the same kill rate as the Ebola virus (30% versus <1%)? We are fortunate to have learned these powerful lessons at such a cheap price, no disrespect to the millions that paid that price with their lives or the lives of loved ones. Had we been better prepared, perhaps some of those people would still be alive today.

But Americans are a very reactionary lot. We talk about viral pandemics, we talk about rising sea levels, we talk about our failing economy and inflation, and we talk about the Yellowstone caldera. Climate change and near-earth objects too. And recently even the acknowledgement of UAPs (formerly UFOs). But thats mostly what we do; we talk. And we all know that talk is cheap. We wait until the problem has already kicked in the front door and stolen our peace, before we spend our precious resources. This is simply how our human brains operate. Just as airport security was a joke until 9/11. Just like opioids were handed out like candy until 70k Americans died in a single year from the subsequent overdoses. Our public health policies related to infectious disease were literally an entire century out of date before COVID hit, and we are still catching up. A reactionary lot to say the least.

But preppers are astute historians. We look at all of the disasters that have periodically impacted this planet. Large asteroid impacts. Widespread famine. Collapsing financial markets. Extreme weather. Devastating solar flares. Super volcanoes. Terrorism. There are literally dozens more. And despite having scientific evidence and written records of just how catastrophic these things were for the communities who experienced them, we continue to bury our head in the sand and say “unlikely to happen in my lifetime”. Until it does of course.

But in 2024 can we really look around at the world and feel safe? Europe is being torn apart by multiple wars that involve nuclear powers. Weather extremes are progressing on a yearly basis. The economy is taking a dive and inflation is out of control. Mass shootings. Addiction resulting in record setting overdose deaths. Oh and by the way… that pesky COVID virus, yeah it’s still around and it continues to mutate in unpredictable ways. At the same time we are seeing more superbugs due to antibiotic resistance than we could have predicted. Everything seems to be heading toward extremes.

Many may not know this, but our own federal government actually recommends that every American embrace basic forms of prepping; storing food, water, and medication in preparation for a potential crisis that could place your family at serious risk. The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) is the federal government body tasked with managing these crisis situations, as well as coming to our rescue after events like Katrina and the San Fran earthquake. But even FEMA knows that the government is not coming to save you. Not quickly and efficiently at least.

They recently expanded the FEMA prepping recommendations, and now suggest that Americans have enough supplies on hand at home to survive 2 weeks as compared to the 3 day supply it recommended in years past. At least they seem to be learning from their past inadequacies and mistakes. Will the rest of us do the same?

Prepping requires foresight. Prepping requires us to set our ego aside, and realize that we are all vulnerable, and that life is sacred. Prepping requires us to actually think beyond just what our needs are today, and to contemplate what our needs may be in tomorrow’s ever changing universe. Are these not all smart lessons to be teaching our children?

In other words, prepping could not possibly be more relevant than it is in 2024. And hopefully after the experiences of these past few years, we can all set aside the stigma of the bean hoarding paranoid recluse, and start preparing together and planning together. Because we are always stronger in numbers, and that includes the world of prepping. Being prepared is our best chance of surviving. And if at the end of the day, our prepping results in nothing more than  self sufficiency, better sleep, and peace of mind… well in a world boiling over with chaos, maybe thats not such a bad thing after all.

-Dr. Prepper

Dr. C. Thomas Brophy DO, FASAM

Emergency Medicine

Addiction Medicine