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5 Ways To Raise Prepper Awareness

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Prepping… It seems strange to some, and downright stupid to the masses.

Whether you have begun prepping recently or have been involved with self-preservation for decades, you probably know that getting others to understand why you do it and why they should can be an incredible challenge.

Raising awareness about prepping and how to convince others to start prepping can be a frustrating experience.

If you’re like me, once you started prepping, you started thinking about survival. Purchasing gear, acquiring new skills and planning different strategies for when SHTF became a normal hobby. Survival is all about being able to live and thrive under any set of unfortunate situations.

When you think of yourself surviving, you may immediately consider your loved-ones. You may have many friends, family and other loved-ones that you hate to see suffer or potentially die in a scenario that YOU know you are prepared for, but also know that others are NOT.

Convincing others to prep is difficult for a number of reasons:

1. The public media has ostracized preppers.

This is a fact. Just look at the television show “Doomsday Preppers”. 99% of the people on that show fail the #1 rule of common sense prepping: Risk Analysis. Many of them are prepping for events that will likely NEVER happen, and thus, are put on television because it’s always fun to watch someone else do something you think is absurd, hence our fascination with “reality” television.

This is just one reason, however. It has become popular now to label anyone who stocks up on food, water, shelter, guns, ammunition, medication, medical supplies and anything else as “paranoid”.

2. Many believe the “government” will “help” them.

People have a false imagination of our government. The public has, for the most part, become incredibly reliable on our “system”. The reliance of the public on our “system” is akin to a child in a mother’s womb: They need the government to supply them with food, clean water, safety, shelter and much more. This naturally thought process immediately makes people believe that that same “system” they have relied on their entire lives will swoop in and rescue them when they are at their lowest.

However, what will these people do when they pick up the phone, dial 9-1-1 and nobody answers? What will they do when they are so low that they have to reach up to touch bottom and they suddenly realize that the “system” they have put their “trust” in has failed to protect, rescue and provide for them?

These are just two of many reasons why people tend to shy away from preppers. Most will purchase one of the many readily available “5 person emergency kits” and throw it in a garage hoping it will provide them with what they need long enough for help to arrive. Once again, you see this constant dependance on our system.

How can you convince others to start prepping? I have some advice that may help you when talking to family, friends and other loved-ones about raising prepper awareness.

raising prepper awareness how to convince others to start prepping 

First, do not sound paranoid. Even if you are, do not give off the appearance that the world is going to end in 5 minutes.

Second, do not talk to those you are trying to convince about things such as tyranny, terrorism, “SHTF”, “WROL”, “TEOTWAWKI” or economic collapses. You may want to avoid these terms altogether simply because there will be a million and one excuses to be made against each one of them.

Third, you may want to convince them by talking about natural disasters simply because it is something people know they cannot be protected from, and it will be the easiest to prove. An earthquake, fire or tornado can hit at any moments notice without proper time to prepare and leave.

Fourth, use the Socratic dialectic method of convincing. This method was used by Socrates, and it is simple: Ask questions. Instead of talking AT someone, talk WITH someone. Asking them questions, such as, “Hey, Mom: If an earthquake hit, would you be prepared?” Asking questions about their answers and making people think about how to answer them will often times allow them to convince themselves that they are unprepared.

Finally, if they realized they are unprepared, what now? Give them one or two things to purchase first. Do not mention them learning any survival skills, as this will only make them think you’re crazy. Instead, possibly tell them to stock up on some freeze-dried or emergency food bars and water. This is a basic start, and it will possibly make them feel unprepared AFTER they purchase these items because they will start thinking what else it is they do not have.

At any rate, this is a very beginning way how to convince others to start prepping. You do not want to force it upon them, but you just want to avoid some terms, speak in realistic terms (to them), ask questions and suggest something simple to start them off easy.

View the original article.

How have you raised the awareness of your friends and family members about the need to be prepared?

Read more with these related articles from our site:

Why Are You a Prepper?

10 Traits Successful Preppers Have

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7 Comments

7 Comments

  1. Ranchwife

    June 24, 2013 at 7:59 AM

    We live in a very rural area already, so when I talk to friends and neighbors all I do is point out how vulnerable we are because of the loss of supply lines. If the cities are chaotic, we can’t get anything delivered in from warehouses; which are almost exclusively located in large cities. We have never had “the government” show up to help in a tough situation (mostly blizzards) so we have always lived a prepper lifestyle. Lots of food all the time,a garden, 10,000 gallon cistern of water, bulk fuel both for gas and propane and we know how to manage for 30 days without power because we have already done that!

  2. JJM

    June 24, 2013 at 9:54 AM

    I try to point out that when storable goods are on sale, we are not wasting any money by purchasing extra of things we would normally eat/use anyway, in fact, it is a good investment. Plus it is smart to have extra in case you run out you don’t have to make a last minute run to the store to make supper. Just remember when you pull out your spare (bag of rice, etc) be sure to get another spare or two at next shopping trip.

  3. Survivor Jack

    June 24, 2013 at 5:42 PM

    While watching “Japan’s Tsunami” & aftermath, I realized I could teach my children about Preparedness by pointing out what I saw AND what I didn’t see.

    You are welcome to offer it for your family and friends to inspire them:
    “Letter to My Children – Lessons from Haiti and Japan”
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eLG6r7dnqOk

    No ads – only education.

  4. Straight Forward Prepper

    June 24, 2013 at 7:18 PM

    We’re so glad to be able to contribute this valuable information to Survival Life!

    The idea of actually convincing others to begin preparing to survive and taking this seriously is something that we feel is not covered as frequently or as in-depth as it should.

    The more prepared people there are, the fewer desperate people there will be when the inevitable emergencies and disasters strike.

    Be safe. Prepare, thrive and survive, at any cost.

    Thanks and take care,
    – Straight Forward Prepper

  5. Hipockets

    June 25, 2013 at 3:14 AM

    You can’t convience or talk to people about the subject if it holds no interest for them. I might only mention it’s a good idea to be prepared in case a disaster hits,and then wait for their reaction’ If they say,”Oh you’re just paranoid,I drop it,they’re mind is already closed. Most people I know or have meant,don’t think the Govt. is going to take care of them,don’t even think along those lines,they just think nothing bad will ever happen. I live around too many people with a very closed minds I guess.But this is an area where people have lived for generations and everyone is related somehow to everyone else,and they were raised to be survivors. Think our Govt. has conned them all into thinking everything will always be OK.

  6. cindy

    June 27, 2013 at 9:36 AM

    I’ve also used the “what if..natural disaster” scenario to introduce the subject, to see where the person is at. Most of my circle is fellow born-again Christians, many of whom either think that God will sovereignly protect them, or ‘we’ll be Raptured outta here before ‘shtf’ anyway’. I’ve pointed out to them, “How many Christians do you suppose suffered losses w/ hurrican Sandy..the floods in ___…or in Japan w/ the tsunami?” Sometimes that will get em to thinking. While God can and sometimes does, by miracle, turn a storm or disaster away from some of His kids, that is rare; ‘bad things [still]happen to good people’, and we dare not presume upon Him doing that. It’s irresponsible at best. We pray for the best, and prepare for if God has ‘other plans’ unknown to us. I’m collecting a list of great “prepper Scriptures”, and sometimes post them on my Facebook to generate some interest.

  7. dave fuches

    September 14, 2013 at 2:09 AM

    i agree very strongly with this article…awareness is key since a large percentage of the population seems to be completely ingorant of what’s going on around them.

    unfortunately, most people will only realize that it’s time to start prepping until AFTER they’ve barely survived some catastrophe.

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