I think this says a lot about how the different governments view the people they are supposed to represent and what they want for the future of "their" people.
The resentment towards the population really show through on both sides of the political spectrum.
Being prepared is completely rational! Your points about how this has become stigmatized in this disconnected-from-reality culture are spot-on. I grew up in rural/small town America, and being prepared is just what you did. Farm families have typically had a large pantry, stored supplies, a root cellar or something akin to that. My grandpa's farm was totally self-sustaining, and they always had a supply of stored food because you never knew what disaster or crop failure might happen.
While I get that this was awhile ago, the reasons for being prepared haven't changed. In fact, I believe it's more important than ever. Between an aging power grid that needs a lot of work, the increasingly severe weather/flood/fire disasters, or whatever political bs might blow up (and curtail shipping), having at least a couple of weeks worth of non-perishables and clean water on hand is really smart. There's nothing nutty or crazy about having the wisdom to plan ahead for the unexpected! If you have a family or loved ones (including animals), it's a must.
I live in southern Appalachia, the mountains of Western North Carolina. At the end of September, Helene hit, and devastated our region. Way beyond what anyone ever believed could happen here. Some counties worse than others for sure, but generally bad everywhere. There was a lot of damage on my property, but fortunately my old log house held up pretty well and my growing areas were okay. But I had no power for 10 days. Others fared worse.
Initially after the storm, stores were closed because they had no power, many roads were impassable, you couldn't get gas, etc. I have my own well, but my pump is electric, so... Clean water was an immediate need. Fortunately I had already stored gallons of water, which I had been in the habit of doing in case of outages. 3 weeks of water. I also had many cans of beans, peanut butter, and 6 jars of dry roasted peanuts. As well as dehydrated apples from this year's apple crop. Several boxes of oat cereal, a couple canisters dried oats. What I do is record the date the things I store, then gradually use them then replace with newer over time. This way nothing goes bad if it's not needed, but there's always something on hand should there be an emergency. (I also have a small Coleman camping stove which I used on the porch to boil water).
FEMA got here relatively quickly, with water and food, but the bigger problem was local governments who were not prepared for this event. The people in remote mountaintop locations had bigger issues because no one could get to them. But again, this truly was unprecedented for us. Another issue was we didn't have cell service, internet/routers, etc, so my radio was lifeline to what was going on, and finding out where supplies were being given out so I could share that info with my neighbors. People came together and really helped each other, which is probably something you don't see a lot of in urban areas.
FEMA was getting money to most applicants quickly, and I got initial aid money within 3 days of applying, as did all my neighbors who applied for help. But one thing I learned during the aftermath of this storm is never be without at least some cash on hand because the banks were closed and teller machines didn't work. The gas stations and stores that opened first were only taking cash.
I think people have the tendency to go along in their lives and just assume that nothing is going to drastically change - the stores will always be open, they will always have food, there will always be water coming out of the tap. It's kind of that normalcy bias we all tend to have.
But things can change in the blink of an eye, and while you may have some warning in some cases, other times you may not.
To me, doing what you reasonably can in order to prepare for emergency situations is basic common sense. And planning ahead is what you do when you're a grownup! A culture that is so adolescent and immature to mock those who do, well, that's a culture that's going to be in a lot of trouble in the years ahead.
I think that there are some real differences in the way that the mentality of the average US citizen is directed to be focused.
First of all, we are not supposed to be focused on ourselves or our family. We are supposed to have our jobs as our main priority. That way we can be docile consumers.
Next is the idea that we are supposed to leave everything to the government to take care of us. Of course they are clueless. For instance, in the event of a disaster, they want to order everyone to evacuate. OK. To where? With what money on hand? With what transportation? No, it is just an ambiguous, "Well, go somewhere else." Look no further than the way that they handled hurricane Katrina in New Orleans. They had no idea what to do with the people who were unable to evacuate.
The ideas that they come up with for dealing with emergencies are all focused on what people do in big cities. How do you store several weeks worth of food when you live in a closet sized apartment in NYC when you don't even have the space for a spare jacket?
Now to be fair, a lot of the preppers are a bit on the fringe. I watch some of the prepper videos and there are a lot of them that would be hard pressed to spend an overnight camping trip to a state park.
The angry Karens were humorous, but way out of line. I smiled at their antics, even though my own "Karen" didn't like her name tarnished. How did this honor get bestowed on the name Karen I wonder.
I think this says a lot about how the different governments view the people they are supposed to represent and what they want for the future of "their" people.
The resentment towards the population really show through on both sides of the political spectrum.
Being prepared is completely rational! Your points about how this has become stigmatized in this disconnected-from-reality culture are spot-on. I grew up in rural/small town America, and being prepared is just what you did. Farm families have typically had a large pantry, stored supplies, a root cellar or something akin to that. My grandpa's farm was totally self-sustaining, and they always had a supply of stored food because you never knew what disaster or crop failure might happen.
While I get that this was awhile ago, the reasons for being prepared haven't changed. In fact, I believe it's more important than ever. Between an aging power grid that needs a lot of work, the increasingly severe weather/flood/fire disasters, or whatever political bs might blow up (and curtail shipping), having at least a couple of weeks worth of non-perishables and clean water on hand is really smart. There's nothing nutty or crazy about having the wisdom to plan ahead for the unexpected! If you have a family or loved ones (including animals), it's a must.
I live in southern Appalachia, the mountains of Western North Carolina. At the end of September, Helene hit, and devastated our region. Way beyond what anyone ever believed could happen here. Some counties worse than others for sure, but generally bad everywhere. There was a lot of damage on my property, but fortunately my old log house held up pretty well and my growing areas were okay. But I had no power for 10 days. Others fared worse.
Initially after the storm, stores were closed because they had no power, many roads were impassable, you couldn't get gas, etc. I have my own well, but my pump is electric, so... Clean water was an immediate need. Fortunately I had already stored gallons of water, which I had been in the habit of doing in case of outages. 3 weeks of water. I also had many cans of beans, peanut butter, and 6 jars of dry roasted peanuts. As well as dehydrated apples from this year's apple crop. Several boxes of oat cereal, a couple canisters dried oats. What I do is record the date the things I store, then gradually use them then replace with newer over time. This way nothing goes bad if it's not needed, but there's always something on hand should there be an emergency. (I also have a small Coleman camping stove which I used on the porch to boil water).
FEMA got here relatively quickly, with water and food, but the bigger problem was local governments who were not prepared for this event. The people in remote mountaintop locations had bigger issues because no one could get to them. But again, this truly was unprecedented for us. Another issue was we didn't have cell service, internet/routers, etc, so my radio was lifeline to what was going on, and finding out where supplies were being given out so I could share that info with my neighbors. People came together and really helped each other, which is probably something you don't see a lot of in urban areas.
FEMA was getting money to most applicants quickly, and I got initial aid money within 3 days of applying, as did all my neighbors who applied for help. But one thing I learned during the aftermath of this storm is never be without at least some cash on hand because the banks were closed and teller machines didn't work. The gas stations and stores that opened first were only taking cash.
I think people have the tendency to go along in their lives and just assume that nothing is going to drastically change - the stores will always be open, they will always have food, there will always be water coming out of the tap. It's kind of that normalcy bias we all tend to have.
But things can change in the blink of an eye, and while you may have some warning in some cases, other times you may not.
To me, doing what you reasonably can in order to prepare for emergency situations is basic common sense. And planning ahead is what you do when you're a grownup! A culture that is so adolescent and immature to mock those who do, well, that's a culture that's going to be in a lot of trouble in the years ahead.
I think that there are some real differences in the way that the mentality of the average US citizen is directed to be focused.
First of all, we are not supposed to be focused on ourselves or our family. We are supposed to have our jobs as our main priority. That way we can be docile consumers.
Next is the idea that we are supposed to leave everything to the government to take care of us. Of course they are clueless. For instance, in the event of a disaster, they want to order everyone to evacuate. OK. To where? With what money on hand? With what transportation? No, it is just an ambiguous, "Well, go somewhere else." Look no further than the way that they handled hurricane Katrina in New Orleans. They had no idea what to do with the people who were unable to evacuate.
The ideas that they come up with for dealing with emergencies are all focused on what people do in big cities. How do you store several weeks worth of food when you live in a closet sized apartment in NYC when you don't even have the space for a spare jacket?
Now to be fair, a lot of the preppers are a bit on the fringe. I watch some of the prepper videos and there are a lot of them that would be hard pressed to spend an overnight camping trip to a state park.
The angry Karens were humorous, but way out of line. I smiled at their antics, even though my own "Karen" didn't like her name tarnished. How did this honor get bestowed on the name Karen I wonder.