Best preppin' tip. Don't announce it.

[junmist]

You will find out that lots of people that will survive, do not conceder themselves preppers so don't get bogged down with a name, If they are growing there own food they are a prepper who cares if the neighbours go down the pub for food and to keep warm that's plan A it may not be your plan A but it is a plan. Look at what skills can they bring to the table even if its a hobby that you do not know about, they could make lace, could they be interested in bronze age life, keep a classic car, belong to the WI all these could be useful in a SHIFT.

[grenfell]

So...my question is: how many people is the ideal number?


After a lot of thought I reckon maybe 4-6?

148,
well according to some that have studied our social evolution, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dunbar's_number

[Dmach10]

To bug out or not to bug out? What a question!
The truth is quite simple. No one knows until it's time to decide. It depends a great deal on where you live also. Take my current situation for example. I currently live in good old Slough (and don't mind revealing it coz I'm leaving very soon), which is a large town with around 150,000+ residents. I can honestly state that if it all went belly up tomorrow, I wouldn't be safe staying here. It is a bad town with lots of bad people. It would also become fragmented with lots of no go areas. The idea of staying and hoping for the best would be suicidal.

I can be certain of these key outcomes:

1.Due to different ethnicities and nationalities all residing together in large numbers, any non member of the community would be risking their life if they strayed into or near their territory.

2.Militia groups would quickly be formed within each community.

3.Scout/raiding parties would swarm weaker, unprepared areas.

4. These groups WILL be armed with firearms and other weapons

5. Attacks on one community and its members will lead to retaliation.

6.Eventually one group will gain dominance over the whole town, but only after significant loss of life across the board.

I'm not exaggerating here. I've lived in this town for nearly 40 years and can read it like a book. Any town or city with an already above average level of crime and anti-social behaviour will quickly descend into anarchy. Anyone who bugs in and hopes for the best in these areas will be in for a nightmare existence.

But if I consider the area I'm moving to soon then the outcome will be different. The market town we are relocating to has a much better chance of building a community, and bugging in is a really viable option. Due to its smaller size and established local community, the chances of chaos developing is considerable lessened. So long as people with leadership qualities quickly stepped up and worked together, a viable community all working together would quickly become established.
It won't be easy in the first few weeks but it is certainly possible.
That's if anyone is still alive!

So to summarise.

If you live in a large town or city. Get out of dodge...fast.
If you live in a rural of semi rural area. Get working together and hope for the best.

Choices, choices

[SaintJimmy671]

So...my question is: how many people is the ideal number?


After a lot of thought I reckon maybe 4-6?

148,
well according to some that have studied our social evolution, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dunbar's_number

That is not good news! I can barely tolerate 8 other people, let alone 148! Maybe I shouldn't be a prepper... Maybe I'm destined to be the bloke who runs around screaming whilst everyone else makes their getaway

[grenfell]

So...my question is: how many people is the ideal number?


After a lot of thought I reckon maybe 4-6?

148,
well according to some that have studied our social evolution, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dunbar's_number

That is not good news! I can barely tolerate 8 other people, let alone 148! Maybe I shouldn't be a prepper... Maybe I'm destined to be the bloke who runs around screaming whilst everyone else makes their getaway

To be honest my answer was what is probably called "tongue in cheek" and I'm not seriously suggesting that you should have another 147 people with you when you bug out (presumably in a whopping great convoy).The figure quoted seems to be a sort of natural tribal size that human societies attaint and I've seen it said that the figure also appears roughly with military formations such as a platoon or even more roughly a Roman cohort (or is that two cohorts?)
I wouldn't give up your prepping just because of my half baked response although I'm not going to give advice on the screaming bit

[SaintJimmy671]

Fear not, my prepping continues! The next step might be to try and make the girly screaming more like a war-cry...

I know what you were meaning by the 148 people thing, and it's a really interesting topic. As many other folk on here have said, it's almost certain that communities have the best chance of survival (of a decent standard, at least).
It's a topic that really interests me as there are (as I think I said before) a fair few people I know who might well be preppers, or at least open to the idea but it's a difficult one to approach people with, especially as I'm in agreement generally about keeping it quiet. I don't even know my neighbour's names so I don't want them sniffing around for a can of rice pudding after their Mastercard stops working for good!

I suppose maybe I only need one other person with me for when mum runs out of fags and gets too irritable to be ordered around checking the rabbit-snares

Let's hope we never find out!

[2ndRateMind]

Well, considering we don't quite know what we're prepping for, just that it's plain commonsense to prep for it, I like this board. I wouldn't dream of announcing my bug-out location, or my bug-in location, come to that. Not only here, but to anyone I would take with me. But the general debate keeps us all, I think, on an even keel. I've learnt a great deal from you all, in just the short month I've been reading here. I can't possibly keep up with some of your more expensive projects, being on benefits, but I can prioritise amongst your best ideas, and I unashamedly do just that.

As for prepping in general, it's not in any of our individual interests to suggest this course to anyone else. But if we want to make this nation more resilient, and help people help themselves in a time of crisis such as fire, flood, or power or water outage, then I think the government could do a lot worse than recommend to the populace that each of us buys and maintains a 72hour emergency pack. This, after, naturally, all those corrupt politicians have had a chance to buy shares and take on lucrative non-executive directorships in companies liable to profit from that advice!

Best wishes, 2RM.

[jonb]

Interesting thread.

We all work hard on our preps , from food storage and equipment to new skills.

Keeping them secret makes them safe from others who do not have our mind set.

The problem is if the SHTF occurs , the moral questions kick in concerning others and those that have not prepped.

Do you help them and reduce your supplies or keep quiet and carry on ?

Like minded others in my view are the key, pooling resources and skills would be great but choosing a leader etc is another problem !

No one said it was easy !

[Quercus-robur]

The problem is if the SHTF occurs , the moral questions kick in concerning others and those that have not prepped.

Even though I believe that most people would have an innate urge to help someone else in need, when we are talking about a SHTF situation where these people will have an adverse effect on you and your families ability to survive it becomes a lot easier to look away. The real problem for me would be if a dozen or more friends who haven't prepped came to me looking for help when I only have the resources to help just me and my immediate family. I wouldn't want anything bad to happen to my friends but I do simply not have the means to look after them too. That's why I believe it is important to gently encourage those we care about to prep.

As for the OP question, I would never tell anyone outside the prepper community that I prep. I believe that we need a community to make it through a SHTF scenario but I would only tell someone if I either knew they were a prepper or if I thought there was a reasonable chance I could get them to start prepping and become a useful group member. If not then I don't trust them to know I prep.

Reading this thread has really got me thinking. Quite a few posts now have addressed the issue of the importance of a group or community for long term survival. And I think someone mentioned something about people avoiding the label 'prepper'. During, and for a time after, WWII it was common for people to supplement rations with vegetables grown in their gardens as well as meat from things like rabbits kept in their gardens too. More effort was also made to reuse and recycle things. We became very proficient at it. We had a 'mend and make do' attitude. There is a really good documentary called 'The Secret Life of Rubbish' which talks about how most things were used or reused before the rise of the supermarkets. For example, scraps left over would be food for the dogs or pigs and not thrown out. I found it interesting how the bin men (before the supermarkets) were nick named 'Dustmen' as the only thing thrown out was ash from the fires.

My point of the above paragraph addresses the concerns of whether to tell people or remain silent. Many preppers may be worried about being ostracized from the community if it was found out that they prep or just be worried about personal security. However, the Britains from 60 years ago would not have thought themselves preppers or labelled themselves so. It was just a sensible way of life. I think it would pragmatic to have some community led initiatives such as turning brownfield sites into allotments, encouraging people to have vegetable gardens, encourage recycling and reduction of waste (I read there is currently a move to ban plastic bags in supermarkets) and encouraging people to buy local. Without peddling 'prepping' to people, people could be told of a cheaper and more sustainable way of living to beat austerity that would bring a community together and make it more able to endure a SHTF scenario. Sometimes attaching the term 'prepper' is couter productive.

Qr

[PreppingPingu]

*nods at Quercus* Yes as you said "Sometimes attaching the term 'prepper' is counter productive."

I can often be heard saying to my friends "it must be the girl guide in me" when friends marvel at the fact I have paracetamol/small torch/screwdriver etc in my bag. I tend to say things like "well you never know when stuff might come in handy - I mean lucky I had that screwdriver in my bag - there, your glasses are fixed!" I would never use the term prepper as people tend to associate you with some nutter they saw on TV building a bunker! I will be heard to talk about the rising fuel prices and say I wish I wish I had a wood burner coz then if money is tight at least you can keep warm or in conversations regarding someone putting in a new kitchen, I will say how I like to have gas and electricity so when you have powercuts at least you can still cook some tea and boil water for a cuppa. People then see that along with the fact I have an allotment as a way of life and not something extreme.