Today is going to be a short one, but I figured I should finally get around to touching on the 12 Planks of Modern Survivalism. The first plank is of course one of the most obvious, yet most easily overlooked. Prepare for everything, including nothing going wrong. Everyone who is trying to be prepared has a different idea of what that future event will be.
You would be amazed how few people who want to prepare for some future catastrophe stop to consider that it may never happen. The most notable of these I have ever seen was on the show Wife Swap. A family was certain that things were going to go completely to crap in the Mayan Apocalypse of 2012. They were unshakable in their belief that society would break down and that economics would go to pot. It could happen, but any other number of things might have happened as well even if there had been a major upheaval.
So sure were they that this would happen, that they bought hundreds of thousands of dollars of things they wanted on credit. No payments or interest until the year 2013. If things had gone as they expected, it would have been shear genius. Obviously things did not go that way. I don’t know what ever happened to that family, but I am sure it wasn’t pretty.
They suffered from tunnel vision that led to an inability to plan for the chance that nothing at all negative happened. Maybe you think we will be invaded by brain eating aliens who can sense garlic on our breath. Great, avoid garlic and have a good supply of garlic-free, shelf stable food. If it never happens, no harm. Don’t go burning down fields of garlic. You will land in jail and then no one wins. Plan for the worst, expect it even, but also realize that your fear may never manifest.