Prepping and how it makes me feel bad

As I encountered preppers both in the libertarian interest and the zombie interest parts of my life, it's got me thinking.

I'm not a prepper. Not remotely. If the power went out, I would probably die of frustration in a few hours for not being able to Google things, like, "What to do when the power is out?" Or IMDB that actor. Although I guess the TV won't work either.

Nah, I'd probably read books. But you get the picture. That TV show Survivor? I hope they come save you if you're gonna fall off a cliff or eat poisonous mushrooms or whatever.

But thinking about it past the initial panic, be it from a zombie apocalypse or major tornado or the economy collapsing. Say life isn't going back to the way it was anytime soon, your day job is no longer valid, and that grocery store isn't opening back up anytime soon. We'd have a barter economy and all of a sudden need, say, gardeners and hunters way more than receptionists or lawyers.

The thing about prosperity is that we've been able to outsource most work to specialists. Instead of having to maintain our own cars, we take 'em to the car guy. Instead of having to garden, we go to the grocery store or farmers' market. We've gotten so specialized that up the ladder of jobs are people who know a lot of very specific things that are very useful for a society like ours, but might not carry to being useful if we were dumped back to the level of a third world country. Like aforementioned lawyers.

So I thought about my skills. I have a degree in journalism, I've worked as a receptionist, food service, and oil change service. I have a decent grasp of the English language in writing. Which means I will have no services to barter with and probably starve. I certainly don't have any skills I can use to keep myself alive.

David is in architecture. Complex, he needs to know a lot of things. However, he'll even lose much of his usefulness come apocalypse. Maybe as people start to rebuild, maybe to recommend fortifications against bandits or zombies. But not really skills to pay the bills. His experience in roofing might end up being more helpful in that case.

On a prepper website, I saw a page at ReadyNutrition.com that listed 10 essential skills for survival. We'll start with survival of yourself first, and then those are probably useful for the barter economy once you get to that holdout and have to demonstrate you are worth keeping around.

In short, and you can read the actual article if you want more, the page recommends learning:

Outdoor Survival Classes
Medical
Hunting Skills
Disaster Training
Gardening Skills
Firearm Certification and Training
Canning and Food Preparation
Amateur Radio Classes
Sewing Classes
Candle/Soap-Making Conventions

I keep sitting here having the CDC's zombie poster staring at me saying, Get a Kit, Make a Plan, Be Prepared. Yeah, I totally printed it out and hung it up because it cracks me up that there's a poster implying you should be prepared for a zombie apocalypse with the official CDC logo in the corner...

So say I wanted to start with a few of those skills, maybe have a group of people (a lot of prep stuff seems to suggest groups) with varying skills. Outdoor survival seems too... vast. Probably should learn it. I was on board with medical until it mentioned stitches, and then I was off. Can't do needles into flesh. Not much of a hunter either. I get sad killing the worm to fish, and then hurting the fish by ripping the hook out. Disaster training seems vague, more like telling you what you should normally expect and how to prepare. Gardening, while not a current skill, would be a useful thing to have. Even minus the apocalypse. I do want to know how to use a gun for self-defense (although I'd rather learn Kung Fu). Maybe Mom can do the canning. Amateur Radio Classes sound like awesome. I wonder how long it'd take to master ham radio? Mom can do the sewing too. Basically, I think Mom should survive first. I have no idea about candle and soap making. Could be fun I guess?

So out of those ten skills to survive... I can't check any off. If I bought a first aid kit, I wouldn't be able to identify the use of everything in it. I can sew a button on, but not much more. I don't know the first thing about outdoor survival (I read about what to do in event of lightning, but I couldn't recall it next time I was in lightning. Just figured I'd go down with my bike).

And that's why prepping makes me feel bad. Maybe I should get on that. Get A Kit. Make A Plan. Be Prepared.