Group not doing much

[rhino]

I watched a movie on Netflix over the weekend where computer virus brought society to its knees. One guy and his wife had a lot of preparations in place, but no means or will to defend them. At one point in the movie, they were at the mercy of the people who had the means to take everything from them. The only thing that "saved" them in the story was that one of their friend brought an old top break revolver with him that he was planning to use for suicide --- and of course they all freaked out because HE BROUGHT A GUN INTO THE HOUSE -- and another of their friends grew a virtual pair briefly and shot one of the people threatening them. Then after one dramatic speech everyone decided to work together and live in peace.

Yeah. Right.

A far more likely outcome is that the new residents of their home would certainly enjoy the solar power and supplies after they burned the dead bodies.

 

[Thor]

If they were out west that would be cooked the dead bodies. No need to throw away all that protein.

And that's definitely a hollywierd ending to a SHTF scenario. Not...going...to happen.

 

[IndyDave1776]

That is an area of choice one has to make for themselves. I have not tied my wagon to any one individual at that level so no real issues here.
My problem would be family. They all know we are prepared for what I deem short term survival. That is a time frame that we can fill with existing storage space/funds. The head count I have in our equation has set that time span. Also available space. That is another limiting factor.
Depending on the situation be it natural disaster or man made insanity will set how we respond/share/help others.
Those factors will also set our path of staying in place or fleeing.

Another important consideration here is that while the plan has certainly not 'come together' yet, it is based on a more self-regenerating long-term model that isn't available to you unless you move given that you don't have the amount of room it takes to significantly increase your ongoing food production in response to greater need. Most preps are based on storage rather than production which is my serious departure from the conventional approach, much in the same way that when most people are saying EOTHWAWKI, the Amish are saying, SSDD.

 

[churchmouse]

Another important consideration here is that while the plan has certainly not 'come together' yet, it is based on a more self-regenerating long-term model that isn't available to you unless you move given that you don't have the amount of room it takes to significantly increase your ongoing food production in response to greater need. Most preps are based on storage rather than production which is my serious departure from the conventional approach, much in the same way that when most people are saying EOTHWAWKI, the Amish are saying, SSDD.

You are correct in this. No room to actually grow any real food or have livestock. Tough to do in the city.

 

[Rebel Jack]

I watched a movie on Netflix over the weekend where computer virus brought society to its knees. One guy and his wife had a lot of preparations in place, but no means or will to defend them. At one point in the movie, they were at the mercy of the people who had the means to take everything from them. The only thing that "saved" them in the story was that one of their friend brought an old top break revolver with him that he was planning to use for suicide --- and of course they all freaked out because HE BROUGHT A GUN INTO THE HOUSE -- and another of their friends grew a virtual pair briefly and shot one of the people threatening them. Then after one dramatic speech everyone decided to work together and live in peace.

Yeah. Right.

A far more likely outcome is that the new residents of their home would certainly enjoy the solar power and supplies after they burned the dead bodies.

That was "Goodbye, World." wasn't it? Where a text was sent to every cell in the world at the same time and it crashed the system? I believe the guy that sent it was actually at that retreat up in the mountains. There was some wife-swapping drama and then some ex-military boys rolled in to town demanding their amoxicillin or some-such. God, that movie sucked.

Anyways, our household is very motivated and extremely successful in that regard, but our networking is virtually non-existent. We do something for tomorrow every single day but I can't put enough emphasis on the importance of networking and mutual support groups. I think that's a tremendous hurdle for everyone though. Finding people that can contribute meaningfully to each other. Even on dedicated survival boards, it's generally just talk, or the well-prepared that really aren't, because of some illogical stand alone complex.

 

[rhino]

That was "Goodbye, World." wasn't it? Where a text was sent to every cell in the world at the same time and it crashed the system? I believe the guy that sent it was actually at that retreat up in the mountains. There was some wife-swapping drama and then some ex-military boys rolled in to town demanding their amoxicillin or some-such. God, that movie sucked.

Anyways, our household is very motivated and extremely successful in that regard, but our networking is virtually non-existent. We do something for tomorrow every single day but I can't put enough emphasis on the importance of networking and mutual support groups. I think that's a tremendous hurdle for everyone though. Finding people that can contribute meaningfully to each other. Even on dedicated survival boards, it's generally just talk, or the well-prepared that really aren't, because of some illogical stand alone complex.

Yes, that was the horrible, horrible movie!

I think when you're trying to build a network, it's better to identify people you can trust and upon whom you can rely. You may be able to teach and coach and guide them into being contributors if they are not already capable. It's a lot harder to pick people you can trust from a group of contributors.

 

[BOWTIE72]

I would say that your two choices are to cheerlead the unmotivated, which will absorb a great deal of time and likely not help given that if they really took it seriously and/or were genuinely interested beyond posturing over a Coke or a Budweiser as the case may be, they would already have their asses in gear. The more productive alternative is to do what you can for yourself and remember that at such a time that things go sideways, you and yours come first because even though these guys talked along with you, they failed to act on it where you didn't. This applies equally to natural disaster or, well, man-made disaster. At the end of the day, the only thing you can really change is what you do yourself, and if these other people are all talk, I recommend limiting the amount of time you let them suck down that you could put to more productive use than trying to motivate the unmotivated.

Good points, I thought I had a survival/ prepper group at one point, and it slowly fell apart. People get so wrapped up in daily life my group slowly started to stay away and eventually lost interest. I continued on with learning/prepping and basically found new individuals who are serious. It disappoints me to lose members of the group but they demonstrated their reliability and motives quite clearly. More of the "I'm coming to your house if shtf" people.

 

[BOWTIE72]

And that's what we're working for, the ability to survive those things it's within our ability to survive.

 

[BOWTIE72]

Yes, we're the same way. My wife and I always try to continually improve our preps. My son and his wife do very well also. We all got together awhile back and had a packing party, putting up several hundred pounds of rice, beans, powdered milk and powdered potatoes away in mylar bags with O2 absorbers. My son always makes me proud with his fore-sight and always wanting to round out our preps.

My daughter and her husband I'm sure have nothing much put back, but they know they're best plan is to come back to our place if they need to. Even without stores, they both have skills. Our total group includes my wife and I, our two kids and their spouses, and their four dogs ( or as I tell the kids, our fresh meat security plan). There are several other extended family that also know that they are welcome any time, and they all have stuff to contribute.

When I hear others talk about "Well, if anything ever happens, we know we're coming to your house" I always tell them that they can't get in unless they know the magic words. When they ask what those are, I look at them and say, "The magic words are: We brought all of our own food".

Haha I completely agree... same situation with my family

 

[Icarry2]

Has anyone seen the Netflix movie, "How it ends" it wasn't bad. Left it open for another one.

As for groups, i have had the privilege of working with some very well organized, well funded groups as well as some small scale, low budget family groups. All in all the biggest thing is to surround yourself with people you can get along with, that have complimentary skill sets and most of all a drive to keep working towards the goals that you set as a group. What? Your group doesn't have a set of documented goals for each member? Well there is a place to start and a way to reconnect and motivate your group. Have everyone take an honest skills assessment and then work together to improve the groups skills as well as each individuals. This exercise may provide your motivation. Along with the skills set personal and group goals for stores, equipment, communications, etc. Work it as a team. IF someone is unable or unwilling to participate, improve their function, then sadly you will need to weight the options of leaving them stay stagnate or push them out.

No one says a group has to stay the same as founded. One thing you do have to worry about if you push someone out is OPSEC. That is an issue you will have to figure out on your own.

Carry on,

TJ

 

[Morgan88]

Indydave makes a great point in post #3 The phrase that caught my attention was "

to cheerlead the unmotivated, which will absorb a great deal of time and likely not help"
How true.

Morgan88
​

 

[JeepHammer]

Not to put too fine a point on things...

1. Humans are lazy by nature.
Most won't do any work past the minimum to get them reasonable comfort.

2. Time spent on people that 'Talk' instead of 'Do' also is a waste of YOUR time, m
Time you COULD be spending on your own builds.

3. We are dealing with the 'Video Idiot' (Vidiot) generation. (Internet 'Experts')
'Entertainment' from a screen, be it TV, computer, phone or tablet is a colossal waste of TIME,
Time being a resource you can't replace for any amount of money.

4. Spend time/money/resources on only what serves YOU.

An example of what NOT to do is 'Stockpile' a bunch of crap you do not currently use.
You serve IT. Shelter, climate control, work time for money to buy it, time, effort & money to 'Store' it, or insure/maintain it.

A 'Hobby' should produce an income or be productive in some way.
Drinking beer on a $40,000 bass boat does nothing FOR you.
Enlarging a garden to produce 'Extra' for sale, for trade, for home canning (future/hard times), even the produce that has defects makes money, tax credits from the local food bank for example.

5. Specialize.
Go with a field you already know.
A welder *Should* have a stockpile of welding rods, some way to power a welding machine, and a welding machine.
It's income on the side of his 'Paycheck' job, and he learns to improvise.
A paper mill worker *Should* have a stockpile of paper goods. Toilet paper & paper towels will be just as valuable if he uses them himself or a disaster happens and he needs trading materials.

6. Stay focused.
Every successful person I've ever met was focused like a laser on their particular business.
Random people say, "He's so lucky" when they never saw the education, 24/7 dedication, constantly having to watch everything...

It doesn't matter a hoot what 'Other People' think or do, that opinion is fleeting since they NEED to get back to Facebag, or reality TV, or whatever is there distraction... and it has zero effect on your efforts.