5 Ways To Prepare and Adapt To An Ever-Changing Political and Social Climate
The key to surviving and thriving in most situations is being adaptable. Adapting as well as somewhat conforming will help keep you alive. Adapting makes sense because you are trying to survive.
Some preppers do not want to be adaptable because they see it as an infringement on their rights and freedoms. Some preppers want to make sure the prepping message gets out there which is important but can attract unwanted attention. Some people don’t care if everyone knows they are a prepper and believe they can handle whatever the world throws at them.
While all of this is admirable, but at some point, you need to adapt to the ever-changing political and social climate. That may mean you need to change how you are preparing, how you are presenting yourself to the world (in-person and online), and how you are living as a prepper. We don’t always want to change because part of prepping is to be prepared for where you are living. However, you may need to change to a safer location.
5 Ways To Prepare and Adapt To An Ever-Changing Political and Social Climate:
1. Go grey. This involves becoming a grey man and blending in. If you do not want to be noticed at all, blend into the crowd. This may mean a few things. You will want to look at how the crowd looks if you need to go out and blend in. For example, if they are wearing masks, you will stand out if you are not wearing one. If you don’t want to be noticed, you will need to wear one to blend in. Even though you don’t agree with wearing a mask, you may need to do so for your personal safety until you can get to a safe location.
You also do not want to wear flamboyant or loud clothing in a normal setting. You don’t want to wear anything that is noticeable or will easily identify you. If you are making purchases for your home and/or preps, you do not want people to easily identify you. They may try, but if you are wearing a black tee-shirt and jeans, that can be used for a description for a lot of people. That will not make you stand out unless you also have orange shoes and a red purse/hat. Keep it practical and keep it simple if you do not want to be noticed.
2. Stay out of harm’s way. If you do not put yourself in situations that will potentially cause you harm, you will not be harmed. That means:
2. Stay out of harm’s way. If you do not put yourself in situations that will potentially cause you harm, you will not be harmed. That means:
- Avoiding large crowds.
- Avoiding protesters and rioters.
- Avoiding places that people may potentially become dangerous.
- Avoiding large cities or areas in those cities.
While you may not always be able to avoid those situations, you can do your best to try. You do not want to get caught up in a crowd that is growing violent and unstable. If you find yourself in this situation, you need to blend in and then get out as soon as possible. You do not want to participate in the violence because you could be identified or arrested. You just need to do what you can until you can get out of the crowd and get away safely.
3. Stay quiet about what you have. In other words, you want to practice a degree of OPSEC (operational security). While you want to prepare better, you can’t give away all your secrets. Joining private closed groups on Facebook helps to get you the information you need, you don’t necessarily want to attract a lot of attention. Your family, friends, and neighbors will see what you have if you let them (some things are hard to hide), but you can still hide a lot.
However, if you are always boasting on social media and to your loved ones what you have, you may have unwanted visitors when an SHTF (sh** hits the fan) happens. If you are not prepared to say no, prepared to defend yourself, and prepared to deal with the violence if it comes to that, you should not be broadcasting what you have.
Also, being a prepper can make you a target in these changing times. There are groups online that look for targets like preppers and homesteaders to steal from. Nevermind that the government has the NSA and Homeland Security who do their own spying and have files on you. They are people who call themselves preppers whose only plan is to weaponize and steal from other preppers that they find online. While all this may seem extreme, you need to keep quiet about what you are prepping and how much you are prepping unless you feel like you are in a secure environment to do so.
4. Don’t be a jerk. Being a jerk will garner you more attention than being agreeable and calm. If you are constantly at war with everyone and you constantly argue with everyone, you will reap the consequences later. Those same people will not help you because of the way you treated them earlier. If you act like you have all the answers and threaten to use violence over the little things, you will be seen as somewhat of a loose cannon. Most people equivalate loose cannons to people who can not be trusted or will be a liability.
While some of you are going to think this is not a bad thing, I will add a note of warning here. Not all survival situations are “every man for himself”. Some survival situations are better when people come together and work together such as natural disasters. You may think your neighbors and friends are a little naive or are idiots, but you still may need their help later on. Being a loose cannon or a jerk will not garner a lot of help for you when you need it later unless you plan to force people to help you. With that idea, I would say good luck with that.
5. Location, location, location. This one is more difficult to deal with, but if you are living in an area or a state that has become unstable or politically/socially extreme, you may want to consider moving. Location means a lot when you are a prepper. There are states right now who are taking away rights from its citizens for owning guns, defending themselves, what they can purchase, and more. As a prepper, you should think about what is important to you. If your state is unfriendly to homeschooling or seems extreme in what they are teaching in public schools, that affects your children and you. If you are more conservative socially or politically, that can make you a target in your own neighborhood.
If you live in a suburb or area where homeowners associations are strong and domineering, you might want to rethink where you live also. There are people in your neighborhood literally watching every step you make and everything you do which is disturbing. These same people will not hesitate to turn you into the local law enforcement in order to see what you have or make you conform to their rules and laws. They make think that you owning a gun is unsafe or scary and will put them in danger of you. Again, while OPSEC definitely comes into play here, you want to live in an area that doesn’t make you feel uncomfortable or subjects you to scrutiny.
Another consideration that has become a problem is the local and state law enforcement. While there are law enforcement officials who are bad, the last place I would want to live is where the law enforcement has been defunded or is heavily regulated by the mayor/governor. That means they cannot do their job effectively and may not be able to control large unruly crowds which can mean bad things for you. Ideally, you want to live in an area where the citizens and law enforcement live in harmony with each other. If that doesn’t seem possible, you do want to live in an area where you feel safe at the very least.
I realize there are reasons you can’t move. Jobs, owning a business, and family are very important reasons. However, you should think about why you can move and why you can’t move. Some people have some very strong perceived strings that tie them down to a certain area. If you know you live in an area that may not be safe, you really need to think about those strings and whether they can be cut. You can transfer jobs, you can move businesses/start new businesses, and sometimes you can move family members with you (If you don’t feel safe, they aren’t safe either). Sometimes our strings are mental or emotional versus being practical. Only you can decide where to live, but safety and stability should be a huge concern.
With all this said, the most important thing to do is do what is best for you. If you don’t feel like you are in a safe area or situation, you should think about what you need to do to prepare and adapt to that. If you exercise caution and common sense, you will be miles ahead of the people around you.
Thanks for reading,
Erica
Check out these books also to help you be more prepared for the future!
(Notice: I am an affiliate for Amazon LLC. It doesn’t cost you anything, but it certainly helps to bring a little extra income into my home. Thanks in advance for any links you use!)