Defining prepping and survivalism (an attempt anyway)

[Scythe13]

(9 April 2014, 09:44)NorthernRaider Wrote: Point 1.
S13
You seem to have missed one massive point about prepping and survivalism. It's about a disaster situation survival, e.g. SituationX.

NR No sir, its about what Survivalism and prepping IS as a sub culture not what it is FOR eg Disaster survival, terror attack, economic collapse, EMP, Zombie apocalypse, Labour wining the election, Tsunami, Quake etc

Point 2.
S13
A homestedder or an off grid hippie commune would cover some of the skills and be considered as preppers by the above definition.

NR again its not about WHO it applies to but WHAT it is as a sub culture, There is probably more people out there living as preppers but would never in a million years call themselves such

Point 3.
S13
One question though, is it really important to define what prepping and survivalism is?

NR apparently so because there are still people who think Prepping and Survival IS just Bushcraft and wilderness survival
And those folks are already very well catered for on forums like Bushcraft UK, Ludlow SG etc

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NR apparently so because there are still people who think Prepping and Survival IS just Bushcraft and wilderness survival Smile

I'm going to answer these as the 3 points I've labelled them as.

Point 1.
Prepping, as a subculture is defined by the people, whom are united in the fact that they are getting ready to survive a SituationX. It's not about being self sufficiency. Self sufficiency is a part of prepping, but a self-sufficient person is not neccessarily a prepper. A 4x4 driver isn't neccessarily a prepper. An arts and crafts teacher is not neccccceeeessssserily a prepper, even though they're teaching skills. Same with even Ray Mears, he has the skills, but he's not a prepper (to the best of my knowledge). They're just people that get on with what they do.

Point 2.
That doesn't make sense in a logical format. Once again, a subculture is the people. Using self-sufficiency as an example...Prepping and Survivalism isn't about being self sufficient. It's about the people and what they're being self sufficient for. A hippie in a commune growing his own plants is not a prepper. He might be 'accidentally' prepped if something did happen, but he is not purposefully prepping. If you have such a spurious link for prepped and prepping, then any farmer with solar panels, is also prepping and is a prepper. That makes no sense. He's just being a farmer, and the hippie being a hippie. A culture cannot exist without the people, and the people are defined as a 'united cultural movement' because they have one uniting factor, the survival of a SHTF situation, e.g. SitX.

Point 3.
Well thankfully everyone on this forum has agreed that prepping and survivalism does involve bushcraft and survival skills to some extent or another, so you don't need to preach to the converted. I'm not sure if pushing the fact that prepping is not a single skill set, is of much benefit to anyone on the forum.

Point 4. - Not mentioned, but one I'd like to bring up.
NR, you sometimes come out with complete gem's and really useful information, but this thread is clearly better defined by BM's wording. It's of no use to the forum...the same as every post in response (yes, I am actually wasting my time and I admit I am doing so haha).


Please check what defines the requirements for a culture. It's the people.