A lot of people who comment here have their own blogs and I like to take few minutes and check them out from time to time to see what’s on their minds. I don’t get to read them as much as I’d like to these days because I’m busy with kids, but those are the sacrifices we make for our families. (I just got my five month old daughter to nap after being cranky for a good bit of the afternoon.)
I like to think that SHTFblog is a middle of the road kind of paranoid compared to some of the stuff you read out there. No finger pointing from me as I’m plenty paranoid, but I try to read both ends of the spectrum and choose a spot somewhere near the middle of the spectrum. All preppers are at least a little paranoid about something or else you’d be reading something else right now.
There are plenty of people out there who think that FEMA camps are standing by to inter innocent Americans once the SHTF and who knows? They might be right. Personally, I don’t think so, but then again I try to position myself so that I don’t have to worry about these things.
Do I have a big set of government crosshairs on me because I’m a writer for SHTFblog? I can’t imagine that I’m that important in the grand scheme of things no matter how paranoid I get. The government has bigger fish to fry than me and no matter how paranoid I get I can’t imagine that my name is on a list like it might have been back in Hitler’s Germany. There are enough blog writers out there these days that it would be a pretty long list if that were the case. I don’t read what I consider to be the more paranoid blogs and say, “That’s a bunch of horse-puckey!” because they might be right.
How Paranoid?
Lets pick on FEMA camps for a second as an example of paranoia keeping in mind there are plenty of other things on the paranoia radar. I have friends who talk about FEMA camps and the crash of American civilization with absolute certainty. Playing Devil’s Advocate here it seems to me that the world has been quite resourceful when it comes to kicking the can down the road and keeping civilization afloat – economically speaking that is. And if there were a huge crash why would FEMA care about putting people in camps? There wouldn’t be much left to control and who would man them anyway?
Am I wrong? “Hey Jarhead! When TSHTF you’re gonna wind up in an internment camp up in Northern Maine along with your fellow writers.”
Or is it “Hey Jarhead! The government has bigger fish to fry than your sorry ass.”
Which is it? With the passing of the Patriot Act and NDAA I could almost be persuaded to change my mind and swing towards the paranoid end of the spectrum.
What do you think? How paranoid should we be?
-Jarhead Survivor
How Paranoid Should We Be?
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37 comments
Wow great topic! I have to admit there are some days that my tinfoil hat is on tighter than others, but how paranoid? Hard to say.Do l believe in FEMA camps? Yes. Do l believe they are going to round us up like cattle and put us in it? Depends on the scenario. Blog writers? No. People who attempt to rise up against the government or maybe refuse to be vaccinated in the event of a pandemic? Possibly.
I live in one of the top 3 biggest counties in my state. There are several towns in my county and l was working it out and less than 25 people (assuming 2 per road) could completely shut in our town. When Hurricane Charley hit we had every road out of town manned by armed national guard not letting anyone in for over a week. If you didn’t have ID to prove you lived there you weren’t coming in.
As far as the NDAA l think back to the prominent Jews who said “l have a business, high up in the community, l’ve done nothing wrong, why would the government want me?” Yet those things didn’t seem to matter to Hitler. I read/write/comment on a few blogs, l grow my own food, l pay my taxes, l don’t do anything wrong, why would the government want me?
What about London having street cameras literally everywhere? People are being watched everywhere they go there.
What about Katrina? Why would the government want people’s guns in prominent neighborhoods? Why would they try to remove people who were self sufficient and not in danger? ( see how the hat can tighten sometimes? lol)
This is what l know to be true. SH*T HAPPENS. Hurricanes, tornadoes, job loss, inflation all happens. l try to prepare with these things in mind.The rest of it stays in the back of my mind but never completely out of thought. Mostly because the rest is some crazy SH*T and like l said before, SH*T happens! :)
Hmmm, the middle of the road, is a good place to dodge traffic from, whatever may come, FEMA Camp’s, possible, why did other country’s collect citizens during their demise? A book They thought they were free, about Natzi style hitlerism explained that the little guy had no clue to what was going on, from my circle I hear I’m heading to the bunker which is prepped with everything, to, well God will supply everything I need, or, as myself, I’m in the middle of the road with many way’s to turn, whatever comes down the pike I have a twist or turn to make. To me, a wee bit of paradoidalism is healthy, I am aware of possibilities and my head is above ground with options that are being prepped for and joy of joy, nothing will go to waste, it’s all usable, now or then. So pie in the sky or MRE’s hunkered down, being aware is part of being prepared. I like the way you think. “C”
Well, to give y’all an idea, one of the reasons I like reading this blog (and Rawles’ blog as well) is because it tends to avoid the tinfoil.
Certainly, there are some that are heavy on the conspiracy theories, but they have too much good stuff hidden among the crap to dismiss entirely.
In my own opinion, I sincerely doubt that a faltering government would have the resources or the ability to do the whole “FEMA camp” thing, or even to keep the population in check. I suspect that any government –even our own– will most likely concentrate on a few strategic or key locations (shipping, manufacturing, natural resources, etc), and will do what it can to keep things intact there.
I also find the whole thinly-veiled white supremacy garbage that I find out there to be very detrimental towards helping folks prep. For instance, half the folks in my church are Hispanic (and if you know my denomination you’ll know why). I can easily and comfortably point them here or at Rawles’ site for advice and tips, but not so much to certain other sites.
Honestly, there are too many real (and all too scary) reasons that we’ll likely see the crash of civilization within our lifetimes… no need to invent more.
The racist stuff and the rebirth of the old John Bircher stuff really turns my stomach.
I relieve paranoia with research. Research is the key to whats real and whats memorex(typicly misinfo or dosinfo sread by those who dont want you to know whats up) When you see something thats not quite right start looking. For instance, one method is to look at congressional appropriations and ollow the money. You can bet your ass if theres funding, your fears and concerns are WELL FOUNDED. As for the dreaded FEMA camps, you can look at the bill that they used to try to “create” them(HR645, and then another later, the number evades me at the moment) and then you can investigate where that rumor originated(Civilian Inmate Labor Program, dept of the Army) and you can always follow the money(300+mil. that was appropriated two years ago to KBR of Halliburton fame to build said camps that dont exist) and the more recent contracts for bid posted by KBR on Federal Buiz opps .gov for logistics for said camps(they are posting bids for barbed wire, barriers of various types and other supply chains etc) Combined with the recent legislation such as bushes PDD51 and the NDAA and now the enemy expatriation act, anyone with half a brain has to send the red flags flying if they dont, they are simply in denial. IDK, what I do know is that where there is smoke there is fire and when it thunders, a storm usually follows.
Spook;
Have you even been to Beech Grove, Indiana, to the so-called Amtrak facility there and seen the rather large stacks on the two of the largest so-called maintenance facility buildings in the middle of the site? For a transportation facility that is by all appearances to repair and maintain passenger rolling stock for the Midwest Region, one would logically presume that with electrical transmission lines leading into the facility, the large stacks would be unnecessary to provide HVAC to the maintenance facility buildings. But then again that’s what you see at dawn through a eighty-power spotting scope. Additionally if you want to disagree with Alex Jones, that’s alright by me, but when persons want to challenge Kenneth Royce, that’s quite another stripe entirely. Do domestic internment facilities exist, of course they do, why else would there be a Continuity of Government Plan (as typified by REX 84) in the first place?
The way I look at it:
There’re no FEMA camps. There’s no list with “preppers” names on it. Agenda 21 isn’t a plan to turn the government of the US over to the UN.
There is a very real threat that your neighborhood could have a rat problem when your trash pickup gets switched to every other week. There’s a very real threat that the price of bread at the store could triple over the next couple of years. There’s a very real threat that cities and counties with shaky finical status could go belly up and lose most of their services.
Trash pickup was switched to every other week in Portland, OR as of Oct 2011, and people are already having sanitary problems as a result (this summer should be really interesting for them; glad I don’t live in Portland anymore!). The price of muffin mix (the cheap little blue boxes, you know the ones) has already tripled in the last couple of years, and prices of rice & other basic food staples have also doubled or tripled since 2009.
I’m not worried about FEMA camps. The federal government has already proved they can’t even manage a brothel well enough to turn a profit, which has GOT to be the ultimate definition of incompetence!
I can vouch for the PDX garbage situation (heh – I’ll be living out in the country two months from now).
OTOH, c’mon, this is Portland. The idea with the trash isn’t some “OMG we’re cutting back basic services!” squeal, but a means to force people to do the recycling thing even more than they may (or may not) usually do. Yep – evil as hell, but when you live in Granola County, that’s what you get.
As for the food situation, things have gone up a bit. OTOH, instead of reaching for the pre-packaged muffin mixes, as a prepper you may want to reach for the ingredients to make muffins yourself, as it’s cheaper in bulk. I mean, yeah I’m guilty of buying pre-packaged microwaveable stuff, but usually that stuff goes to work and sits in the file cabinet until I’m ready to eat it.
I do the “buy in bulk & package my own” for things that are cost-effective to do so, even bean soup (instead of that 1-pound package of 9-bean soup that costs $3 or more, I make my own 20-bean soup — packaged in mason jars that I already had on hand — for way less than half the cost, and it makes much tastier soup). But a box of jiffy muffin mix that used to cost 24 cents (and now costs around 70 cents), I’m not going to replace with messy cornmeal & sugar & baking soda/powder & whatever else they put in it to make it tasty _plus_ the cost of packaging in ziploc storage bags, because I just don’t see it saving money. Now, if I bought the $3 fancy boxes of cornmeal muffin mix, sure I’d design my own mix & save a lot of money. But I don’t buy those (because I don’t think they taste better).
On the other hand, it costs a lot more for me to can homemade applesauce than to buy it already made, because I don’t have apple trees — but I wouldn’t eat store-bought applesauce unless I was literally starving. It’s all about priorities.
Remember, just because you’re paranoid doesn’t mean everyone’s not out to get you…….
Just because I’m NOT paranoid doesn’t mean nobody’s after me….
I am not paranoid, people really do follow me, tap my phones & they sneak in my house when I am asleep. I can’t prove it, the police & FBI say I’m crazy (I’m sure they tap my phones too) but they don’t use the right detection equipment.
…. damn it, I knew it – they found out I’m on this blog! Now there’s a black helicopter hovering overhead in whisper mode, I can’t see it but know it’s there … I’ll report back when I think it’s safe …
Time to get some new encryption software …
Ok all’s clear, they have gone … for now
The “FEMA” camp meme has been around way before most people ever heard of FEMA. This idea of concentration camps and rounding up civilians has been the bread and butter of the whackos forever. 14 years ago I took on the challenge and hunted down some of these “pre-FEMA” camps that the loonies were reporting and without exception they did not exist. What is different today is that for what would probably be called good reasons congress seems to be on the verge of authorizing FEMA to prepare so that they never again have to repeat the infamous New Orleans super bowl disaster. Is preparing for a massive disaster or dislocation a good idea? Probably. I would prefer soemthing along the lines of what Switzerland does to protect their citizens but given our politicians and debt I doubt we can or will do that. But I’m willing to believe at this point that the intent to prepare is not some insidious NAZI stlye concentration camp effort. I prefer to believe the obvious; that our government is incompetent are leaders are idiots and what we are really seeing day in and day out year after year is nothing more then the inevitable result of politicians looting the government coffers.
GWTW,
Spoken like a man who has been around the block a few hundred times & I completely agree with you BUT no concentration camps, are you sure? Is Alex Jones wrong??
A little joke for you! I laugh at the photos posted of the supposed camps & the Auschwitz type rail system leading to that end. I guess sensationalism pays big!
I think your view point is quite rational which is why I continue to read this site. There are enough sites out there whipping people into a frenzy. Like you I prefer middle of the road and take a lot of the hype with a grain of salt. As far as conspiracies are concerned most people couldn’t conspire their way out of a wet paper bag.
Templar is sooooo correct. In 650BC a philosopher by the name of Toth said “Wise is the man that pays attention to the signs”. I would like to think that we are not paranoid, we are just paying attention to the signs. I see a sign that says that the government is borrowing 5.2 billion dollars a day to keep afloat. I see a sign that says the ruskies and the chi-coms are trying to destroy the dollar’s preeminence amongst currencies thus destroying our economy. I see a sign that says the social fabric of this nation has deteriorated to a very low point. I see a sign that says the weather has become erratic and is putting the food supplies of the world in peril. I see an increase in geologic events that can cause tremendous damage to a fragile worldwide ecosystem. I see the solar cycle coming to an unusual high and that can put tremendous strain on electronic systems that we depend on so heavily for our daily existence.
We are not paranoid. The signs are all around us, we are just paying attention to the signs. Remember, the future belongs to the prepared!
From CCR –
I see the bad moon arisin’
I see trouble on the way
I see earthquakes and lightnin’
I see bad times today
Don’t go around tonight
Well, it’s bound to take your life
There’s a bad moon on the rise
I hear hurricanes ablowin’
I know the end is comin’ soon
I fear rivers overflowin’
I hear the voice of rage and ruin
Don’t go around tonight
Well, it’s bound to take your life
There’s a bad moon on the rise
Alright
Hope you got your things together
Hope you are quite prepared to die
Looks like we’re in for nasty weather
One eye is taken for an eye
Well, don’t go around tonight
Well, it’s bound to take your life
There’s a bad moon on the rise
Don’t go around tonight
Well, it’s bound to take your life
There’s a bad moon on the rise
As another contributor in the “survival blogosphere” has said, prepping should encompas those things that will allow you to live a better life when things go wrong…or even if they don’t.
Paranoia is good to motivate us to prepare. But prepping as a lifestyle really should increase your quality of life even if nothing goes wrong. For example, if you have a remote retreat that is well stocked, if nothing goes wrong you still have a great place to take the kids. If it’s well stocked with food, then if you ever lose your job, you don’t have to panic as you and your family can still eat. And so forth.
Som oaranoia is a good motivator….just don’t let it consume you so that it distracts you from what’s really important.
From Wikipedia –
Par·a·noi·a/ˌparəˈnoiə/
Noun:
1. A mental condition characterized by delusions of persecution, unwarranted jealousy, or exaggerated self-importance, typically worked…
2. Suspicion and mistrust of people or their actions without evidence or justification.
From Merriam-Webster dictionary
Definition of PARANOIA
1: a psychosis characterized by systematized delusions of persecution or grandeur usually without hallucinations
2: a tendency on the part of an individual or group toward excessive or irrational suspiciousness and distrustfulness of others
I don’t fall into any of the above & pretty sums it up for me.
Do I believe there is crap that goes on that we do not know about? Absolutely, no question, but don’t give it much energy or as Jack Nicholson once said in A Few Good Men – I’ll give its due attention.
How paranoid should we be? Depends on how bored you are in life.
Paranoia is good for you. =)
https://mises.org/daily/5300/Paranoia-Is-Good-for-You
People are missing the point. There isn’t a sinister conspiracy to put us all in FEMA camps. The people who are creating FEMA camps are thinking that they are building them to help displaced people and disaster victims.
So, in the same way the government feels it is helping poor people by putting them in crumbling crime-invested “public housing” ghettos… In the same way the government thought it was helping people by keeping them prisoner at gunpoint in the Superdome during hurricane Katrina trapped with no food, clean water, or sanitation… The government is building an “emergency response” designed to help you.
The trouble is, no matter if you are herded to die in a FEMA camp because of some NWO conspiracy, or you are forced into a FEMA camp by a well-intentioned government officer who thinks he is looking out for your well-being, it is still going to suck!
I’ve been able to trace ancestors that stayed in Germany and didn’t make the trip across to the new country. Something of about 524 (give or take) perished in concentration camps. I wonder how paranoid they were? I read a story where in one village, some of my distant female kin were encouraging their husband-farmers to pack ’em up and scram. They didn’t; some perished, some fought and perished, but almost none survived.
Even if we never get to that extreme (and I think we will not), we can still lose our liberties if we aren’t attentive. I try not to be paranoid, but if you “re-label” me as vigilant, then I’ll accept that term.
How about Charles Bronson instead, will you accept that moniker?
Sometimes i have a weak moment and get sucked into the ‘FEMA camp’ scare, then they mention ‘Chem-Trails’ and I slingshot back to reality! I am however, quite thankful for non-tinfoil types like yourself and Mr. Rawles.
You people are paranoid!
http://www.prisonplanet.com/red-spotlights-to-mark-precrime-suspects.html
China
III
… and people said the book “1984” was a fantasy that could never come to pass …. what’ll they think of next?
I read “Atlas Shrugged” recently, and found it far more relevant than “1984.” It’s a lot of book to slog through, but worth it.
Ayn Rand was a Russian who defected (so she says) & was pushing a subversive communist agenda …. I’m sure of it.
She, J. Edgar Hoover & Joseph McCarthy were all in it together & she secretly gave birth to Lee Harvey Oswald, I believe Hoover was the actual father.
Shhhh, don’t tell anybody … I am not paranoid or believe in conspiracies – this is totally true.
Gotta go …
“they” really are out to get us.
Ah yes, a reflective stroll down memory lane 45 years ago …
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Of8gU9Aj_Oo&feature=related
…step out of line, the men come, and tak… the men come and shoot you down.
I think the NDAA is a big step towards losing our liberties and allowing us to be justified in being paranoid.
We cannot allow our liberties to be stripped as that slippery slope would be a fast one.
(Slowly turning head left and right, looking over shoulders, ducking head…)
Wut? ME Paranoid? Nah- I’ll see them coming before they get here.
shhhhh- wuzzat sound? don’t move- I think I saw something… right there… see- there- behind the lamp post…
Seriously- sometimes I is, sometimes I ain’t- just depends upon who’s doing the listening. Though I doubt I’m full-blown paranoid yet, I do have to admit a very strong degree of trepidation toward believing anything the gov tells me. But I’ve been this way my whole life. As to trusting others- do I know you? what kind of interaction have we had the last week? Personally- I don’t trust anyone outside my circle until they earn that trust, then it’s going to be very little trust. But that ain’t paranoia, that’s sensible. If you don’t think so, I’ve got something to sell you in Arizona on the beach.
That was funny! Is there a beach in Arizona? Wow, how cool!
And to think, I thought it was a landlocked state.
It’s not about paranoia, it’s about what we WILL do to one another when we tell ourselves we have no other choice.
Should the american’s who were born japanese have worried during WWII?
Were the political dissidents that Pol Pot had killed by the millions sufficiently paranoid?
How about the jews in Europe?
The farmers in the new USSR?
It really is about being a boiled frog. We get used to more and more intrusion, more and more rights accrued by the government to do things to us “for our own good”.
FEMA camps? They’ve been around for a long time, and when you see hundreds of thousands displaced by something like Katrina, you WISH there were a few camps near your disaster.
We tolerate, we even applaud, TSA. I remember getting on a plane to do a short hop to San Francisco from Sacramento. I watched as the pilot signed for a registered mail bag, and then a gun in a holster. If this had still been a practice, then 9-11 would not have happened. How we ever got convinced that it was somehow dangerous for the man or woman flying the plane to carry a gun is beyond me, want to kill the passengers? just push on the yoke… But SOMEONE somewhere got convinced that pilots who carried registered mail didn’t need to be armed. Now, in place of that – we literally PAY for someone to give us a rectal exam.
Every time we “empower” our government to take care of us in some new way, we empower them to take away something from someone to do so. The people that worry me the most aren’t our elected officials, they’re just the useful idiots. The people that REALLY run the government are the ones that publish the federal record wherein new laws with force and penalty are enacted every day, without any legislative process. It’s a gigantic publication, published DAILY.
Too many of us have become dependent on the government providing us with jobs, payments, services and even our food – that majority of americans who do so – WILL someday clamor for more, and it’s gotta come from somewhere. The budget isn’t out of control in all areas, it’s only out of control in the entitlement areas – it CANT shrink and it MUST increase with the cost of living.
The case for paranoia is there, the only question is: When is enough enough? And will be so used to a certain way of life that we will choose that life over freedom? So far we seem to choose the easy path every time, statistics rule here.
I expect my children will be wondering exactly where they will draw the line on taxes, since we’re way past the point where half of what we earn is taken away by some government process – will they set the arbitrary limit at 75 percent? I don’t think our grandparents would have believed that their children would tolerate 50 percent.
We shouldn’t be paranoid, we should be accepting of our own natures and realize that things must get very very bad before they can get better, and prepare for that very very bad time.