Post by jimcobb on Mar 23, 2023 1:44:29 GMT
[Note – this is a rough version of an article I’m working on for an upcoming issue of Prepper Survival Guide.]
It was a little over three years ago when COVID began ramping up in the United States. March 13, 2020 is when President Trump declared the coronavirus to be a national emergency. Soon after that is when the stay-at-home orders began rolling out, beginning in California and working their way throughout much of the country.
For the sake of this discussion, put aside arguments about whether shutdowns were appropriate, whether mask mandates made sense, or anything else along those lines. Instead, I want to focus on the fact that whether you agreed with the mandates and other actions or not, they for damn sure affected you, right? You were subject to their impact along with everyone else.
Those of us who have been around the prepping world for awhile will probably remember that for many years, the bugaboo for which we were preparing was thought to be something sudden. Nuclear attack, EMP, financial collapse, things along those lines. Instead, what we got was sort of a slow-moving car pileup, where one vehicle after another slid into the crowd.
If you think about it, as far as disaster scenarios go, we had it pretty good. I mean, Netflix was still available, as was Amazon (albeit shipping a wee bit slower than normal on some things), Walmart, and take-out food. Nobody was dressing up in ragged biker/fetish outfits, at least not out of necessity. Who knew that the official dress code of the apocalypse would be pajamas and bed head?
Think back over the last 36 months or so. What lessons did you learn? Here are a couple of things that stand out to me.
1) Panic brings problems. People who saw a news story about a store running low on toilet paper led to massive shortages of butt wipe throughout the country. It was a shortage that may have never happened if people wouldn’t have lost their damn minds. But, it was something that we were all forced to deal with, one way or another.
The lesson – have adequate stores on hand for just about anything you think you’d need for at least a few weeks if not longer. If you’re going to make another trip out to stock up, get their early or you might be pushing an empty cart around the store.
2) People with too much time on their hands can cause problems. A few months prior to the onset of COVID, I had joined a Facebook group focused on local parks. It was a great group, filled with awesome photos from hikes people had taken in state, county, and city parks. Lots of suggestions for where to go and what to do when you got there. Within a month or so of the shutdowns, the group reached Broadway-level amounts of drama. Seemingly every post made, no matter how innocuous, was met with venom and vitriol. I saw one woman who, when asked why the comments were so inflammatory, replied, “What do you expect when we’re all sitting home doing nothing?” Part of that stems from having at least a couple of generations of people who have now grown up without a real fear of being popped in the head for saying something stupid. Combine that with frustration, loneliness, and even depression and the logical result is people being ugly to one another for no real reason.
The lesson – have things you can do to occupy your downtime so you’re not just stewing over some real or imagined slight committed by someone online who you’ve never met. Remember, you don’t need to attend every argument to which you’re invited. Your mental health will thank you.
What stands out to you? What did you learn that you could work on improving or changing before the next disaster?
It was a little over three years ago when COVID began ramping up in the United States. March 13, 2020 is when President Trump declared the coronavirus to be a national emergency. Soon after that is when the stay-at-home orders began rolling out, beginning in California and working their way throughout much of the country.
For the sake of this discussion, put aside arguments about whether shutdowns were appropriate, whether mask mandates made sense, or anything else along those lines. Instead, I want to focus on the fact that whether you agreed with the mandates and other actions or not, they for damn sure affected you, right? You were subject to their impact along with everyone else.
Those of us who have been around the prepping world for awhile will probably remember that for many years, the bugaboo for which we were preparing was thought to be something sudden. Nuclear attack, EMP, financial collapse, things along those lines. Instead, what we got was sort of a slow-moving car pileup, where one vehicle after another slid into the crowd.
If you think about it, as far as disaster scenarios go, we had it pretty good. I mean, Netflix was still available, as was Amazon (albeit shipping a wee bit slower than normal on some things), Walmart, and take-out food. Nobody was dressing up in ragged biker/fetish outfits, at least not out of necessity. Who knew that the official dress code of the apocalypse would be pajamas and bed head?
Think back over the last 36 months or so. What lessons did you learn? Here are a couple of things that stand out to me.
1) Panic brings problems. People who saw a news story about a store running low on toilet paper led to massive shortages of butt wipe throughout the country. It was a shortage that may have never happened if people wouldn’t have lost their damn minds. But, it was something that we were all forced to deal with, one way or another.
The lesson – have adequate stores on hand for just about anything you think you’d need for at least a few weeks if not longer. If you’re going to make another trip out to stock up, get their early or you might be pushing an empty cart around the store.
2) People with too much time on their hands can cause problems. A few months prior to the onset of COVID, I had joined a Facebook group focused on local parks. It was a great group, filled with awesome photos from hikes people had taken in state, county, and city parks. Lots of suggestions for where to go and what to do when you got there. Within a month or so of the shutdowns, the group reached Broadway-level amounts of drama. Seemingly every post made, no matter how innocuous, was met with venom and vitriol. I saw one woman who, when asked why the comments were so inflammatory, replied, “What do you expect when we’re all sitting home doing nothing?” Part of that stems from having at least a couple of generations of people who have now grown up without a real fear of being popped in the head for saying something stupid. Combine that with frustration, loneliness, and even depression and the logical result is people being ugly to one another for no real reason.
The lesson – have things you can do to occupy your downtime so you’re not just stewing over some real or imagined slight committed by someone online who you’ve never met. Remember, you don’t need to attend every argument to which you’re invited. Your mental health will thank you.
What stands out to you? What did you learn that you could work on improving or changing before the next disaster?