What is a prepper?

[Graywolf]

Lol. I just wanted to get some more subtle nuance to the definition. I know kind of what I think they are but I just need to explain it consicely.

[Rocky Mtn Mike]

Here's a question that I'm dealing with in the book I'm currently writing: What is a prepper?

And a related question: What is the difference between a prepper and a survivalist?


What do you think?

Many can't handle what I think!

And not sure if I want to tell all that I have learned about the difference between a prepper and a survivalist. Especially after reading a post or two in this thread.

But anyway, I have called myself a survivalist since 1982 and I doubt I will change even though the media etc. has demonized the word, especially in the 1990's after Ruby Ridge and Waco.

I actually am a well prepared outdoorsman and probably should just call myself that when asked.

But the difference I have learned is that it seems like prepper is a pc term that is trying to take the place of the much less popular survivalist label.

Which is ok although I wonder many times if the prepper movement is just a fad or will it last?

I do remember that Kurt Saxon is supposed to have coined the term survivalist in 1972. He is or at least was a well known survivalist although pretty extreme penning such books on explosives and the "Poor Man's James Bond" which I own as part of my 100 plus book survival library.

I do like to live in the wild and I do own a survival retreat / BOL with an underground bunker / storm / storage shelter. So that might make me a stereo typical survivalist.

I do think that a prepper tends to buy their way into survival preparation and likely has more money than a survivalist. Although Mel Tappan who wrote the book "Survival Guns" was rich with a very well prepared retreat / homestead near Rogue River, Oregon.

A survivalist may or may not buy the latest gadget, gun or survival toy. They more likely than preppers, do have much experience in the wild, possibly in the military and can use their brain to get out of bad scenarios, disasters and such without depending on the government to save them.

Even though I own a bunker which can be used as a fallout shelter but is mainly a secure storage / storm shelter, I do not prepare for any specific scenario but just try to prepare for anything. If one is prepared for nuclear war though, they likely will be prepared for just about anything except the sun going super nova which would be an extinction event, would really ruin your day and probably impossible to prepare for.

Well enough about that and maybe I will post more if I think of something or If someone asks me a question....

[CasterTroy]

not sure if I want to tell all that I have learned about the difference between a prepper and a survivalist.

Dang..when you say it like...all SECRETIVE....well Now I gotta KNOW!


That's pretty much where I am on the MODERN definition of the two.

A Survivalist: would be someone on "Naked and Afraid" (MAN my wife and I LOVE that show! TRUE survival.....well...not really...it's reality TV and it's all staged, yeah I know) but the CONCEPT is true survival. Dropped in the middle of nowhere and allowed to bring ONE thing with you....and you're naked, attempting to make it for an extended period of time....or from here on out

A Prepper: is someone who's set aside money to cache things they think will be in short supply when SHTF whatever the hell that may be.

Of course...they're not exclusive, and you can be both (IMHO) in these modern times. But like I said in my post above...I believe my grandparents to have been both back in the day, by necessity

[Rocky Mtn Mike]

I believe my grandparents even great great grandparents were survivalists because they had to be. The term survivalist or prepper did not exist fifty and especially over 100 years ago but most, especially those who lived in the country, in real small towns or on a farm were the real survival people.
I did learn a thing or two from my grandparents especially my Dad's mom who was born and raised in the Ozark mountains. Like a hillbilly but she left that area and went west finally ending up in Denver then a small town in northern Colorado for the rest of her life - from 40 to 86 years old. She would put most of today's survivalists / preppiers to shame.

She never had much money and had to take her husband's paycheck to keep him from spending much of it on alcohol. She with her husband, grew a large garden in that small town of Milliken, CO and canned a basement / root cellar full of shelves of sealed glass jars of tomatoes, pickles and whatever else she got off their half an acre. She also raised chickens in the backyard and could kill them quickly by grabbing their head and swinging them to break their neck quickly.

I can still remember when I was maybe 9, seeing she had baby chicks under a light bulb. Yes, those "old" fashioned light bulbs, that gave out heat, that I think are outlawed today.

She and my grandpa also raised a hog or two in that backyard in that small town. And butchered it right in town. I saw a photo of my grandpa hanging that hog from the large willow tree in their backyard.

They survived the Great Depression although losing a son - my Dad's older brother - to dust pneumonia in Phillipsburg, Kansas in the mid 1930's.

Then they "Bugged out" to Colorado which with irrigation, had plenty of water, farm land and a good life.

They also survived both World Wars and even cancer. My Dad's dad lived to be about 80 and his mom who I just told about more than I ever have anywhere, lived to be 86. They did not have fancy expensive drugs back then when they died in the early 1980's but still lived a full long life. They even lived most of their life without electricity! Which many today seem to think would be impossible.

My mom's parents were much the same although had more money and quite a bit of land and lived on 3 different farms in their lives. Mostly wheat farms and no electricity until my mom's Dad was 75 - he died at 78 of cancer.
And my mom's mom lived a "poor" hard life growing up, even born in a sod house in N. Dakota! I have a photo of that somewhere of them in a wagon next to the soddy.
And then she raised eleven kids on the wheat farm. During the Great Depression they even fed the poorer neighbors. My mom said she never thought they were poor since they always had plenty to eat. Which they should have since they had a lot of land, a fairly good farm and grew a large garden with even an orchard.

Anyway, I get angry when I hear people look down on the "poor" or country hicks....

I keep posting on these survival forums because I want to show many others that it Is possible to create and build a good survival retreat with a strong bunker / underground shelter with little money.
A lot of hard work but really not too much money.

People have to know how to live on little money and even do without if necessary. And that is what I learned from my grandparents.

[W.Lynn]

Mike, you live as you were taught. Got yourself a place, and consistently putting in the effort to make a place where you can continue on.

The world is also full of those who live every moment trying to redefine what should just be "life as it makes sense." They want not relying on the government to mean you're strange, and therefore must be up to something. They can't conceive of anyone who hasn't got their hand out for everything they can possibly get.

I live a milder version, not having a piece of ground of my own anywhere. But there are nut jobs out there who can't even understand my having what I need in the house so I don't have any concerns when I hear the river will rise. It's done it before, so I figure it will again. Where I am right now, at least there's the river, game, wild areas, farms, and a dairy that would be closer to walk to, than to drive.

You know it will snow in Colorado and Wyoming, KK knows typhoons will blow through and volcanoes will blow their tops. It just makes sense to plan accordingly.

[Graywolf]

So here's a thought that I've been bouncing around.

What do you think about the nuance that a survivalist is more knowledgeable by practice and experience and a prepper is more about research and theory?

I still think a survivalist connotes more of an outdoor environment but I may change that restriction.

[Tex]

I think you may be right to a degree, Wolf, but I also think that a survivalist and a prepper are alot of times in two different universes. In my opinion people become preppers in hopes that they never have to become survivalists.

A survivalists does gain knowledge through practice, but so do alot of preppers. The Hostile Native and I do not necessarily want to have to resort to hardcore survivalism. We work very hard to put our knowledge into practice to better prepare a sustainable lifestyle for not only ourselves, but also the people we would need to help protect these assets.

Some preppers do buy alot of Mountain House and alot of books. These are the ones who study theory. I honestly hold little hope for this type to survive any sort of long term catastrophy. If a person is not putting knowledge into practice they are not doing themselves x or their families any favors. I have a nice 308 and I read a couple of books about Carlos Hathcock. That sure as hell don't make me a sniper. I can have all the freeweights and muscle and fitness magazines I want, but until I actually start putting what I've read into practice and lift some weights, I will not get stronger. Just because a person has buckets of food and has studied every theory Rawles ever wrote about don't mean they are a prepper.

I think being both a survivalist or a prepper requirey one to put knowledge into practice. In my opinion the survivalist will succeed with little more than his skills while the prepper does his thing hoping to never have to become a survivalist.

Simply my opinion and I could be wrong.


Tex

[Graywolf]

I'm pretty close to your thinking but I think the "hoping to never have to become a survivalist" is pretty much what I'm saying. In general, you can be a prepper without being tested, thereby implying that preppers are theoretically-based and survivalists are practical-based. My issue is that there may be some opening for a person to be considered a survivalist without actually ever being in a survival situation and someone considered a prepper may actually have some practical experience.

What I don't want to do is delineate survivalists by defining them as outdoor specialists only. I think someone with a lot of combat or urban survival knowledge could be considered a survivalist even if they may not know how to use cattails as tinder and I don't want to define preppers as people who don't actually know anything.

[Tex]

I tend to think this is one of those deals where you will have to decide a definition for these two terms that best suits the purposes of your book and the points you wish to make.

Trying to define a prepper and a survivalist by asking a group of people is akin to getting us to all come up with a specific set of guidelines that will define a pretty woman. My definition may be just like AA's, but AD may completely disagree. We could all have different opinions, but we would all be right.

I am going to wish you good luck because I think you could end up writing a whole damn book just trying to define these two terms.


Tex

[Graywolf]

Absolutely but I know enough now from before that there are some pretty smart people out there that don't have their own website. Forums like this allow me to get some viewpoints that I wouldn't have otherwise. I have no problem deciding on definitions that I think are appropriate but I also have no problem taking in other opinions and testing them against my current thoughts, and adjusting my thoughts if those opinions have merit.

[W.Lynn]

I think I'm a prepper, but to some definitions, people might call me a survivalist.

I do keep extra in the house, and buy books, and read all kinds of things.

I also go primitive camping, hunt, fish, garden, learn wild edibles, learn early craft techniques (all the way to stone age.)

[Rocky Mtn Mike]

As I have said in a previous post, I have been and I have called myself a survivalist since 1982 mainly since that is the term that was popular back then.

I might be calling myself a prepper today if I was younger and if I had never known much about survivalism. And if I was just starting into this survival thing or had just started 5 or less years ago.

I still think and I have read some others on various forums, who think that the term prepper is a kinder gentler more politically correct term than the old survivalist label that has been well disparaged / demonized in the mass media over the past 20 years or so.

I think that it doesn't truly matter whether one calls themselves a survivalist, a prepper, a realist or even a well prepared outdoors person. Just so one does prepare and also has the knowledge to be able to know what to do in an emergency, crisis, disaster etc.

And if one is well prepared with knowledge, experience, gear and preps then they more likely will survive whatever may come. And then by surviving they would then be known as a Survivor.

[Rockntoy]

I can consider myself both. I can survive in the rough and I also prep for the unexpected. Around here we have numerous tornadoes each year as many wildfires and ice storms. Pick a disaster and we have had it. Earthquakes are the rage now, just had a 4.5 last week that shook the place a little. I have tried to prepare for a disater, manmade or weather to the best I can. I can also live off the land so to speak thru fishing, small game, wild plants that I know of and larger game. I can shin and butcher, I have made a decent size smoker to hang jerky or what ever is at my take and I have other skills that will be used if needed. So I would think a prepper is one who just preps because of a unknown future event to possibly survive and a survivilist is one that has the skills and means to survive. Both the same but in diffrent ways. End game is to make it thru whatever gets thrown at them. Just my 1 centavoe.

[White4Delta]

Hello, I'm a new guy and really do not know much about either topic, but I'm trying to learn. I have how ever taken some Emergency Management classes which is where I first learned about being prepared. Mitigation, Preparedness, Response and Recovery are the life links for EM. I think that a Prepper falls under (Mitigation and Preparedness) A prepper prepares and plans for something then hopefully try to put the plan to the test and then re-evaluate and test again. But there is a down side because just prepping there is no Recovery aspect to the plan. Their hopes are to live long enough till things to get back to normal. A survivalist on the other hand will incorporate the four phases into there plan. They have more experiences on surviving and how to do it. With the Recovery part they would be more willing to take charge and start putting recovery into motion. Either way you look at it if we are going to survive we are all going to have to be survivalist in the long run. Prepping will only last so long.

[interstate3704]

I consider myself both but to me it is the same idea just different words. I think, no kidding I really do once in a while, that a prepper/survivalist is someone who looks at the world and says what if and or sees the cluster that the country is in an wants to be ready for what is clearly coming, which in my opinion is Germany 1930 or maybe a bit earlier but going there fast. Hyperinflation mixed with a race war and then some but we will see.