In high school I was introduced to a book that changed my life and provided me with a foundation to accept the concept of prepping when Trace introduced it. That book was Ishmael by Daniel Quinn. Quinn was able to hit a nerve in my subconscious and explain the world, “our” culture, in such a way that – for a split second – I felt like I “got it”. Of course, as is the case with many such occurrences the feeling of “got it” was fleeting and life went on as normal. I went off to college and there, while studying Anthropology, returned to Ishmael and Quinn’s other books. I don’t know if I enjoyed my Anthropology classes more because of Daniel Quinn or if I enjoyed, and understood, his ideas because of Anthropology. Regardless, they were very complementary.

But what, exactly, does all of this have to do with disasters? or with prepping?

While the story of the boiling frog is, unfortunately, scientifically inaccurate, it still provides an excellent illustration for the concept of a slow, and therefore unnoticed, deterioration or destruction. We are the frog, simmering away in the belief that the world was meant for humans and that we are living – finally – as humans were meant to live. But, humans lived for millions of years as ‘part of the world’. Then, something changed and we started thinking that instead of being a part of the world, the world was meant for us and could – no should – be molded to our will. Quinn proposes that change was agriculture and, more specifically, putting food under lock and key, thereby allowing for larger and more concentrated populations but also introducing a cultural control mechanism in food and other resources.

Honestly, at this point, I don’t think it really matters what caused the change; what matters is to recognize the issue with this “new” mindset.

Humans live as if we are alone on this planet – utlizing resources without regard for what happens tomorrow, or in a month, or a year from now, when there is none left. As Quinn says in Ishmael, “I have amazing news for you. Man is not alone on this planet. He is part of a community, upon which he depends absolutely.” We have forgotten that we depend on everything – water, fuel, plants, animals…

And, I bring us back to prepping. As a group I believe preppers intrinsically understand how much humanity depends on the rapidly depleting resources. The disaster I see is that too few people have recognized this early enough for the world to continue as we know it.

(Friday: What We Did This Week To Prep)