Of course, there are various reasons to know thy neighbor, particularly when the chips come falling. Knowing your neighbors is the basis of community preparedness, which I daresay is crucial to a locality’s survival when SHTF.
Sure, as a prepper, a common line of thought is to obtain all necessary supplies, shut your doors & windows & hide in your basement. While this may work, it is not advisable when dealing with certain disasters, particularly when it may be a long-term disaster. As you read, whoever you are, I doubt that you can honestly say that you rely on no one at all, regardless of your level of self-reliance.
In fact, except you live in the wild (and you have to make friends with animals & trees there), you cannot be independent. Think about it.
And even if you have a stockpile that will last for ten years, so much can go wrong. Community preparedness may be the only thing that’ll save you and others when the very worst poop hits the fan.
5 Reasons to Know Thy Neighbor
A prepared community will rarely suffer catastrophic losses in the event of a disaster. This is because there is always a plan in place to account for everyone. Parents may not be at home when a disaster occurs, which implies that some kids will be left to fend for themselves during some dark times. A community that preps together will easily take care of this. Remember that this could affect your kids too, or you. It is always best to know thy neighbor. Let’s see solid reasons for the repeated emphasis on this.
Physical Resources
It’s hard to know now what it is, but we always fail to have 1 or 10+ essential items when SHTF. It may be forgetfulness, a lackadaisical attitude towards that particular supply, or you could lose access to it due to the disaster.
Even if all of this does not happen, it is recommended to mingle with your neighbors for the sake of physical resources. If you insist that none of your neighbors can help you, then you should be of some help to them. Give others a little part of what you have.
Lastly, note that there is no assurance that your supplies will still be in a healthy condition when it is time to eat them.
Bugging In
Have you considered that your one-year food cache may not be healthy to consume when it is time to dig into it? What if your batch of supplies has been spoilt by water, heat, cold, pests, or whatever? The keynote here is, have you considered that you may be bugged in without supplies or certain essential facilities, notwithstanding how prepared you believe you are?
If any of the above scenarios do happen, your sole hope (without community help) would be an immense backup or the ability to teleport to gather supplies, but why go through all this?
If you’re willing, your community is always there to help. I’ve been without essentials in some SHTF situations (either due to pure hard luck or forgetfulness), and I wonder what would have happened if I didn’t have a community to fall back on. You should know that getting back on your feet when you fall flat can be difficult without someone giving you a hand.
Security
Ironically, security is easily among the most overlooked concerns regarding community preparedness, and do you know why? It’s overconfidence. You’ve been prepping for years, perhaps even subconsciously hoping that a disaster strikes, so you test everything you’ve learned, and then catastrophe strikes. You’re bound to be confident of yourself, isn’t it? In fact, you should be, but it shouldn’t get in the way of reasoning.
You are not Rambo, John Wick, or The Punisher. You can’t defeat all threats regardless of how prepared you are. I understand that you have about ten security systems at home, but relax; what happens when the attacks are recurring & unrelenting? I’m betting you don’t even have the complete training for defeating a 5-man gang.
Assess your environment. Is it possible to defend yourself all by yourself against waves after waves of attacks? Remember that there are other SHTF scenarios apart from tsunamis, hurricanes & earthquakes. Sometimes, even a small group can’t cope with a wide range of threats.
Also, you must rest. It is very difficult (if not impossible) to single handedly maintain security every 24 hours of the day for up to a week. You’ll get tired and will have to sleep deeply at a point.
Who will be on the lookout for you when you’re counting sheep?
Labor
There will likely be a lot of physical workloads to get involved in during long-term disasters. This could be about creating & growing gardens, fishing, hunting, collecting water, gathering food, rebuilding structures, watching over kids & attending to security issues — to mention but a few.
To this effect, there’s a wise saying: “many hands make the work light.” That implies that the more serious persons on a project, the easier & quicker it becomes to get it done. So, with neighbors, you spend less energy & time on projects, thereby saving more of the calories you get from foods.
Skill Sets
We have diverse skill sets among us. Some are specialized, while some are not. You cannot possibly have the ability to solve every task that comes up, although I don’t doubt that you know many things. It is best to be in a group. That way, you’re sure to have a lot of professionals in different fields among you. A group will give access to carpenters, plumbers, electricians, mechanics, farmers, hunters, fishermen & several others.
Concluding the Reasons to Know Thy Neighbor
Apparently, there are a number of reasons to know thy neighbor. I have to mention that illnesses or injuries are easier to treat when there’s a lot of people. There’s a high chance that there will be more capable hands to handle health concerns when in a group. Also, we are naturally social beings. We may suffer mental issues if we stay isolated for too long. However, community preparedness takes a lot. We’ll look at how to establish a great community plan for survival in our subsequent posts.
