- Jan 12, 2012
- 27,286
- 113
My opinion:
If you have a group that talks about this stuff, but does nothing, limit the discussion of preparations to social-level discourse and do not discuss any details of your own preparations. If they ask, just smile and change the subject.
If they're not serious now, it's not likely that you can trust or rely on them in an emergency situation where they are not prepared. I don't think you can fix that.
If you want to build a group, start with one person. Not a small group, one person (perhaps including their immediate family as well). Find someone you think you can trust overall and build a relationship with them if one does not already exist. It doesn't matter whether or not the person is currently interested or involved in preparing for emergencies or if they have interest in guns or anything else as long as they are not against any of those things. When you believe you can rely on them, ask them if they want to collaborate with you on preparations. Start small and if it blossoms, you have won. After you are comfortable with your new prepping ally, raise the subject of adding one more person. Keep in mind that now you and your ally have to both be on board with the addition and you have to both mesh with them and most importantly, the three of you have to mesh as a group. Repeat the process you did with your first ally.
In my opinion, trustworthiness and reliability are absolutely the most critically important factors. They are far more important than skills or gear or supplies. Those can be learned and acquired at will. You either have trust or you can build it, but you can't but it or borrow it.
Excellent advice! As it is, there is one person I would truly rely on who is close enough to make a difference. Not only is he a close neighbor and a close friend, he has been a close neighbor here since my great-grandmother lived in this house when he moved here as a young man. I have a few other friends who are not in the most geographically convenient locations I trust both in capability and integrity. There are others I would welcome if they make it this far based not so much on participation as the things they have done to make the preparedness I have managed possible either through supplying me with skills I learned from them or otherwise making the means available.
At the end of the day, there are few who really take this seriously. Some honestly believe that 'This is America, that can't happen here' BS, others simply believe that just because it hasn't happened, it necessarily isn't going to, much like the ones who have engaged in unsafe gun handling practices who still don't believe it can happen even after blowing a hole through their own hands, and others yet who live in denial that it could happen because they are not psychologically capable of dealing with serious consideration of the thought. Last but not least, there are those like the ones who are the subject of the thread who don't really take it seriously as evidenced by their actions, but on the other hand pay a little lip service, like to talk a good game over a beer, and pretend like they are doing something other than justifying to themselves buying an extra gun or two.