Tuesday, March 8, 2011

Stealth Prepping - Op-Sec and Your Preps

There’s an old saying that it pays to advertise but when it comes to your preps this may be a very bad idea. Everyday life is often a battle between the “haves” and “have-nots” and if you doubt this reasoning just trying making a list of all the entitlement programs that are presently available out there. During a disaster or crisis this difference will only be multiplied and become even more obvious. Those persons who have prepared (the haves) in advance of a crisis or a disaster may become an even bigger target of those who didn’t prepare (the have-nots).

Now there are many people in the prepping community that are extremely proud of their efforts and the security and peace of mind it affords them. But unlike the proud parents that can’t wait to tell everyone about their new little family member, too much talk about your preps can be a dangerous thing in a true survival situation. The “have-nots” will be looking for the “haves” to provide for them when things get bad. This is a simple fact of nature as there will be a large number of people who are unprepared and will be looking for any way to survive that they can. While you shouldn’t be totally against helping your friends and neighbors, they should also be willing to help themselves.

Now you can still have a proper conversation about your preps with your friends and neighbors without giving away too much information. You just need to avoid the tendency of going into too much detail. As is frequently said, “The devil is in the details.”

Now sometimes the best way to hide your preps is in “plain sight”. People rarely see things for what they truly are and don’t always realize their purpose or their intended value unless you give them the specifics. Although you may want to establish “bragging rights” about your preps, it may not be in the best interest of your security.

So let’s take a look at a simple example of one type of prep that everyone has (or should have). Water is an absolute necessity in a survival situation and having an adequate means of filtering and purifying water is critical. Now a Big Berkey sitting on the counter in your kitchen is going to be pretty obvious to most anyone who happens to stop in or come by for a visit and they are probably going to have a few questions concerning it. This will be especially true if they aren't actually preparedness minded. If they are of the preparedness mindset they may actually know as much or more about it than you do! While you may have a tendency to want to tell your visitors about how great your water purification and filtration system really is, sometimes it’s better to leave out the details if they don’t exemplify a preparedness mindset. Keep your explanations simple and uncomplicated when they ask questions about something. Even though you may have the “biggest and the baddest” water filtration system in town, you probably shouldn’t stress the point to your neighbors or friends, especially if they aren’t “preparedness minded” sort of folks.

So keep things simple by keeping your explanations simple. If someone notices part of your preps, keep the explanation simple and leave out the extra details. In this case, just tell them you didn’t like the taste of your water and are trying to eliminate the problem. The main thing is not to bring too much attention to your preps by giving out too much information or too many details. Save the details for later or wait until they show a genuine interest in being prepared.

Staying above the water line!

Riverwalker

11 comments:

idahobob said...

Tell NO ONE, anything!!

Especially on blogs that ask the dumb ass question,"What did you do to prep this week?"

Bob
III

riverwalker said...

To: idahobob

Sometimes it's more a matter of what you don't say...which is usually going to be very little, if anything at all.

Thanks bob.

RW

FamilyLifeBoat said...

The thing of it is that if you tell no one anything they can't prepare. And you also can't assume that you will be able to hide it all the time.

How will you hide the fact that your family isn't starving to death while everyone else is?

I focus on the 72 hour kit if they get that far they can learn more themselves.

Rick said...

Anyone that asks about my berkley water filter I tell 'em its equipped to take out the flouride in the water which the EPA has said infants shouldn't have. This way we don't have to buy "baby" water to make formula... Simple explanations are the best and happens to be true as well.
I also agree if you say nothing how do you get your neighbors, co-workers and friends to start thinking about their preparedness?

idahobob said...

You can have (and should have) conversations about preparedness with others without talking about WHAT you have.

Telling folks about WHAT you have is an open invitation to disaster.

How to get them thinking about preparedness? Loan them books, DVD's. A good start is "Dare to prepare" by Holly Deyo, or "Making The Best Of Basics" by James Stevens, or "The Encyclopedia Of Country Living" by Carla Emery. Talk to them about gardening, canning, camping hunting, fishing. Talk to them about the Lord, Jesus Christ.

But DO NOT tell others what you have or may have, stored away.

Bob
III

John said...

Discretion is definitely called for. I fear for those who go on blogs, YouTube or their own sites and blab about everything they're doing. Their intentions to be instructive may backfire on them.

riverwalker said...

To: FamilyLifeBoat

If it gets to the point where starvation may be a problem, I plan to be in a different area with a LOT less people around.

Thanks.

RW

riverwalker said...

To: Rick

Great example of discussing preparedness without giving away all the "details."

The tendency to volunteer too much information is what will generally lead to having problems.

Thanks.

RW

riverwalker said...

To: idahobob

"You can have (and should have) conversations about preparedness with others without talking about WHAT you have."

Very well said idahobob!

Thanks.

RW

riverwalker said...

To: John

There are those out there who may have gone too far in the information they have given out.

Kind of reminds me of the old saying:

"The road to destruction is paved with good intentions..."

While I may discuss such things as MRE's, etc., I don't feel the need to tell anyone just how many cases I have in storage...it just isn't something they need to know in order to become more prepared.

There are a few people who actually know who I am but even they don't know the full level or extent of my preparedness efforts.

Thanks.

RW

Kay said...

I love discussing different aspects of preps with different people, they dont know that these things are for preps. I discuss various aspects of my BOB with my hiking friends, good packs to use, best lightweight sleep systems, wilderness medic skills and all kinds of things. One friend loves to go bare basic camping with me, we just take minimal gear and supplies, what can fit into a small book bag type back pack, build our own shelters, hunt, gather and fish and stuff like that. We are just sharing a hobby that just so happens to tie into my preps. They dont know that.
Same with canning, growing food, knitting and various things on that line of thought. I have a another group of friends who are into all that kind of thing, we have even started spinning our own wool and going completely back to basics on a lot of these things, yet again its just a hobby that ties into my long term preps. They dont know that.

Same goes for hunting, fishing, alternative power sources and a whole lot more, all just interests and hobbies that I share with others until I need to utilize those skills. Being able to discuss these things and put them into practise means I learn from others and will already be using these skills when they start to matter.

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