Preppers & Survivalist and your definition of them!

2630 Views 15 Replies 12 Participants Last post by Raven, Apr 19, 2010

OhioMan

Discussion Starter · Apr 19, 2010

I don't think there is a right or wrong answer on this question. I didn't know there was much of a mystery until recently, but I would like to hear yours.

I kinda look at it this way:

To me a "Prepper" is someone who is new to the first level of true survivalism. If you could put it into educational terms, a prepper is someone working on their associates degree, I am in this phase. I'm still fumbling around trying to figure out where the hallways go and wondering why I have to take this class and where the bathrooms are.

A true Survivalist is somene with a Master's degree if not a PhD. They are the
teachers of us freshman. They are the ones who patiently teach us how to sharpen a knife or catch a fish with a stick or which plants we can eat!

We are very blessed to have a few of them around here, people like MikeK, MtnMike, Kev and a few others. They have spent years learning the skills that I am trying to master now in my life.

I have take (2) things from these guys and others that I consider the foundation and core of my beliefs.

(1) My "Prepping" is only a temporary fix to learning real survival skills for long-term survival!

(2) As "prepping" goes into survival skills it's not like learning how to sail or ride a motorcycle, survivalism is a lifestyle for life!

Even if the DOW hits 18K, even if unemployment goes down to 2%, even if Iran and Israel become one big happy family...we still learn, we still prepare, we still learn new skills. Because now it's become a lifestyle!

What's your defination?

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Denverbill

· #2 · Apr 19, 2010

So my definition differs from yours a it.

I think there are some great "images" that are evoked by each term as well as bad.

Prepper:

Good image:

A person who prepares for loss of a job. A person who wants to rely less on publicly provided power surces. A person who is preparing for numerous types of termoil but typically no too concerned about apocolyptic type stuff.

Bad Image:

A person who stores food and items of little use in normal life to an extreme level. Paranoid of others who may take what they are pack ratting. Someone who is a seclusionist ad has messy demeanor as well as is stand offish and a loner.

Survivalist:

Good Image:

A person who enjoys learning to live of the one's environment alone fo a short while. A person who enjoys extreme camping. A person who is concerned with the potential of apocolyptic level dangerand life change and wants to be able to fend ffor one's self.

Bad Image:

A person who is a conspiracy theorist and can't tell the difference between fact, and fiction. A dangerous person who cries weapons and is willing to use them should they fel threatened. Trouble is most things threaten them. A person who a loner in social situations to an extreme where they struggle to have a conversation or carry a topic beyond their paranoia.

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dirtydog

· #3 · Apr 19, 2010

preppers are hoarders.....survivalists have the knowledge and skills to survive anywhere in any climate or place from desert to jungles to artic.

MotherEarth

· #4 · Apr 19, 2010

My definition of prepper:
Trying to prepare as much as possible for an un/forseeable emergency. It is what you do in your free time.
Survivalist:
The person who lives and prepares like they are living in the emergency time, even though they still may do the every day things we all do. Their work, etc. is more of a time filler for when they can't be doing their survivalist stuff.

Some would laugh here at what I have prepped, while the every day Jo on the street thinks I'm nuts.
My family now lovingly calls me "Crazy ______" because of this. Except, one story I have to share : After the earthquakes and so on the last month my 16 year old nephew said out of the blue to my brother "Maybe aunt _____ isn't "Crazy ____" after all"
lol

Reactions: 4

mangyhyena

· #5 · Apr 19, 2010

OhioMan said:
I don't think there is a right or wrong answer on this question. I didn't know there was much of a mystery until recently, but I would like to hear yours.

I kinda look at it this way:

To me a "Prepper" is someone who is new to the first level of true survivalism. If you could put it into educational terms, a prepper is someone working on their associates degree, I am in this phase. I'm still fumbling around trying to figure out where the hallways go and wondering why I have to take this class and where the bathrooms are.

A true Survivalist is somene with a Master's degree if not a PhD. They are the
teachers of us freshman. They are the ones who patiently teach us how to sharpen a knife or catch a fish with a stick or which plants we can eat!

We are very blessed to have a few of them around here, people like MikeK, MtnMike, Kev and a few others. They have spent years learning the skills that I am trying to master now in my life.

I have take (2) things from these guys and others that I consider the foundation and core of my beliefs.

(1) My "Prepping" is only a temporary fix to learning real survival skills for long-term survival!

(2) As "prepping" goes into survival skills it's not like learning how to sail or ride a motorcycle, survivalism is a lifestyle for life!

Even if the DOW hits 18K, even if unemployment goes down to 2%, even if Iran and Israel become one big happy family...we still learn, we still prepare, we still learn new skills. Because now it's become a lifestyle!

What's your defination?

I totally agree with your two things at the end. Survivalism is a lifestyle.

I'd quickly define the difference as this:

A prepper builds up a supply of goods to last for a set period of time without replenishing those supplies. Usually this is done to ride out a short term disruption of society, probably a local problem, until the systems can be reestablished.

A survivalist does prep supplies, but is more focused on sustainability for the long haul. This entails more than storing supplies. It entails learning skills that will in turn allow you to create/build/grow/raise your own shelter, food, water, defensive capabilities, ect... This is usually in preparation for a total collapse of everything----TEOTWAWKI. Survivalism being a lifestyle, these skills will probably be in use in the every day life of a survivalist right now while things are stable.

As for good and bad images---if you're keeping your mouth shut about your supplies and skills then it shouldn't matter what people think.

Anyway, that's how I look at it.

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stevegee58

· #6 · Apr 19, 2010

Sure, that's easy.

*insert tongue in cheek*

Survivalists wear camo and are fixated on firearms.
Preppers are into gardening and other down-home skills.

dirtydog

· #7 · Apr 19, 2010

stevegee58 said:
Sure, that's easy.

*insert tongue in cheek*

Survivalists wear camo and are fixated on firearms.
Preppers are into gardening and other down-home skills.

Lol actually survivalists are more focused on building weapons with renewable resources such as bows ,knives from river rock,eating wild edible plants,snaring and trapping game,making clothing from skins etc.Total wilderness self suffiency.

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stephpd

· #8 · Apr 19, 2010

I kinda gave mine in another thread but I'll do it again.

Prepper- some one caught up in the latest fad. Does it more to show off to the others living in their McVillage. (as in, I got something you don't have.) It's more about having the biggest, fastest and most outlandish stuff. These will be the folks that are news articles just showing off. And no real idea what to do with any of it.

Survivalist- someone with the skills to survive without all the preps. They do preserve what they grow and catch, been doing it most of their lives. BOL is what they call home.

Most of us won't fit into either category. We've seen things like Katrina and Haiti and think that most aren't prepared for most anything at all. We're always amazed that at the first snowflake the masses run to the stores and stripping them bare. We consider ourselves a little better off then most because we have seen these things happening and decided that we're going to not be one of them. We will never be true survivalist but then we're also not in it just for show. We've gotten hooked into starting to be prepared for some things but have a long way to go.

The biggest advantage we have over the masses is that we've taken the first step and there's no turning back now. It's become part of our life and we're interested in learning more.

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LaciRich

· #9 · Apr 19, 2010

I've always looked at "prepping" as being the same thing as survivalism. Growing up in the family I had, we did everything a prepper would do, in addition to hunting, camping, fishing, etc. From what I understand, "prepper" is a newer, more modern term for it. Something that doesn't raise the hackles on the necks of the sheeple as much as the word "survivalist". A person who still relies on the land, and on an old fashioned way of life raises the hackles, and "survivalist" was the term given to that group of people.

Prepper is a euphemism.

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MikeK

· #10 · Apr 19, 2010

To me, survivalist is a large catagory. It encompasses anyone who is preparing to survive whatever may happen.

We tend to associate the word survivalist with folks who can go into the woods and survive on their own. But I see that as a survivalist who's a wilderness expert. To me, a prepper is a survivalist who is preparing by putting aside extra food, water, etc. I see the fully self sufficient homesteader as the ultimate survivalist, even though many of them resent the term.

In the old days, we had a lot of survivalists. We had the fur trappers and mountain men. They were the wilderness experts. Even though many of them died doing it. Whether by hostilities, animal encounters, disease, injury or starvation. These are the same risks faced by today's wilderness experts.

We had the pioneers, who were part prepper, part homesteader. They brought what supplies they could. Supplimented them with game and plants along the way. Then settled in somewhere and started raising their own food.

Even back then, we had the sheeple. They congregated in the cities and depended on others to feed and cloth them.

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stevegee58

· #11 · Apr 19, 2010

Maybe it's like the distinction between "caver" and "spelunker". Cavers refer to themselves as "cavers"; outsiders (i.e. non-cavers) call cavers "spelunkers".

MikeK

· #12 · Apr 19, 2010

LaciRich said:
I've always looked at "prepping" as being the same thing as survivalism. Growing up in the family I had, we did everything a prepper would do, in addition to hunting, camping, fishing, etc. From what I understand, "prepper" is a newer, more modern term for it. Something that doesn't raise the hackles on the necks of the sheeple as much as the word "survivalist". A person who still relies on the land, and on an old fashioned way of life raises the hackles, and "survivalist" was the term given to that group of people.

Prepper is a euphemism.

I've always thought of the word prepper as the kinder, gentler, way of saying survivalist. Political correctness, as it were. Kinda how gun folks always seem to have to redefine terms like "stopping power" and "accidental discharge".

stevegee58 said:
Maybe it's like the distinction between "caver" and "spelunker". Cavers refer to themselves as "cavers"; outsiders (i.e. non-cavers) call cavers "spelunkers".

Can you blame them? If I was a caver, I wouldn't want to be called a spelunker either. It almost sounds obscene.

:

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azhawk

· #13 · Apr 19, 2010

To all who are on this thread. There are many facets to this and it doesn't matter who is right or who is wrong. This is not a contest.

I am a 58 year old woman living by myself most of the time. I have a few things going for me: 1. I try to keep informed about what is going on in the world 2. I want to remain as independent as possible. 3. I am not physically capable of being a Rambo or foraging in the woods to any great degree 4. I am not agressive by nature 5. I am very protective of my possessions and property because I earned them 6. Unfortunately I was not in the military service and did not learn some of the things that would be quite helpful in a survival mode, BUT that is not my fault...it is a fact.

Because I have made a very serious attempt to be prepared for whatever unknown is ahead, I consider myself to be a prepared person ...not a prepper or a survivalist....a person trying to do the best I can do for my situation.

Like someone said earlier, "Who really cares what you label yourself as?" It doesn't matter. Would you rather I do NOTHING and scream HELP when the SHTF???

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MikeK

· #14 · Apr 19, 2010

azhawk said:
To all who are on this thread. There are many facets to this and it doesn't matter who is right or who is wrong. This is not a contest.

I'm not sure there is a right or wrong. Just the fact that we all have so many different definitions shows that. It's just a label anyway and doesn't really matter. Personally, I call myself a survivalist and am proud of it. Sure there's negative connotations to it. Just like the stigma attached to being a gun owner, of which I also am.

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|eric|

· #15 · Apr 19, 2010

prepper : who does the act of preparing for a crisis or event usualy hoarding food and such goods.
survivalist : a person who inserts a mentality of survivability in is daily life
and performs such actions in a way and accordance to this mentality

it is to note that both therms are not inclusive nor exclusive of each other

:

Raven

· #16 · Apr 19, 2010

Well, as I see it...a Prepper is someone who prepares to survive in uncertain times by being self-reliant/self-sufficient.

A Survivalist is someone who prepares to survive in uncertain times by being self-reliant/self-sufficient.

...........Hmmm............

I suppose if one wanted to be specific, you could say a "Prepper" is someone with more of a major focused on homesteading and renewable methods of food production, storage, and off-grid self-reliance/living, with a minor in Bushcraft, wilderness skills and military tactics.

The Survivalist may be more focused on the opposite, e.g., more emphysis placed on bushcraft, wilderness skills and military tactics, rather than the homesteading/off-grid approach to the matter.

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