At its core, prepping is all about self-reliance. It’s about learning the skills you need to survive and gathering the right supplies to weather anything the world can throw at you.
Sure, being self-reliant is the ultimate goal, but the reality of the situation is that everything goes a little easier with some help. The idea of a prepper group is nothing new, as like-minded people have been banding together to help one another out since we were drawing on cave walls, but there is something different in this context however. We’re not taking about a group of people helping each other out after an earthquake or tornado, but instead we’re talking about a group of people that are OK with being their own community once the SHTF.
A true prepper group is made up of people that are willing to share skills and resources to help one another survive. This is a big deal when it comes to long-term survival, but with these positives come some definite negatives, including heavily compromised OpSec. So are prepper groups a good thing? Read on and see what you think for yourself.
Prepper Groups: The Positives
First and foremost, having a group of people to rely on can be a major load off your shoulders. With others to help with the burden of prepping, it’s easier to plan for a wider variety of disasters while not skimping on any one specifically. Along with this, you gain some insight that you might not have had by yourself. Both of these are major positives before anything even goes bad.
Add to this the ability to build a dream team of skillsets and you have the perfect storm of prepping skills. Instead of having to become extremely proficient at tasks like welding and canning food, you can use your team members to each master one of these skills. While you need to know them all yourself, you would only need to focus on one to a level of mastery.
You can also use these masters of trade to teach one another how their skills are done. A carpenter can teach the basics of woodworking while a welder can show everyone how to join metal. Instead of going out and learning skills that aren’t necessarily centered around prepping, you can learn them from your teammates who know exactly why you want to learn them.
The last positive we’ll mention has to do with bugging out. We all know one of the safest options is to have a retreat you can Get Out Of Dodge to, but few people can afford an entirely separate piece of land with a home on it, let alone all the supplies that would have to be duplicated there as well as at your current residence. This becomes a lot easier with 5 or more people chipping in, making it a lot more achievable of an option.
Prepper Groups: The Negatives
It’s not all sunshine and rainbows however. The first major issue with prepper groups is the compromised OpSec. By bringing people into your inner sanctum you’re letting them know what you have and what you’re prepping for.
While you should trust the members of your prepper group with your life, the old saying goes that the only way two people can keep a secret is if one of them is dead. This goes doubly so for preppers. You never know what might come up that having a group know about your prep could hurt. Keep this in mind when choosing members.
The other major issue with forming or joining a prepper group has to do with pressure. Not pressure to join or not join, but instead what pressure does to people. It’s easy to be a prepper when you can get supplies from Wal-Mart, but how will those people in your group handle things when the SHTF? Will they stay cool and collected as they are now, or will they break down and snap? It’s hard enough knowing how you’ll respond; let alone how a group of others will, too.
So What Should You Do?
The choice to join or not join a prepper group is ultimately up to you. IF you have like-minded friends that you’ve known for 20 years, it’s a pretty safe bet that you should band together. If however your neighbor learns you prep and wants to team up without the first idea of what to do, this might not be the best member of your team.
Building a prepper team is a science, but with some work and a lot of thought, you can get the right group of people together and make your changes of survival better than you could by yourself. So, are prepper groups a good idea? It’s all a matter of perspective, but done correctly they can be one of the best things going.