Doomsday Preppers – Nine Meals Away From Anarchy

EDITED – 3/5/12 – It turns out that I received an unedited version of the episode for Tuesday.  In my version, I had another prepper that was cut from the show.  So, instead of seeing “into the spider-hole guy,”  you are going to see Mr. Cook.  As of 3:36 CT, I’m deleting the portion about the spider-hole guy. 🙂

I was given another opportunity to watch a preview of the National Geographic show Doomsday Preppers.  This episode airs on Tuesday, March 6, 2012.  See my previous review here.

Before I start, let me state that…It is a TV show people! 🙂

This episode has some interesting characters.  The reasons they prep is a little bit more understandable and accepted than some of the previous preppers…although it has been mentioned that the show required people to have “interesting” reasons to prep.  Who wants to hear about prepping for a hurricane, earthquake or tornado?

• Preston White is the second prepper to receive the spotlight this Tuesday.  I have to say, this guy just doesn’t look very stable to me.  He is preparing for a nuclear radiation cloud to hit the United States due from the nuclear meltdown in Fukushima, Japan.  His answer to becoming prepared is to store seed for planting…..seed…..seed….seed.  At one point in the segment, he and a friend time a “seed bugout.”  As a side note, he does mention that he would like to help the city out with seed for growing food if it was ever necessary.  However, White’s preps don’t always make a lot of sense.  Although he is prepping for nuclear radiation, he doesn’t have any of the traditional radiation equipment (something pointed out by the experts).

Value for the Prepper – In the segment, White talks about a time when he put an ad on Craigslist and had a run in with someone who might have wanted to do him harm.  Although I’m not one that believes preppers have to live in complete secrecy to their lifestyle, I do believe in OPSEC to a point.  White didn’t seem to follow this route in dealing with the Craiglist contact.  The newspaper headline shown on the show said, “Gunnison man says attackers tried to kill him.”  The tag line reads, “Soldier of ‘fortune,’ or botched pot deal?” LOLOLOL.  Of course, we don’t really believe the mainstream media….but, LOLOLOLOL, just watch the show!

Another thing that was very interesting in this segment was the HHO machine that a friend of his created.  It breaks down water molecules into hydrogen and oxygen and allows you to make fuel out of the hydrogen.  The show mentioned that plans can be found on the internet…I wonder how hard it is to make?

• The third prepper on the show this episode is Mike Mester.  He is very well prepared!  Mester is a suburban dad with a family, including two German Shepherds.  It seems like the family is onboard when it comes to prepping.  He does all the things that many talk about: stores and rotates gas, stores a ton of food, makes compost bricks for burning and has a small arsenal of weapons.  Mester mentions that Y2K had an impact on his motivation for prepping, but that 9/11 was the “game changer.”  But he sees the real threat as an unsustainable economy.

Value for the Prepper – Mester’s oldest son is in college.  In an event of a collapse, Mester has developed a plan for retrieving his son from college.  This is something that hits home for me.  As a backup, Mester has also prepared a get home bag for his son and the other members of his family if needed.  I wonder how many other preppers are in the same predicament with loved ones being away from the rest of the family?

I wanted to write a quick note about the “expert assessments.”  The experts are legit preppers who are very well known in the prepping community.   The experts make their assessments from what they see on the video that has been provided by NatGeo.  I respect their assessments and think they are very valuable.  You can read my previous post about the experts and watch their video here.

However, I think whoever comes up with “The Odds” portion of the show is full of crap!  I don’t know where they get their information, but NatGeo needs to get someone or a group that really knows what they are talking about….stating that another great depression is highly unlikely is just plain stupid.  You don’t have to be an economist to know that!  This is the one area, other than making preppers look a little kooky at times, that NatGeo loses credibility.

How should you watch this show:

1. Watch it for ideas and reminders of the preps you still need to get.
2. Come up with your “expert assessment.”
3. Bring it up around the water cooler as a way to talk about preparing for _____.
4. Do your own research on the reasons the TV preppers  are preparing.
5. Use it as an excuse to sing “It’s the End of the World” by R.E.M.

The new Doomsday Preppers episode airs this Tuesday, March 6 on the NatGeo Channel!

Peace,

Todd