The days roll on, and I'm currently reading the book "When Prophecy Fails". Interesting, although a case study of a single group - a UFO/spiritualist group makes a couple of prophecies, and the book looks at what happened as the prophecised cataclysm day came and went.
Defining a day (and, quite often, time) to an oncoming armageddon has so-far proved to be a good way to get yourself laughed at by everyone who didn't believe you in the first place. The past couple of weeks have seen a few prophecies come and go... Although, to be fair, the ones by reasonably respectable economists are more along the lines of earthquakes - the wrong stresses in the wrong places at the wrong time, and you're waiting for a while. I am inclined to believe the economists a bit more than a self-declared religious prophet, but either way...
Fear is the problem. Is it possible to be prepared without, in some way, giving in to fear? After all, preppers are responding to a perceived problem, some times irrationally. Part of the problem is media portrayal of preppers. Although, to be fair, the ones who abandon everything in order to prepare for something that they might not even live to see (let alone live through) seem to be acting purely out of fear. In addition, it's usually a single scenario that gets people acting, usually in line with the zeitgeist - nuclear war, epidemics, economic collapse.
Of course, these are the people that have the best toys - I would love a decent size underground bunker, but I'm not prepared to sacrifice everything else in order to get it. A retreat, further out away from civilisation, with a lot of land available would be good - but you make up for that by lower access to... well, what you need in order to set up well. You pay more if someone has to come out to drill a bore for a well - although you don't get questioned by local government as much when you do.
I watched an interesting documentary the other day, examining a few different groups, mostly just single families, although the documentary makers (they were critiquing the set-ups) had a few interesting points. Firstly - Groups - be they neighbours, a couple of other families, whatever, make things easier than Father, Mother, and Two Young Children. Secondly - Water is Life. And Thirdly - don't be obvious. It also reinforced something written by a right wing survivalist - if you're obvious, you become a target.
I have extended my plant collection - a few dye plants, a couple of medicinal ones (White Willow, source of Salicilin, the precursor for aspirin), a few other seeds.
Yes, I am planning around global economic collapse... And as much as food and water are essentials, it's useful to have options for doing other things is important. And - let's face it - if you can produce something that people need (like an aspirin substitute), then trading is made easier...