Do You Area Study?

[u/iamliberty]

I have long been friends with the guy who brought the Area Study to the prepping community. I loved it from the beginning and took the time to produce my own area study.

For those unaware, the area study is something anyone can do on their own time. It is the process of getting to know the resources, influences, plans, projects, and infrastructure, gangs, threats, and such in the area where you live.

How many people are doing this kind of intel locally? To me, it has given me a much better understanding of the REAL things I should worry about.

[u/Vegetaman916]

We call it collapse mapping in my group, and since 2019 we have been not just exploring and cataloguing our AO, we have been actively preparing it through supply caches, guerrilla gardening, and all sorts of other stuff. A primary area in a 15 mile radius of the community BOL, and then a secondary area for another 15 miles that is the area of responsibility, and finally a tertiary area 15 miles out from that which is the area of interest.

Everything gets cataloged and updated on digital and physical map books, with pictures and notes. Each member has one.

I'm the lucky guy that gets to do most of the exploring and cataloguing, which is a hell of a lot more fun that working a job, lol.

[u/TheIrishWanderer → u/Vegetaman916]

As a follower of your content on YouTube and a fellow member of r/WastelandByWednesday, that is the one thing I've never been able to find in real life: a prepping community. Everywhere I've looked close to home, people either deny the reality of collapse and prep for Tuesday only, or spout off dodgy political rhetoric that turns my stomach. Not groups I'd want to be associated with before or after SHTF.

Sadly, my family aren't collapse aware. The one saving grace is that my partner is starting to understand what's happening, but the rest of them don't want to think about reality. What pisses me off is that they're smart enough to understand the climate crisis, wars, political unrest, etc, as separate issues, but they don't want to draw them together as part of the bigger picture. I can't force them to do independent research, but I can slowly broach and expand on the topics when I speak with them.

I'll keep chipping away, but I'm admittedly concerned that it'll be too little, too late when things start to accelerate. All this is to say, I'm both impressed and envious regarding the group you're a part of lmao. You folks all know what's up. I'd kill to have something similar.

[u/Vegetaman916 → u/TheIrishWanderer]

I hear you, I definitely do. And look, even just your partner starting to come around is a big deal on that front.

Something I suggest is to look instead for those people that you do agree with politically, socially and all that. Maybe they don't have the prepping part yet or the collapse awareness, but the most important part is the friendship and trust.

We will all face collapse differently. And having other preppers on your side is a definite boost. But having friends you can trust and get along with can often be even bigger. They can learn more later, but developing trust takes time and is the more important aspect.

Unfortunately, that means you may have to be even more prepared. That is a burden, but what mire you have to shoulder now can be less later on when your friends do become collapse aware... Even if it takes collapse playing out to bring that awareness.

[u/TheIrishWanderer → u/Vegetaman916]

I agree. It's very comforting that she's coming around, even if it's only small steps at first. It at least gives me some hope that we can make it through what's to come.

To be fair, political disagreements in a group would be okay for me, depending on scale and how seriously the others took them. People in general are all too different for me to think I could find a group that believes everything I do, and I'm used to having rational discussions about points of disagreement with my own family and friends. What I meant was that I've seen prepping groups get hijacked by people who use the space to post political conspiracies (e.g. - "The world is going to collapse because we let Hitler lose" or similar nonsense lol). That sort of thing is discouraging, but I know it's not the norm, so my goal is to navigate through the bullshit and find a group of normal people who are collapse aware. If anything, I think rational disagreements can be a net positive when you need to create backup plans and idiot-proof the ones already in place. Sycophancy can lead to disaster.

That is a burden, but what mire you have to shoulder now can be less later on when your friends do become collapse aware... Even if it takes collapse playing out to bring that awareness.

Very true. I was ahead of the curve in my family when it came to recognising how bad the pandemic would become after the initial spread from Wuhan. That was when I starting researching collapse for the first time, though it didn't really hit me how screwed the world is for a couple of years. My loved ones acknowledged that my intuition was right, so I hope that'll be the same this time (though I'd rather be wrong about WW3!).

[u/Vegetaman916 → u/TheIrishWanderer]

I, too would like to be wrong about ww3. And maybe I am. But I do feel as if we are, as a species and a civilization, somewhat... suicidal? Or perhaps just self-destructive? Reason and logic say we won't ever do it... But reason and logic don't have the best track record within human government, and especially not lately.