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Tuesday, December 7, 2010

On why people may be sheeple

That term--sheeple--has always bothered me a bit. It implies unthinking adherence to assumptions about reality which preppers/survivalists find short-sighted or naive.

I've been thinking a lot lately about why others don't see things the way we (here, and generally), do. That's prompted in part by the "TV instead of preparing" thread, but also I've been cogitating on this a long time.

Here's a (partial) list of reasons why others may not see things the same way we do:
  1. They'd rather live for today than worry about tomorrow; they know they'd be toast in a SHTF scenario, but they get more enjoyment out of living their lives the way they want now.
  2. They believe (rightly or wrongly) that the government will intervene in any SHTF scenario, and save them.
  3. They don't believe things will get that bad.
  4. They don't want to appear loony to friends and neighbors.
  5. They feel the task is too daunting, and so they don't even start.
  6. They don't know what to do, and thus can't start.
  7. They don't want to reign in any of their lifestyle in order to prepare.
  8. They find much of the "propaganda" that things are going to hell in a handbasket to be just that, propaganda from loons.
  9. They've looked at the data and evidence, and decided it means something different than what we do.
  10. They've made a considered decision that they'd rather live well now yet poorly after TSHTF, than less well now, and less poorly later.

Not everyone who disagrees with us is a sheep or can be classified as sheeple; that implies unthinking following of a bad line of reasoning. In fact, the reasoning many who are cast as "sheeple" might simply have reached different conclusions or, perhaps more importantly, they have applied different values than we do.

Let me explain that: What one values determines how one lives one's life. If you value preparedness, you prep. If you value other things over preparedness, like big-screen TVs, full-featured smart phones and phone plans, vacations in tropical isles, then you make different decisions.

Not everybody is a sheep; many, I believe, have simply drawn different conclusions than we have. More power to them. (At least for now : ).

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