There’s a phrase that gets thrown around constantly in the preparedness world: “When the grid goes down…” or its dramatic cousin, “When the grid fails…” And honestly? I can’t stand it. To be clear, it’s not an impossible thing to happen. I hate those phrases because they’re the wrong place to start for anyone new to the prepper community.
When people hear “the grid is going down,” their brain does one of two things. They either panic or roll their eyes and completely tune out. Most people don’t live their lives expecting a total collapse of society; especially not like… tomorrow!
When those are the first lines they hear, they assume prepping is extreme, unrealistic, or not for them. They instantly check out. Kind of like how everyone did during all those conspiracies years ago. Obviously now, tons of people have rethought some of that, but it doesn’t matter, the weirdness stuck.
That’s a problem, because the situations that actually do happen are the ones people are completely unprepared for. Here’s the truth, you are far more likely to experience power outages that last hours or days, severe storms and flooding, car breakdowns in bad conditions, house fires, weather related evacuations, and water contamination or boil advisories than a grid collapse situation. At least not in the ways preppers talk about on YouTube.
End-of-the-world scenarios don’t scare most people now-a-days because services and goods far outweigh salaries. You know what does scare people? The financial mess they’d be in if they lost all of their possessions and have no food or anything during an extended power outage, hurricane flooding, or a tornado.
Preparedness should have never become only about hiding in a bunker offgrid waiting for who knows what after a devastating collapse. It’s about being ready when life throws something at you, because it will.
We never needed a doomsday scenario when reality did a better job. History showed us that a volcano and stock market crash was enough to hurt millions. When everything is framed around “the grid going down,” it creates two bad outcomes.
First, it overwhelms people. They feel that if they’re not fully prepared for total collapse, there’s no point in starting. Especially if they can’t factor prep into their budget.
Second, it can delay action. People naturally procrastinate when things aren’t hitting them in the face. If an emergency isn’t happening anytime soon, why do anything at all, right?
That’s how you end up with households that have zero water stored, zero emergency supplies, thousands of worthless bandaids from an old first aid kit, no manual can opener for the thirty expired canned goods they have. No plan, no guidance. Nothing. It even happens in places that deal with storms every year!
If you want to prepare the right way, start with what actually happens. Look at your area. Storms, power outages, winter emergencies, flooding. Prepare for those first. Build confidence, build capability, and build habits. Because once you’re ready for real world emergencies, you’re already ahead of most people.
And for the love of all that is holy, my fellow prepper enthusiasts, stop asking if they know what happens if the grid goes down. Just stop. Instead ask if they know what to do if their power went out tonight from an ice storm and there was no projected reconnection date. Ask if they had to leave their homes in ten minutes, do they have what they need to get to the next place?
Remember, survival can look like leaving your house in the flood zone and going to an evacuation center, or hotel several towns or states away. Survival can be putting all your stuff in a backpack and moving as fast as you can to get out of a hurricane’s sweet spot vicinity.
Will the grid go down? I don’t know. Data points to yes, eventually. But Eventually isn’t right now, it probably won’t be tomorrow, next week or next year. So when we tell you to prepare, what we’re talking about are things that happen now.
You don’t need the world to end to be caught off guard. You just need a bad day and no plan for your world to end.
Elitists, read this as many times as you need to.
Prepare. Survive. Thrive.
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