The right balance for most preppers is a mix of “love thy neighbor” and “put your family first.” If your neighbors have small children, would you turn them away if they came knocking, hungry and asking for food? What if it was a random family desperate for your help? These are extremely difficult choices. While it’s valuable to think about what you’d do in that situation, you can take steps to avoid the problem by encouraging people around you to have their own supplies and plans. So, the argument is pretty simple. If you believe that most people are woefully ignorant of and unprepared for the real dangers we face, one of the best ways you can “teach a man to fish” is to encourage them and help them get prepared on their own. During the Great Depression, many of the communities that fared the best said that community spirit, where people helped each other, was one of the biggest reasons why they thrived. Today is a totally different world than 2008. People of every flavor are preparing—left, right, rural, urban, young, old, black, white, LGBTQ, and so on.
