Why Prepping and Current Events are Inextricably Entwined

(Psst: The FTC wants me to remind you that this website contains affiliate links. That means if you make a purchase from a link you click on, I might receive a small commission. This does not increase the price you'll pay for that item nor does it decrease the awesomeness of the item. ~ Daisy)

By Daisy Luther

I’ve gotten a few comments lately asking why I write about current events. I’ve gotten every variation from “I follow you for prepping information. Why is there so much news on your website?” to “You’re an idiot. Why don’t you stick to canning?”

Before I hurry back to the kitchen where I belong, there’s a short answer and a long answer. Here’s the short one: Prepping and current events are inextricably entwined.”

If you only wanted the short answer, there you have it. Thanks for stopping by.

The long answer is more involved. If you’re anything like me, you’ve also tried in vain to explain this to folks who just don’t get it.

We need to know what is happening in the world around us.


If we don’t realize that St. Louis is erupting with violent protests, we may stumble into a dangerous situation. If we don’t understand that the Antifa communists are planning sedition beginning on November 4th, we may not be prepared to hunker down and avoid the chaos. If we aren’t aware that there is a retail apocalypse going on, we may be totally stunned when the economy all comes crashing down.

It’s essential that we pay attention to the world around us because it is just a larger form of situational awareness. While those who live on a secluded mountaintop and never venture down to a town larger than 3000 people may not need to plan around current events, most of us do not live these lives of perfect isolation. We go to doctor’s appointments in large cities. We take vacations. We run errands and go shopping and work in town. We attend the theater and go to concerts. We need to know what’s going on. We need to know the trends of civil unrest and whether a controversial verdict is about to be handed down.

Most of us don’t live in a safe bubble of our own making, and our awareness can help us be better prepared to avoid or deal with bad things.

Even if you hate politics, it pays to know what’s going on.


Many people avoid politics like a contagious disease. I agree completely that it’s all showmanship and that nearly all politicians are completely untrustworthy. That doesn’t mean I think they can be ignored though.

The policies being made in Washington DC can affect us all, by parting us from more of our money or chipping away at our freedom. For example, if you knew that guns were going to be banned tomorrow, would it change what you do today? War is made by politicians, not by soldiers. They’ll get rich while we get poor and our children get killed. These are the thing we need to know. We need to understand WHY war is a racket, why Wall Street gets bailed out, and why health care we don’t want is getting forced on us.

The people in office are making decisions that affect us all, whether we’d like to ignore them or not.

We can learn so much about preparedness by studying actual events.


Perhaps the most important reason that prepping and current events are inextricably linked is that the analysis of an event can be incredibly educational. Those of us with preparedness mentalities do this naturally. We think about what we’d do if we were in a situation that has occurred. We see what shortages have befallen people after an event and we adjust our preps accordingly. We watch the inevitable patterns so that we can predict what may happen next if one day we are in an emergency situation.

Here are a few examples.

I know things now that never would have crossed my mind without spending time analyzing them. I look at disasters and emergencies from a totally different angle than I once did when I was merely a consumer of CNN. I know they happen and will keep happening, but by studying them, I can learn how better to prepare myself and my family. This is the entire reason I started my website, Preppers Daily News, because understanding these events and looking at them from different angles is such an opportunity for learning.

Prepping is multifaceted


In my opinion, there’s a lot more to preparedness than stocking up enough food to ride out the apocalypse, growing vegetables, and knowing 17 ways to prepare squirrel. Preparedness is an aware way of going through life and analyzing day-to-day events. We are always learning and always evolving. No matter how safe and perfect our lives may seem today, we know that tomorrow something could happen that changes everything.

Like many of you, I grow a huge garden, preserve my harvest to enjoy over the winter, and go shooting at every opportunity. I read voraciously about old-fashioned skills and apocalyptic scenarios. I have stashes of food in every room of the house and know multiple ways to purify water or start a fire.

But the what-if mentality of a prepper is at the root of it all. I’ve been asking “what if” since I was a little kid (and probably driving my parents nuts with it) and I believe our ability to ask and answer that question is the key to everything. What more accurate way to learn “what if” could there be than to study real-life examples?

They say that those who do not learn from history are doomed to repeat it. I believe that the same can be said about the events happening all around us right now.

 

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Daisy Luther

Daisy Luther is a coffee-swigging, globe-trotting blogger. She is the founder and publisher of three websites.  1) The Organic Prepper, which is about current events, preparedness, self-reliance, and the pursuit of liberty on her website, 2)  The Frugalite, a website with thrifty tips and solutions to help people get a handle on their personal finances without feeling deprived, and 3) PreppersDailyNews.com, an aggregate site where you can find links to all the most important news for those who wish to be prepared. She is widely republished across alternative media and  Daisy is the best-selling author of 5 traditionally published books and runs a small digital publishing company with PDF guides, printables, and courses. You can find her on FacebookPinterest, Gab, MeWe, Parler, Instagram, and Twitter.

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  • Love the term multi faceted situational awareness. We are always preaching SA to our girls but that is a good view on it as well. I am trying to make sure my girls are not in the city on 11/4.

  • Re: “They say that those who do not learn from history are doomed to repeat it. I believe that the same can be said about the events happening all around us right now.”

    Well said! I agree. I just wish more people could see this.

  • Thank you DAisy. Have been explaining this for 50 years after my own disaster, and am looked at as mildly daffy. Printed your essay and will hand it out the next times the subject is raised. You say it much. You say it much better than I. God bless you.

  • I would like to support you and pay for the insight, content and presentation in your ‘prepper’ publications. Where can I send a check?

    Thank you so much.

    Rod Aldrich

  • “…Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it…” — George Santayana

    A well known and very appropriate quote for your article.

    A bit lesser known and also fits are the sage words from Otto von Bismark:

    “…What we learn from History is that no one learns from History…” — Otto von Bismarck (1815 – 1898) – German aristocrat and statesman; Prime Minister of Prussia (1862–1890), First Chancellor of Germany (1871–1890)

    As to your critics:

    “…No one ever went broke underestimating the intelligence of the average American…” — H.L. Mencken

    Steve C.
    Spring, TX

  • Dear Daisy, I have been following you and your very helpful website for years. I am now more grateful for your Preppers Daily News! Please continue all your great work! Thanks!

  • Daisy, I am SO in agreement with you! Those who negate your column are the idiots who will be begging for assistance with things go wrong! Thank you for all you do in my behalf! I certainly appreciate your efforts!

  • As usual Daisy, a great answer! I follow your site and emails with great interest as I always find them very insightful. Please keep up the great work you are doing. For every Nimrod out there who doesn’t get why you do what you do there are a thousand of us who do and share your passion!

  • You may call me crazy, but you’ll never call me Hungry, or Thirsty…

    Anyone who would bother to pay attention, or to read history, has to know the importance of being prepared. My grandmother would have simply called it, common sense-

  • Great article I’m always asking the kids why, to get them thinking what if may be a better question.thank you for passing your knowledge along to us that. Need and appreciate it.

  • The biggest way to prep will probably be making connections interstate or in different countries. Then, if there is massive violent protests or the US falls to economic problems, war or a modern plague, you can skip town to some other people.

    An example would be having prepper friends in Alaska, Canada, Mexico or even the Caribbean Islands who you help by investing in preps with them, who in return will help you if it comes to it.

    Just a thought.

    • If any of that happened, you would not be able to leave the country!
      No other country would allow you in, assuming that you could even arrange transport to the border in such a time.
      That also assumes that the US, would let you leave.
      Wishful thinking is not Reality. Nor will it help you.

      • Mic, many wildly different situations could arise. In 2020-2021, we have seen situations where travel was restricted. Right now, travel from the US to Switzerland is restricted. But other countries are open, and many other situations could arise where travel elsewhere could save your life or your wealth. A passport is cheap. Similarly, be prepared to bug out AND to survive in place so you have options.

  • Daisy,

    Your website & contributions to those of us who wish to learn more to be prepared has been an invaluable resource. I appreciate the info you have shared and also appreciate that there is a reason that this knowledge is so important.

    Anyone who does not understand the connection between current events (or even unexpected events) and our ability to survive on our own for extended periods of time will probably never ‘get it’ until it is too late.

    Just keep doing what you do.
    And thank you for what you do!

  • Who would ever have guessed back in 2017 (when all the comments above were posted) that a global virus would be used as an excuse to shut down the economic life of country after country, despite Sweden’s discovery that even with no lockdown the death rate from that virus was less than from car crashes?

    Who could have guessed that such a virus would be used as cover for the latest version of the Federal Reserve’s HUGE credit bubble racketeering so that more counterfeiting would steal purchasing power away from the middle class and be transferred into the pockets of Wall Street and the Fed’s favorite mega-corporations? That uses the Cantillon principle that those who first get such counterfeited currency get to spend it on things for their benefit BEFORE the general level of prices rises again — and everybody else LOSES purchasing power from their earned money when prices eventually rise on things they must buy to live. That’s why such offenses rated the death penalty in the US Coinage Act of 1794.

    Who would have guessed that the mega-pharmaceutical giants would have made sure they were immune from any legal responsibility even if the unsafe vaccines they plan to have forcibly jabbed into everybody cause severe injury or even death? And that the smart phone you carry or perhaps even the 2020 US Census you filled out … could be used to track you down (like Hitler after the Jews, or FDR after the 100,000+ Japanese surnamed immigrants after Pearl Harbor were ID’d by the 1940 US Census to be clapped into internment camps in seven states for the rest of that war).

    Who would have guessed that the US State Department would cut way back on their passport application or renewal processing staff just as the threat of the Covid-19 virus may drag on for countless years? At the same time as many other countries have blocked US passport holders from entering their borders.

    Who would have guessed that the privately owned and thus far unauditable Federal Reserve would be making noises towards a totally digital money system — including a war on cash — in order to control what you do, what you spend money on, and even to shut you down completely if you don’t obey the tyrants?

    And these are just only a few updated examples to support Daisy’s thesis that prepping and watching actual current events are absolutely intertwined.

    –Lewis

  • I like that you keep an eye on things!! Makes it easier for me, LOL. But seriously, I was raised by grandparents who always talked about knowing what’s going on around you – near and far. And prepare! This pandemic had friends and coworkers scrambling. Not me, partly thanks to you. Keep up the good work!!

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