Not that it ever did, of course

The term “prepper” is usually a synonym of “survivalist”, meaning an individual who “proactively prepares for emergencies, including natural disasters, as well as disruptions to social, political, or economic order”.

S. Harley just shared why she stopped being a prepper. In my opinion, what she wrote has an even larger validity than it appears at first sight, and one very much in line with the mission of this website. Preppers go to live in far away, lonely places, or live almost as if they already were in such places.

Why Harley Stopped Being a PHYSICAL “Prepper”

These are the core parts of Harley’s post, emphasis mine:

“I am no longer standing at the edge looking into the abyss, that time has passed. Along with the move to rural self sufficiency and being on the land."

“That was a time of healing and the hope that a sanctuary from Climate Chaos could be created. But sanctuaries can be lonely places of toil, that cannot be held safely in uncertain futures. They need communities from across the generations, so that purpose and work can be shared.

“To leave the land that I had tended [was] a recognition that I am not sustainable and the dreams of my city loving family joining me had long faded."

Let’s talk “digital” now

I have never been a fan of actual prepping myself, for the same reasons that Harley described. Now I wish that her conclusions were heard left, right and center among “digital” preppers.

Digital activists have been advocating for decades now that all software should be Free As In Freedom, or that everybody should run their own server for every online communication, to avoid being spied and controlled by governments or multinationals.

Trouble is, too many of them have done this, and keep doing this, with the same attitude that Harley just abandoned: living in places far away from ordinary people. They are digital places instead of analog, physical wilderness, but too far away all the same.

My hope, shared here and elsewhere for almost two decades now, is that more and more digital preppers do what Harley did, soon, for the same reasons: living away from “ordinary” people is not sustainable, and cannot be held safely in uncertain futures.

Or, as Doc Searls wrote in 2005, “perhaps the moderate position is the most radical of all. That is, if you want to get something done that works for everybody”. To see how I interpret that advice, start here or here.