Here are three unlikely nightmare scenarios (pandemic, Socialism, and anarchy), to scare yourself into doing what you should already have been doing.

1. Imagine having to endure three months of self-quarantine, to avoid getting sick. You’d have to plan on family, who haven’t prepared, joining you. 

    * People begin to horde, even if from unwarranted fear, leading to shortages. At that point, going shopping wouldn’t be safe; perhaps it wouldn’t be safe even to go outside, because of desperate and dangerous people. 

   * Perhaps an outbreak won’t really begin in America until this summer, leaving next winter’s flu season as the apex. 

2. Imagine that a poor economy leads voters not to re-elect Trump, leaving us with an anti-Christian Progressive bringing persecution. 

    * Labeled as a member of a hate-group (e.g., a traditional Catholic or Evangelical church or apostolate/para-church organization like Michael Voris’s Church Militant), you’re no longer a “great American”–rather, “enemy of the state” seems a better fit. The new surveillance state, together with big-tech, likely will follow China’s lead with a social-credit system. How will you securely browse the web, email, and meet with the like-minded, given online, cellular, and home-appliance tracking or monitoring? 

  * Believing, practicing Christians increasingly find themselves against the prevailing secularist and hedonistic paradigm. Those not willing to conform will find themselves ill-suited for employment in many professions. They’ll have to re-tool, gaining skills in fields not requiring PC doctrinal purity. Start preparing now and one might have skills in place for beginning a new career in six months (perhaps with databases, having taught one’s self Tableau and SQL). 

3.  Imagine societal breakdown, anarchy, necessitating fleeing to the hills. 

  * Conservatives need seriously to discuss and plan for possibilities we might face. Perhaps we should purchase wilderness land and build cabins near each other. If times are good, we’ll enjoy each other’s company for fishing, golfing, and motorcycling; if times go sour, we’ll bug-out among like-minded companions.

Whatever scenario you might prepare for (one of the above or any number of others–flood, tornado, E.M.P….), after prayer, reading, and wise counsel, do it in faith and hope, not in fear or panic. Prepare in a way you won’t regret, as you do with your monthly life-, house-, and auto-insurance. With insurance, though, if you don’t end up needing to use it, all you’re left with is the sense that you did the right thing in having had it. With preparing for any of the above scenarios–you’re left with supplies and skills you will be using, regardless. 

“Plan for the worst while hoping for the best”, “be proactive instead of reactive”…pick your aphorism. Why not use prepping as a mind-game for motivating yourself to do what you should have been doing already: physical exercise, developing ties with family and friends, learning new skills for personal or career development, and keeping one’s aging mind sharp? 

Big picture: you’re going to die and you live only once (or am I mistaken?); live like you’re meeting your Maker this day. First-order prepping, then, at least for Catholics: get to confession and do reparation, forgive others and do acts of mercy, attend Church regularly, read through the Bible, pray the Breviary and Rosary, go to Eucharistic Adoration, use sacramentals (having a blessed candle burning, wearing blessed medals, using holy water…).  In this light, one sees clearly that holistic prepping is for everyone–beginning right now!