As a person actively preparing since the late 80s, the term resilience has many meanings for me.
Am I resilient as a person, physically and mentally? Is my family resilient as well? Is our living arrangement resilient? Do we have resiliency in our plans and preparations? All of these are critical questions, ones I focus on every day, because there is always room for improvement and new ideas to incorporate. In this article I will address the types of preparedness in terms of numbers and the two primary options for one’s retreat or refuge location.
Types of Prepared People
Just as there are numerous forms of resiliency, there are many types of Prepared People. Some writers break us down into as many as 18 categories in a single list: Wilderness, Hoarding, False, Rich, etc. Virtually every preparedness website tackles this subject. Here are a couple of examples:
My approach is somewhat simpler, as I look at the size of the effort more than the behavior of the people involved.
In terms of resiliency, it takes numbers to be resilient. A group is always stronger than an individual, and that is critically important to anyone wanting to become more resilient. This is a primary reason for the development of villages, walled cities, castles, and eventually nations as they developed over the centuries.
Certainly, there are multiple approaches to becoming prepared, but in my opinion the numbers are the critical aspect. These include: Lone Wolf, Nuclear Family, Small Group, Large Group, and Prepared Community. Happily, I am not the only one with such a mindset.
Lone Wolf – 1 person
The Lone Wolf is one who plans to survive any crisis situation on their own, with no help from anyone. These tend to be highly confident and very skilled individuals or people with some degree of delusion regarding their skills or abilities.
Some in this category seem to have personalities similar to the Mountain Men of the American West; others might be described as Marauders who plan on taking what they need from others during a crisis situation.
When I started preparing, I never considered the concept of the Lone Wolf.
by no-one