I was asked about my thoughts concerning prepper communities in an email. Rather than respond to the individual, I decided to write an article concerning what I have learned in the past sixteen years.
The foundation of success is strong leadership, consensus of goals, culture and faith. When I first embarked on this path in 2008, my concern was the future of our children’s liberty. I had absolutely no understanding of the level of the Deep State’s treason and evil. People started to awaken and form groups on a local level or became a chapter of a larger organization. I started to coordinate 912 and TEA party groups across the state under the NCFreedom.us umbrella. The more active we became, the more aware we became of the what I now consider to be the beginning of a civil war.
As Obamanation took hold over the country, most of the leaders in the freedom movement realized that the Republic was doomed. The exceptions were those who were masquerading in the freedom movement to advance their political agendas or ambitions. This led to the rise of prepper groups and assorted literature on how to setup a successful group. I was involved in several prepper groups over the years and realized that this “model” would not be a successful strategy. The main downfall of these groups was egos and a quest for power at any level.
This would be a good time to drop back and ask if you have read “The 5000 Year Leap”. This book outlines how our founding fathers took 5000 years of government history and developed what would become known as the Great Experiment. What they realized is that mob control (Democracy) is not a good model. The Republic that they eventually developed had a tenet that most people overlook: the federal government was limited in its power and the individual states retained control of the bulk of the government’s power. In other words, a confederacy.
So with a historical viewpoint in mind, how did individual patriot group fail? As I said earlier, egos were the main problem. Ignorance was another as well as the implementation of faith. Herding cats is also an issue in bad times. What would have saved the prepper groups? That is another article but the point is that these groups were not the pathway back to Liberty.
My personal experience led me to consider what was needed to be successful. I looked for guidance in The 5000 Year Leap. I learned from NCFreedom.us that success breeds more success: in other words, set positive goals which can be achieved and people will join with you to achieve larger successes.
So now for the downside. I looked for parameters to establish baselines for security, trade, tactical, communications and education. As we descend into chaos, my geographic area of operations that can be maintained shrinks. Consider how large of an area can be maintained without transportation. Limited fuel and eventual repair/maintenance considerations will limit the size of this area. And its security.
My conclusion was a community based area of operations. This area would have a consolidated location or locations for specific tasks. As I have stated before: you cannot have a community without a community center. Notice that the community center is not designated as a power base of operations. It is a gathering place for the community.
The community center that I have built in my area currently has the following:
- Community well and water supply
- Full kitchen and wood cook stove
- Community center meeting room: dining hall, meeting area, library, school room and training center
- Shooting range
- Farmers’ market
There are other aspects that I will not discuss here as some are under construction and some are not relevant to the community.
As an example:
A few families build a community smokehouse. Meat is smoked and distributed with little spoilage. How the meat is distributed and the terms for smoking the meat (schedules and payment) are predetermined and agreed upon. More importantly, this is a success that brings the community closer together. People have a vested interest in maintaining the smokehouse and its security. This is the same as our new sawmill. A community cannot maintain and build without lumber. Especially in the future that our “leaders” have consigned to us.
I hope you are seeing the point to building a community based future. Education, training, coordination and fellowship are excellent pillars to rebuild. Egos are replaced by skills and friendship. Important community decisions can be discussed and appropriate actions taken at a centralized location.
I will write more in the future but this is just a series of thoughts for people to consider. Is this the best plan to rebuild? I obviously think it is but there is an easier one but it would require sacrifices that most would object to making. This would be a military structure that mandated fair tasks/assignments to rebuild and provide security. This eliminates the egos, discussions and wasted time that people introduce into the system. While this is more efficient, we do not have many leaders who are qualified to manage a community. Which leads us back to building community and relationships with our neighbors.
David DeGerolamo
Thank you, David for sharing. Look forward to the next article.
100% spot on.
This is the best way -- community based.
It’s really the only way it can work.
Thank you for sharing how you built community and continue to do so. Each of us have a unique sets of circumstances; therefore how we approach this crisis will be different. A lot depends on what type of community we currently find ourselves living, our age, our funds, health, whether we are in a solid marriage or live alone with or without children, etc.
As for me, I keep a positive outlook; try and prep what I can each day on limited income. What will be will be. I cannot solve all the issues I face at hand. Most people in my community are unconcerned about what we discuss here on this blog. I do not let them get me down. Reading my Bible everyday helps me put things in perspective.
Overcoming self-interest is necessary to create a more humane world. I work on this. I think the most important thing to do—and the best thing to do is accept where you are and keep going forward. Love one another and be kind whenever you can.
Great article and advice. We do not have a good plan although we do have about a year’s supply of food.
Love this article, will be sharing and looking for future ones as well. Great information, of course finding the right people to work together for the best of all will be the biggest challenge.
Heard from a friend of mine and their little small town of 150 in Maine are using silver to do transactions with the co-op store, farmers and others in their community. They are all on the agreement and said for a 1.5 years it is working.
Not totally dollar free but at lease leaning towards what’s coming.
When the suppliers of Tractor Supply take silver for chicken feed and fencing wire, then the fiat dollar has been dethroned.
But since the folks that accept silver in transactions the folks that BUY the stuff used in those transactions have to SELL that Silver at whatever the current exchange rate FOR DOLLARS to buy at the Current and ever rising costs the supplies for their stores.
Pretty sure the Gas Station’s fuel trucker doesn’t accept a few kilos of silver @.999 pure for a refueling of the station yet.
Times coming but the Transition is going to be UGLY. As in near 3rd world lack of everything ugly.
All preps for transition must look at application needs. Having a working sawmill is awesome. Do you have means to power it, repair it, resharpen the blades as to extend their useful lives? Replacement sawblades and lubrication laid on?
What’s your source of nails to use the lumber? Deck screws are awesome but try to use them without a heavy duty electric drill.
My folks figured that out when doing a repair at the deer camp. Had all the materials, deck screws and all that. All was fine until the drill burned out. We had recharging the batteries figured out but did not think about drill failure.
Thus, my constant Protect your trusted friends and trusted family. Long term storage of foods and Stabilized fuels and so on IS BETTER than “Money in the soon to be Frozen Bank”.
Tempus fugit