Prepping - It's not always about the immediate collapse of society

In a governmental collapse situation, it's important that you fulfil some sort of function in the new society. Being a leech, a hoarder or just useless will make you a target. You'll inevitably run out of something and need to barter for it. For us, we are growing plants with medicinal qualities that we know how to convert into useable painkillers, anti-parasitics, antiseptics etc. We won't be able to grow excess food, but if we're the only people for miles who know how to make morphine and penicillin, we will not only be able to trade for what we need, others will help protect us if shit really goes south.

That's not to say that we won't protect ourselves. Guns are a non-starter in the UK obviously, but crossbows are legal, cheap, and lethal at close range. They're also intimidating, which makes them useful for de-escalating situations and avoiding violence. And they can be used for hunting should that be necessary (hunting with crossbows is illegal in the UK, but if we've got to the stage where I'm stalking deer with a crossbow there won't be any law left by definition.) We also have an axe for chopping firewood.

All this stuff is legal, cheap and most of it has uses outside of an apocalypse. I think going full-on prepper is dumb if you build your life around it, because chances are you won't use any of it and you'll have wasted your life, but basic survival planning is not hard, expensive or time consuming.
 
My SUV has a sub-floor compartment, so I can easily carry my hunting backpack with shelter, cooking equipment and clothing, 4 days of freeze-dried food, hand axe and skinning knife, plus 6 litres of water without it being visible. I carry this every day, simply because I like to go camping at a moments notice, but if the shit came down and I was at home, all I'd need to do is grab my rifle and ammo box and I'd be able to make it to a forest region in 30 minutes. From there I could hunt for food, and set up a decent (and secret) camp to wait for things to return to normal. If it was a full on social collapse, I live in a small town (about 3.5k people), but most households have firearms, so I'd assume that we would just block off the roads. We have lots of livestock around, and also we have agriculture, so we could ride it out ok.
 
“When ye therefore shall see the abomination of desolation, spoken of by Daniel the prophet, stand in the holy place, (whoso readeth, let him understand:) Then let them which be in Judaea flee into the mountains:” Matthew 24:15-16

As per this, if you want to be right with God, you will eventually have no choice but to completely secede from mainstream society. Coming from "mountains", you'll have to be somewhere safe and where the system will not be able to come after you. And when it comes to any asset in life, you'll have to learn to live like the average person did in the Middle Ages, as the corrupt system will have total and exclusive control over anything and everything that allows people to live a non-subsistence lifestyle. I know, it would not be a cakewalk, I'm just saying it will be necessary.
 
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