Keeping doomsday prep in perspective

Reading Steve Braunias’ opening instalment today of a series on people preparing for doomsday, it might be wondered whether it would be worth surviving. Your fellow survivors could be a strange bunch, if only the most mordant pessimists stocked up on food, water and medical supplies, built themselves a shelter and acquired the necessary arms and ammunition to defend their families from any survivors who had not had the same foresight.

Survivalism is a cult normally associated with the United States, not New Zealand, though this country is perhaps the most popular refuge from the apocalypse in fiction and in real life for Americans rich enough to afford real estate here.

The new Government will put a stop to that.

But Braunias reports that the internet has brought “prepping” to this country too. The earthquakes and recent extreme weather events have underlined the wisdom of keeping a household prepared for a sudden loss of power and access to provisions. Candles, cans of food, gas for the barbecue, torches, a transistor radio, batteries, and bottles of water in case the pipes are broken.

To go much beyond that sounds excessive. Threats such as climate change and nuclear weapons need to be kept in perspective. Climate change is gradual and humans are adaptable, nuclear annihilation is unthinkable. Smoke and ash would cloak the planet for years, survivors would freeze.

The sensible government insures for natural catastrophes and prevents those with a human cause. In a democratic country there is no reason for individuals to distrust the precautions we can take together.