Paranoid or Prepared?

This will be our little secret

I make fruit jams in the summertime, mostly the freezer variety which requires no sealing with paraffin and checking for mold every month or so. You know, the Sure-Jel easy way. We usually have enough to get through most of the winter before yielding to the Smuckers folks and buying their topping for the peanut butter. It's a great way to save the summer fruits, but I hardly think of it in terms of staving off Armageddon. That's where I differ from the "preppers."
There is a growing movement in this country that includes all sorts of people who are preparing for the end of times, as it were, at least as far as normal services are concerned. These people are preparing to live "off the grid" as it were for however long they have to...and I'm not talking about the Amish or the Mennonites, either, though they stand the best chance of surviving anything that comes along.
There is an organized network, the American Preppers Network, through which one can discuss a variety of topics from growing and preserving food to the pros and cons of gun ownership to advice on working the ham radio. These people are serious when they discuss topics like whether to "bug in" or "bug out" when the next natural disaster threatens our very existence. The network itself gets more than 5,000 hits a day, and there is even a Prepper Podcast every day. Who knew?
Lest you think otherwise, these people do NOT consider themselves survivalists, so you don't have to worry about them skulking about in camouflage brandishing weapons. They simply want to be prepared with stored food, water and power in the event that things go kerflooey in a hurry. This, of course, matches perfectly the idea that on December 21, 2012, the Mayan calendar turns over and the Four Horsemen ride.
Having lived for 30 years in the shadows of two nuclear power plants, I can feel a little trepidation now and then about what would happen if...On the other hand, any stores of secret food, water and fuel would have to be VERY secret, or my neighbors would all demand to share. You know you've seen movies like that. It could happen.
Me? I'll just keep making fruit jam in the summer and hope my neighbors are prepared in 2012.