A concept that often comes up in prepper conversations is OPSEC, a military term for operations security. OPSEC is the process of protecting smaller bits of information that could be grouped together to give the bigger picture.
In a paranoid world looking for excuses for every world event, as preppers and survivalists share advice and information they worry about the stereotypes associated with them.
In two different articles on the website ModernSurvivalOnline.com we found some interesting and contrasting ideas on OPSEC.
The first post, "Guest Post: OPSEC PRE SHTF" speaks from the perspective of a California officer of the law who saw the need to keep his prepper activities under wraps, because as the author describes it, "Big brother was obviously afraid of the fringe element."
A follow up post, "Letter Re: OPSEC pre SHTF" talks about county judges in Texas. It explains how each judge is set up with survivalist tools and given crisis management training. One of the examples given is a radio system that can connect together the network of county judges in Texas.
As the two articles illustrate, like all things is life, knowing who to trust and who you can turn to in time of crisis will depend a lot on where you live.
Since we are using military analogies like OPSEC, another military concept comes to mind, reconnaissance. Learn as much as you can about the people and the politics of your area.
A delicate balance
Having resources such as people you can count on could go a long way to surviving a catastrophic event such as a natural disaster. It is always nice to see folks pitching in to help out others in a time of need.
On the other hand, living in a paranoid world where government entities sometimes see things like stockpiling supplies as a red flag for evil raises concerns by preppers of being too open with their activities. Also, in a time of crisis unprepared friends and neighbors could come looking to you for help and handouts because they did not take the time to prepare.
Sharing and helping others understand the concepts of being a prepper or survivalist can be a delicate balance of knowing when to speak up and knowing when to shut up.
Personal security and privacy are concepts we all battle in the age of information and social media. It is not hard to see how the topic of OPSEC can creep into the conversations of preppers.
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If you want to chat, interact, and share a few ideas along the way, look for Tom Peracchio on the net ... @Gu42 on Twitter , Guru42 on Google+ or Guru42 on Facebook.
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