This website is a place where I (Wesley Fryer of Matthews, North Carolina) share ideas, resources, and reflections on being and becoming a "Communitarian Prepper."

I have a "slow hunch" we are living in a season of life and history in which we are called to become "Communitarian Preppers." While many (or most) preppers "incline toward individualism and competition," I believe we are called (for both practical and faith-based reasons) to prepare for emergencies and even catastrophes so that we can not only take care of our own families, but also help take care of our neighbors. For me, this is the essence of being a "communitarian prepper:" Building strong relationships among our neighbors and in our own community, and developing both our resource base and skill sets, so that we can better weather and survive the storms of life together through all the forms they might take.

We need to prepare to take care of ourselves, take care of our families, and take care of each other. (I wrote a bit more about this on our family learning blog.)

This is the comment I left for Chris, who is the author of the “City Prepping” YouTube channel. I wrote this on his video, “222 Days Left.”

Hey Chris, I am a current middle school teacher in North Carolina and an Air Force veteran. I think this is your best video yet. I absolutely agree we need to find tangible ways to build positive relationships with our neighbors, reduce the polarizing rhetoric in our lives by carefully choosing our news and information sources, and seek to restore the shared values we have historically placed on compromise andmultiparty political rule. 

I have also lived in Mexico and traveled fairly widely, and hold those resulting perspectives close when I consider all the things we stand to lose if we allow our nation to be split apart by polarizing voices and forces.

Since 2019, I have been engaged in a media literacy inquiry project called, “Conspiracies and Culture Wars.” I actually just taught a six week course through the University of Rhode Island for adults on this topic, and I have to admit, “the dangers of despair and nihilism” are very real when we dive deeply into these topics. 

medialiteracy.wesfryer.com/concw/teaching-the-conspiracies-2024

However, I have been moved to start a related project called, “Heal Our Culture,” and this is exactly what I think you are talking about people doing in their own lives in this video. We need to find ways to amplify those who are “healing our culture” and building bridges, metaphorically, rather than serving as polarizing “cultural warriors.” In fact, that is the theme of the project, “cultural healers, not cultural warriors.”

healourculture.org

Thank you for not only the messages you share, but the thoughtful, deliberate, and coolheaded way in which you share them. I pray God‘s blessings upon you and your family, and your continued advocacy for the important historic shared values of our United States of America.

Sincerely,

Wes Fryer

Charlotte, North Carolina

wesfryer.com