HI. It's your friendly neighborhood thread necromancer...
I suppose that I am techinically a prepper or survivalist. Part of that comes from my more recent work - I do a lot of video and media work for NOAA and FEMA. I spend a lot of time around the people who's job it is to imagine all the things that could possibly happen and make plans for them. Part comes from living on the islands: if a tsunami, earthquake or hurricane damages the docks, airport and/or bridges we could easily be on our own for a week or 2. FEMA recommends 5 days of supplies minimum.
When we moved into this house we ripped out the electric stove and put in a gas system. We keep a fair amount of ice in the freezers - partly because we use it a lot for coolers, and partly so that we have a bit more leeway if the power were to go down for a while.
All of us have survival skills to one degree or another, too. Brain tanning, herbal medicine, primitive shelters, using rocks when you don't have a knife, fire by friction, etc. I learned a lot of that stuff just out of curiosity and a desire to feel manly and self-reliant. (I was young, what can I say?) I also worked as a locksmith for a while and still have a couple sets of lockpicks. They have come in quite handy over the years - and the fact that I tend to carry a small set in my wallet makes me kind of a prepper, doesn't it? Came in handy a couple times when coworkers forgot to bring important keys... though they looked at me a bit strange after I popped the locks. Its not like its hard, just most people like the illusion of security so they don't look to close at how the things work.
One of the things that we do that I don't hear most preppers and survivalists talking about is community work. Communities are MUCH more resilient than individuals and families. Groups working together are FAR more likely to do well while waiting for the power to come back on, the roads to open, etc. One of my roommates was in the initial disaster relief crews that sailed over to Kauai after hurricane Iniki and that is what they set up: survival communities. The rich folks, suddenly useless for things that mattered like hunting, cooking, etc, found themselves washing clothes down at the river. Everyone helped out, everyone got taken care of. And the wild chickens went from being a "problem" to being protected...
And that is where I part company with a lot of survival and prep talk. In the event of an emergency anyone who comes walking your way is far more valuable as a friend than as an enemy. In most likely scenarios the chances are they are friendly or at least neutral. Its only the far less likely end-of-the-world catastrophe type scenarios (which are the ones most often talked about, for some reason) that even remotely justify preparing for all out violent survival.