To be a prepper is to prepare for the coming collapse. What ends up causing said collapse is not important. When it happens you will want to be prepared. Having access to food, energy, crafting materials and adequate defences are precious goods. Some preppers even go the extra mile and produce their own food. These material things are undoubtedly good. But they are not enough. Preppers are preparing for the end of civilization. Yet none of their plans include a full replacement for said civilization.
Humans are not built to live alone
Perhaps it does not dawn on most folk, since they live such connected lives. But there has never been a time where humans lived alone. For nearly all of our history, being thrown out of the tribe meant death. Even with our modern technology it is not possible to live completely alone. Humans are built to live in collaborating groups. Collapse of civilization is bad fundamentally because it means the dissolution of our group and the division of labour it enables. The same division of labour that makes human existance possible. Even hunter-gatherer tribes depend on the division of labour. This should be obvious by the fact that the unit of organization is the tribe. Not the individual or the family. Only the tribe or village is capable of independent survival. Therefore, the key to surviving a collapse is the preservation of the division of labour.
New Civilization
The end of one civilization must be countered with the start of a second civilization. Otherwise all people will perish. Because without civilization, without tribe, there is no human existance. It should therefore be noted that successful prepping should include the preparation of new tribes. Ideally you want to have started your new proto-civilization before the collapse. That way when wider society withers away it will be your shackles that are gone, not your suppliers. In a sense the way to survive the collapse is to prevent it. And the way you do that is by building an already self sufficient tranch inside that does not suffer from the same ills causing the greater societal collapse. Such is true preparation.
If you would wish to join such an effort, please send me an email at sam@samhsmith.com.