Starting a Secret Society? (Prepper Oriented)

[ChunkyMonkey]

Happening all over US..but they know better than openly welcoming members. I know a few groups locally that meet, do classes, at least once a week. Few members here also belong to more organized groups in their own community/family homestead. Your best bet is to keep hanging out with the like minded folks -- then one day out of the blue, you realize you are already part of a bigger common purpose group.

[centrarchidae]

Bulleit Rye and middle-aged lesbians. is there any other kind of either? Duh!

Seriously, though, I was on the edges of one, back in the old days when usenet was a thing. But there was no good way to weed out the "Militia Rising" asstards that would keep them from showing back up.

I was just looking for a group that would plant gardens and group-buy ammo and sleeping bags and take first-aid classes, and in the event of the Coming of the Velociraptors we could all fall back on one guy's place to have a defensible space.

Didn't work so well. I walked away from the group when they started in on the UN conspiracies and sovereign citizen crap.

I think there's a chapter of the Zombie Squad that's doing something like that, without the politics, but I haven't had time to dig too deeply into it.

[Omicron]

"Self-reliance" societies seem to attract more hippies and less preppers, but the info seems to be much the same without the weapons and defense aspect.

[Goodburbon]

Announcing it on a public forum, not very secret.

[blacklabel]

I think it would be fairly easy to get done. Just put an ad out in the paper and see who's interested.

You guys are off your game. As Goodburbon pointed out, you don't start secret societies on the internet or through a paper.

[Bitter Clinger]

I'm a member of the Loyal order of water buffaloes. I'm up for Grand Poobah next month.

[Singlestack]

Need to come up with a secret handshake that can be completed in less than 30 seconds! :-)

In my experience, the more successful organizations scout out who they want to join and invite them. The problem is the huge spectrum of beliefs and personality types that together make incompatibility a given. For example, as others have pointed out, the hippy type survivalists are likely incompatible with those on this forum who might want to participate. Those in deep financial trouble may be viewed as a drag on the rest of the group, on many levels. There are also all types of personalities and some suffering from various degrees of paranoia and even mental illness. Being cautious and doing your homework are really important to having a group that will be productive and stay together. Just my .02, tho.

[streetglideok]

As others said, advertising it on here is a good way to get alot of attention, as Obama and his minions will see you as a threat. The first step would likely be, associate only with those like minded as you. For instance, I don't keep the friendship of those who leach off society, aka FSA, vegans, ant-gunners and hippies. Some don't even keep a facebook page, but if I were to have one, the friends list is short and sweet. I'll help those who need a hand, but I refuse to help those who won't help themselves. By only associating with those similar to you, in an emergency situation you have better odds of coming out ok. Note, I said emergency situation, not SHTF. I'm moving away from that phrase as its outdated, and it tends to stereotype us. There are alot of scenarios that can play out locally, regionally, and nationally that could require special mindsets.

[keylay31]

There already is one. It's called Mormonism.

Funniest thing I've read on here in a while. Bravo.

[losttrail]

I watched a program on Discovery (?) a few weeks ago about the Watchmen organizations. A couple of them seemed to have their stuff together but others were........seriously wannabe's. The AZ group patrols the border and seems pretty organized, motivated and disciplined.

Ohio seemed kind of lost.


For grins I looked up the Colorado contingent: https://sites.google.com/site/watchmenofcolorado/

I read through the various pages, noting spelling and grammar errors, but what got me most was this on their "About us" page:

"The objective of the Watchmen Of Colorado is to do just that, watch over our state and its citizens, monitor our elected officials to make sure they are following the Constitution Of The United States and the State of Michigan Constitution.It is also our duty to help our state government in any capacity if we are requested to do so."

(I italicized, boldened and underlined)

Michigan? Apparently they just cut-and-paste from anther organization.

I used their Contact page to send an email, pointed out the above and other flaws I saw and requested more info. I have not had any reply and that was nearly 3 weeks ago.

It appears that nothing has gone on here since October 2012.

Another interesting issue was that in order to join the Colorado (Michigan?) group, you have to join the Watchmen of America which is $25/month on top of whatever dues the WoCO (MI?) requires, which I could not find on the site.

Seemed like someone was hoping for a full time salary out of this.

I would be interested in some sort of organization/club for the benefit of like minded people that want to protect/preserve themselves and family when the SHTF.