Thursday, August 28, 2014

SURVIVING ARMAGEDDON - BE PREPARED



ZOMBIE ATTACK MAY BE IMMINENT!

Yesterday my wife and I drove to Augusta to renew my driver’s license; we ate lunch at the Great Wall Chinese Buffet and afterward went to our favorite store - Barnes and Noble Booksellers.

After checking out all the books on sale I perused the magazine section.  There was an obvious trend in both books and magazines for the sale, of ‘survivalist’ genera.  



The survival mentality is nothing new; this following has been around since the fifties and sixties when movies about Martian attacks and nuclear attacks encouraged a fantasy of survival after the end of civilization. 



Today, motivated by movies like The Walking Dead, there is a larger following then ever, and this is reflected at the book stores and magazine stands. 



Survivalist groups seem to be a spin-off of the militia movement, or vice versa.   The idea of putting on your cammies, grabbing your Bushmaster M-15 and heading for your ‘bug out shelter’ feeds the fantasies of Mad Max wanna-bees.    



Survivalist picture themselves in military attire, fighting off the looters and saving the young beautiful women (sorry – never the older or fat women) who will be forever dependent on them and reward them with sex and respect. 



There are corporations that feed this fantasy with books, magazines, equipment and internet sights.    In survivalist internet stores and catalogues you can purchase everything from freeze dried food to water packets with a twenty year shelf life, to weapons, to techno-equipment and even buckets to defecate in.



The magazine I looked at was full of high tech survival equipment: watches, cell phones, GPS, flashlights - most of it requiring batteries (manufacturers obviously aren’t planning on a long term survival situation.) 

People who live these fantasies find solace and acceptance in the company of other like-minded role players.   They are not alone, for they fall into the same category as UFO probees, big foot hunters, militiamen and ghost busters…  



It must be like living in the brain of Michele Bachmann: a Neverland of conspiracies and paranoia where Captain Hook rules the oceans, crocodiles tick like alarm clocks and civilization is defended by the few, the brave, the prepared – in their bug out bunkers.




the Ol’Buzzard

1 comment:

  1. I find it paradoxial that to entertain and participate in these elitist survivalist fantasies requires a certain amount of affluence and free time. We poor folks live in survival mode 24 hours a day and do just fine. Just one more reason that America is not a real place...It is a myth that is destroying itself.

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