AlterNet: Massive Economic Disaster Seems Possible -- Will Survivalists Get the Last Laugh?

[marmar]

Massive Economic Disaster Seems Possible -- Will Survivalists Get the Last Laugh?

By Scott Thill, AlterNet. Posted July 26, 2008.

With multiple crises on the horizon, survivalist views don't seem as marginal as they did before.




They used to be paranoid preparation nuts who built bomb shelters for a place to duck and cover during nuclear dustups with communist heathens, but their tangled roots go back to the Great Depression for a reason. If you want to get sociological about it, survivalism started out as a response to economic catastrophe. And now, with a cratering stock market, a housing meltdown that has devalued everything in sight, and skyrocketing prices for food, gas and pretty much everything else, survivalists are preparing for -- and are prepared for -- the rerun. In fact, they may be the only people in America feeling good about the prospects of a major crash.

And the interesting thing about the once-fringe movement at this moment in history is that survivalism has now gone green -- at least in theory.

From peak oil and food crises all the way to catastrophic payback from that bitch Mother Earth, there are more reasons to hide than ever. Conventional society as we know it is already undergoing some disastrous transformations. Ask anyone ducking fires in California, floods in the Midwest or bullets in Baghdad. Maybe it didn't make sense to run for the hills, stockpile water and food, grow your own vegetables and drugs, or unplug from consumerism back when America's budget surplus still existed, its armies weren't burning up all the nation's revenue and its infrastructure wasn't being outsourced to a globalized work force.

But those days are gone, daddy, gone.

What's coming up is weirder. Author, social critic and overall hilarious dude James Kunstler tackled that weirdness, otherwise known as an incoming post-oil dystopia, in his recent novel, World Made by Hand, which has since become one of a handful of survivalist classics. And as Kunstler sees it, whether you are talking about gun nuts or green pioneers, at least you are talking.

"At least they're aware that we've entered the early innings of what could easily become a very disruptive period of our history," the Clusterfuck Nation columnist explains. "Most of them are responding constructively rather than just defensively. They're much more interested in gardening and animal husbandry than firearms." .......(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.alternet.org/workplace/92706/massive_economic_disaster_seems_possible_--_will_survivalists_get_the_last_laugh_/

[Warpy]

1. The paranoid screwballs with the bunkers full of

stale water, passable MREs and bristling with guns and ammo will likely be the kind of assholes to get themselves shot pretty early on.

However, we're going to need a completely different skill set from dialing takeout on the cell phone. A lot of people are going to be on a very steep learning curve when it comes to eating cheaply while preserving their health, keeping clothing and cars going for years beyond their planned obsolescence, and generally learning how to cope with a life where they can't count on millions of minimum wage workers to do everything for them.

Survival is going to rest on not only developing these new/old skills but in cooperating with people who have developed different but necessary skill sets.

Mr. Survivalist Screwball isn't going to have much of a chance.

[Jackpine Radical]

2. We're getting more heavily into gardening, building a coldframe

to extend our growing season, and thinking a bout a year-round greenhouse.

[Ilsa]

3. On the tv show Jericho, some teenage boy thought the

best way out of the food scarcity problem was to order more stuff off the internet. This was after 23 major cities had been destroyed by nukes. It was tv drama, but I suspect it close ot the way alot of people think.

Back in 1997, we were bracing for a flood. I was shopping for some items at the grocery store, and a woman was crying because all the gallons of water had been bought up. I advised her to get her butt over to camping gear and get some iodine tablets and try to pick up a manual water filter. She was totally lost about how to take care of herself.