Plant a tree, build a bunker: What do the Survivalists prepare for, waiting for the end of the world
THEY SAVE FOOD, DRUGS AND AMMUNITIONthey build bunkers and equip home basements. They conduct exercises and discuss on the forums the advantages and disadvantages of hatchet and flashlight models. In films and books, they are often portrayed as unsociable eccentrics, society suspects sectarians and extremists of them, they consider themselves reasonable people. They are survivalists, and they intend to survive when the world, as we know it, ceases to exist.
Dmitry Kurkin
The term "survivalist" appeared in 1976, but the first sprouts of survivalism sprouted as early as the late forties, after nuclear tests, when humanity began to get used to the idea that it is within its power to destroy life on the planet on its own, without the intervention of higher powers. Since then, the idea of Survivalism periodically experiencing popularity booms and gaining new supporters.
It is difficult to estimate the exact number of Survivalists, partly because not all of them like to advertise their views, partly because the survivors are willing to write down everyone who makes stocks on a rainy day. The Finder website reports that in 2017, “more than 68 million Americans have bought means of survival in the light of recent political events and natural disasters.” But the philosophy of Survivalism implies something more than a shopping trip for the essentials: it is primarily a mental reconfiguration and learning skills that make a person self-sufficient in the face of global collapse.
Answering the question about which main lesson he learned from his work as a survival instructor, Dave Canterbury said: "Repetition. You need to decide what skills you need and hone them before you get better." Canterbury does not call himself a Survivalist, but his books (“Survivor’s Manifesto. 101 Skills for Survival in the Wild”) and programs (thematic reality show on the Discovery Channel) enjoy success with the relevant audience, who believe that the skills to handle a hunting knife and fishing tackles will be useful to them pretty soon.
Survivalist does not believe that everything will be destroyed and everything will die, he believes in saving life and freedom if people of good will are ready
The idea of survivalism no longer belongs to individuals, it has been selling well for a long time: companies specializing in arranging bunkers in case of an apocalypse have been working on the market for at least a decade and a half and serving not only eccentric millionaires from Silicon Valley. (In February 2018, the media reported that Paypal founder Peter Thiel had equipped his home in New Zealand with a Doomsday shelter.)
With all her retreat — Survivalists often lodge far from the main roads — the lives of people who set out on the path of self-sufficiency are not as gloomy and minimalist as you might think. Gwen and Larry Busby, an elderly couple of Americans who have lived separate lives in a house on a hill for more than ten years, told reporters who visited them that they did not have to give up the usual achievements of civilization like a microwave, electric coffee maker or TV - all this is powered by solar panels. Part of the food they get from the greenhouse, where the couple grows zucchini, lettuce and herbs. “Looking at what is happening around the world, we try to be wise and provide for ourselves,” says Gwen.
Survivalists consider hope to be their main weapon. “I’m a Survivalist, and the nature of survival is optimism. Not a single cell of my body contains pessimism. If my words sound strange to you, you are not a Survivalist and do not understand what a modern Survivalist is,” the words “We are Survivalist ", which is often called a movement manifesto. It emphasizes the difference between people who are waiting for global cataclysms and people who are preparing for them as something inevitable: "The fireman does not believe that everything will burn, he believes that much will be saved from fire. The doctor does not believe in death but in life. Survivalist does not believe that everything will be destroyed and everyone will die, he believes in saving life and freedom if people of good will are ready. Fireman does not arrange arsons, the doctor does not spread the infection, and survivalist does not bring disaster. "
All this sounds logical, but the image of a person who has been stored in the basement with cartridges, first-aid kits, and stew cans, written out in pop culture, is not credible for obvious reasons. Society treats Survivalists at best as harmless eccentrics obsessed with eschatological fears, at worst as potential thugs who are just waiting for the moment to start a hunt for humans.
The survivors are sure that they are being demonized - consciously (a substantial part of Survivalists are prone to conspiracy) or because of ignorance - but they still cannot manage to convince the majority who are critical of them. And because exactly the same argument ("only those who saw the light will be saved") is usually used by near-religious cults. And because the movement, as a rule, does not have a goal to convert the whole of humanity into its faith (although the same manifesto denounces opponents of Survivalism as “irresponsible citizens”) and, as a result, there are no lobbyists who would set themselves the task of improving its image. So if survivalism and appears in the news, it is usually on odious occasions. That was the case in 2013, when French police searched Varg Vikernes’s house: a Norwegian black metaller was suspected of preparing a terrorist attack. The lawyer of the musician said that his client was a Survivalist and the weapon he had found (acquired legally) was stored in accordance with his convictions. Perhaps this is not just a legal ploy, but even in this case, Vikernes, who served sixteen years for the murder and is known for his far-right views, hardly makes the movement a great advertisement.
For this reason, the liberal survivalist wing, which became active in the States after the 2016 elections and does not want to associate with neo-Nazis, avoids the term "survivalism" and insists that they be called "preppers". They are also preparing themselves for a national collapse, but they consider the main source of the threat to Trump and his supporters, who can only be saved from civilian mobilization. Even by their existence, liberal preparators argue that the philosophy of survival is based not only on political views, but on a sense of danger.
The image of a person who is stored in pop culture and who stockpiles ammunition, first-aid kits and canned meat in the basement, for obvious reasons, is not credible.
Survivalist sentiments are usually amplified against the backdrop of large-scale disasters and political and economic crises. Shortly after the recession began in 2008, the book “The Patriots” of the surwavalist blogger James Wesley Rawls was on the list of American bestsellers. The novel with the subtitle "Survival in the conditions of the coming collapse," written by a retired army officer as far back as the nineties (and distributed at the first drafts stage on the Web for free), talks about the Survivalist group that escapes from the chaos that swept the country after the financial collapse, in advance prepared bunker in idaho. In essence, “The Patriots” are nothing more than a memo for a survivalist disguised as artistic prose: Rawls says directly that he was not going to create a “masterpiece of literature” (note that this did not prevent him from writing four more books for the series), but he was proud by studying the topic along and across. In detail, his book is very accurate, not least due to the fact that by the main profession he is the author of technology and electronics magazines.
Rawls is a curious example of a Survivalist in which conservative prejudices coexist with iron logic and practical practicality: "I would recommend settling alongside religious people - they are law-abiding, and in case of a crisis, they can be relied upon. I will be much calmer if my neighbors will be [followers of the religious movement] Bahá’ís, not Marilyn Manson’s fans. " Weapons fanatics are often suspected of survivalists - a blogger replies that a gun is “no more than another tool” for a survivalist: “It's like a hammer — an inanimate object that has an assignment. With it, you can build a house, or you can crush someone something head. It's all about the user. I look at the weapon as a tool - for self-defense or hunting. " His writing career is also characteristic: for more than ten years, the Patriots have not interested anyone except the modest publishers of Christian literature from Louisiana, but as soon as the next financial crisis struck, in the eyes of compatriots he became an underestimated visionary.
Survivalists should not be confused with eschatologists, but they have at least one thing in common. While society is stable, it is customary to treat them with suspicion, their fears are ridiculed, and more often they are simply ignored. It is necessary for the world order to falter (or just to sound the alarm, as in the case of the 2000 Problem), how out of marginalized they turn into people who were always right and knew everything in advance.
Cover: AlenKadr - stock.adobe.com
