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Survivalism

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This article is about the subculture based around preparation for survival after social upheaval. For the belief about the afterlife, see Survivalism (life after death)

A survivalist is a person who anticipates and prepares for a future disruption in local, regional or worldwide social or political order. Survivalists often prepare for this anticipated disruption by learning skills (e.g., emergency medical training), stockpiling food and water, or building structures that will help them to survive (e.g., an underground shelter). The specific preparations made by survivalists depend on the nature of the anticipated disruption, some of the most commonly anticipated being:

  1. Natural disasters, such as tornadoes, hurricanes, earthquakes, blizzards, and severe thunderstorms
  2. A disaster brought about by the activities of humankind: chemical spills, release of radioactive materials, or war.
  3. General collapse of society, resulting from the unavailability of electricity, fuel, food, and water.
  4. Widespread chaos, or some other apocalyptic event.

History

The roots of the modern survivalist movement in the United States and Britain can be traced to several sources, including government policies, religious beliefs, and writers warning of social or economic collapse.

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A Duck & Cover movie poster
A copy of Survival Under Atomic Attack, a Civil Defense publication.

The Cold War era government Civil Defense programs promoted public atomic bomb shelters, personal fallout shelter, and training for children, such as the Duck and Cover films. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints directs its members to store a year's worth of food for themselves and their families.

1970s

Writers such as Howard Ruff warned about socioeconomic collapse in his 1974 book Famine and Survival in America. Ruff's book was published during a period of rampant inflation in the wake of the 1973 oil crisis. Most of the elements of survivalism can be found there, including advice on storage of food. The book also championed the notion that precious metals, such as gold (As in South African Krugerrands) and silver, have an intrinsic worth that makes them more usable in the event of a socioeconomic collapse than other currency. Ruff later published milder variations on the same themes, such as How to Prosper During the Coming Bad Years, a best-seller in 1979.

Newsletters and books on the topic of survival followed the publication of Ruff's first book. In 1975, Kurt Saxon began publishing a newsletter called The Survivor, which combined Saxon's editorials with reprints of old 19th century and early 20th century writings on various pioneer skills and old technologies. Kurt Saxon used the term "survivalist" to describe the movement, and he claims to have coined the term. Around the same time, survival bookseller and author Don Stephens in Washington (author of The Survivor's Primer & Up-dated Retreater's Bibliography, 1976) popularized the term "retreater" to describe the movement, referring to preparations to leave the cities to a rural retreat when society breaks down.

For a time in the 1970s, the terms "survivalist" and "retreater" were used interchangeably. The term "retreater" eventually fell out of favor, perhaps because "survivalist" has a more macho connotation. [1] Another important newsletter in the 1970s was the Personal Survival Letter published by Mel Tappan, who also authored the books Survival Guns and Tappan on Survival. These newsletters functioned as important networking tools for the movement before the information age.

1980s

Interest in the first wave of the survivalist movement peaked in the early 1980s, on the momentum of Ruff's How to Prosper During the Coming Bad Years and the publication in 1980 of the book Life After Doomsday by Bruce D. Clayton. Clayton's book, coinciding with a renewed arms race between the United States and Soviet Union, marked a shift in emphasis in preparations made by survivalists away from economic collapse, famine, and energy shortages which were concerns in the 1970s, to nuclear war.

1990s-present

Interest in the movement peaked again in 1999 in its second wave, triggered by fears of the Y2K computer bug. Although extensive efforts were made to rewrite computer programming code in response, some people nonetheless anticipated widespread power outages, food and gasoline shortages, and other emergencies to occur.

The third and most recent wave of the Survivalist movement began after the terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center in New York in 2001 and similar attacks in Bali, Spain, and London. This resurgence of interest in survivalism appears to be as strong as the first wave in the 1970s. The fear of a war or jihad against the West, combined with an increase in awareness of environmental disasters and global climate change, energy shortages resulting from peak oil, coupled with the vulnerability of humanity after the 2004 tsunami in the Indian Ocean and Hurricane Katrina on the U.S. Gulf Coast and avian flu has once again made survivalism popular. Preparedness is once more paramount in the concerns of many people, who now seek to stockpile or cache supplies, gain useful skills, develop contacts with others of similar outlooks and gather as much advice and information as possible.

Many books have been published in the past few years offering survival advice for various potential disasters, ranging from an energy shortage and crash to nuclear or biological terrorism. In addition to reading the 1970s-era books on survivalism, blogs (such as SurvivalBlog) and Internet forums are popular ways of disseminating survivalism information. Online survival websites discuss survival vehicles, survival retreats, and emerging threats, as list survivalist groups- [2].

Common preparations

Common preparations sometimes include preparing a clandestine or defensible 'retreat' or 'safe place' and stockpiling non-perishable food, water, water-purification equipment, clothing, seed, defensive weapons, ammunition, and agricultural equipment. Some survivalists do not make such extensive preparations but instead incorporate a "Be Prepared" outlook into their everyday life.

Survivalists aim to remain self-sufficient for the duration of the breakdown of social order, or perhaps indefinitely if the breakdown is predicted to be permanent (a "Second Dark Age"), a possibility popularized in the 1960s by Roberto Vacca of the Club of Rome. Survivalists assume they cannot prevent this breakdown , and prepare to survive in small communal groups ("group retreats") or "covenant communities."

Changing concerns and preparations

Survivalists' concerns and preparations have changed over the years. During the 1970's, survivalists feared economic collapse, hyperinflation, and famine, and prepared by storing food and constructing "retreats" in the country which could be farmed. Some survivalists stockpiled precious metals and barterable goods (such as common caliber ammunition) because they assumed that paper currency would become worthless. During the early 1980s, nuclear war became a common fear, and some survivalists constructed fallout shelters.

In 1999, many people purchased electric generators, water purifiers, and several months or years worth of food in anticipation of widespread power outages because of the Y2K computer-bug. Instead of moving or making such preparations at home, many people also make plans to remain in their current locations until an actual breakdown occurs, when they will-in survivalist parlance- "bug out" or "get out of Dodge" to a safer location.

Religious beliefs

Other survivalists have more specialized concerns, often related to an adherence to apocalyptic religious beliefs. Some New Agers anticipate a forthcoming arrival of catastrophic earth changes and prepare to survive them. A small percentage of evangelical Christians hold to an interpretation of Bible prophecy known as a post-tribulation rapture, in which Christians will have to go through a seven-year period of war and dictatorship known as the "Great Tribulation." Jim McKeever helped popularize survival preparations among this branch of evangelical Christians with his 1978 book Christians Will Go Through the Tribulation, and How To Prepare For It (ISBN 0-931608-02-3).

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints has an official policy of food storage for its members. Some smaller religious sects have also been known for their belief in a coming apocalypse and the adoption of some survivalist practices. Among the best known of these groups were the Branch Davidians, an offshoot of Seventh Day Adventist Church.

Mainstream emergency preparations

People who are not part of survivalist groups or apocalyptic-oriented religious groups also make preparations for emergencies. This can include, depending on the location, preparing for earthquakes, floods, power outages, blizzards, avalanches, wildfires, nuclear power plant accidents, hazardous material spills, tornadoes, and hurricanes. These preparations can be as simple as following Red Cross and FEMA recommendations by keeping a first aid kit, shovel, and extra clothes in the car, or maintaining a small kit of emergency supplies in the home and car, containing emergency food, water, a space blanket and other essentials.

Current Survivalist Organizations

  • Alpha-Rubicon, an online survivalist community, provides free basic survivalist information on its website. Some of the information discusses how to protect family members in a disaster, running a home from alternate power, pandemics and protection equipment, basic medical how-to and information, radiation, water storage, Layered Security Systems, saferooms, underground shelters, HEPA air filters (for shelters), electronics and communications information, food storage, and growing food. Other sections of the website discuss transportation issues such as " Bug-out vehicles” (e.g., 4X4 jeeps, trucks, etc.) and off-road driving. The website has a number of articles on personal defense topics, such as rape prevention, as well as preparing a firearms collection, arms cleaning, basic arms safety, and firearm repair. Articles also discuss more specialized topics such as zeroing in a scope, choosing a handgun, concealed carry options, field-stripping weapons (such as the AK-47, AR-15, FAL, etc.), comparison of 7.62 NATO battle rifles, etc. In addition to the free basic information listed above, members of Rubicon have access to an additional password-protected section of the website. Individuals applying to Rubicon must contribute articles, or post on the message board regularly, on survivalist topics to the website during a probationary period, before they are given full membership. Rubicon’s motto is "Facta Non Verba" (Deeds, Not Words), which refers to the organization’s insistence that all survivalist techniques presented in its website be tested and proven to work. [3]

Numerous suvival groups also exist on Yahoo.com and other web addresses. These sites are free and have many sources of important information. You can use these groups as a tool to locate others in your area that share the same ideas.

Understand that not all survival groups take a serious viewpoint. For an example of serious mixed with humorous.

  • Zombie Squad, a survivalist community, provides seminars on Bug Out Bag construction as well as basic information on disaster preparedness. They also support numerous charities such as the American Cancer Society and the American Red Cross through funds raised in zombie themed movie festivals and proceeds from sales in the online store. In addition to the online store, the organizational website also has a blog and forum section. The forum covers such topics as Charity Projects, Survival (Contingency Planning, Actual Experiences, Survival Scenarios, Self-Sufficiency), Survival Equipment (Weapons, Communication Systems, Transportation, First Aid), Member Meeting Room, and Zombie related information. ZS deals with the very serious topic of survival planning in a more jovial manner to encourage younger people to get involved. [4]

Extremist groups

Some survivalists take a militaristic approach and have an uncommonly strong concern about government involvement in their affairs. This is most common (though still rare compared to the total population) in rural parts of the Western United States, where a world view occasionally develops that growing interference from the federal government, and the United Nations (perceived to be, or to be aiming for, a world government), is best countered through acquisition of suitable small arms and the setting of strategic booby traps. However, not all who take military matters into their own hands are survivalists; see Ruby Ridge and Oklahoma City bombing. Since these are the ones who receive the most media attention, much of the public may associate the term "survivalist" with such stereotypical individuals.

Kurt Saxon, who besides publishing a survival newsletter is also the author of the book on improvised weapons, The Poor Man's James Bond, is perhaps the best known proponent of this approach to survivalism. Saxon's writings on survival tend toward social Darwinism, with survivalism defined by Saxon as "Looking out for #1" and a need to be sufficiently armed to defend one's refuge and belongings from hungry people who might demand that others share them if society breaks down. In some of his published works, Saxon also appears to advocate what could be considered to be genocide and forced euthanasia against prostitutes, the physically and mentally disabled, the elderly, welfare recipients and the terminally ill. [5]

Such a militaristic approach is not shared by many survivalists, and is indeed condemned by many survivalists. The advocacy of such an extreme position, however, gives survivalism a bad name . As a result, the term "survivalist" is sometimes used interchangeably with right-wing radicalism. In particular, the mainstream media tends to label militants and miscellaneous extremists as "survivalists" .

An extreme and marginal fringe of survivalism has racist or white supremacist beliefs. The Covenant, The Sword, and the Arm of the Lord in Arkansas, which adhered to the Christian Identity religion had extensive ties to the white supremacist movement. Its leaders were arrested in a government raid and faced extensive criminal charges in 1985.

Government preparedness efforts and training

Some governments have encouraged citizens to prepare for emergency situations, including a situation which would result in breakdown of the infrastructure. An earlier civil defense effort in the United States during the 1950s and 1960s fell into disrepair by the 1970s. These included the designation of structures as official fallout shelters, and duck and cover drills in schools.

The U.S. government civil defense program was minimal during the 1970s, 1980s, and 1990s, despite efforts by a few including Christian Dominionist writer Gary North to lobby the government to resume civil defense efforts and build fallout shelters. Gary North co-wrote a book, Fighting Chance to advocate for the return of the civil defense program. A renewal of U.S. government interest in preparedness and training did not happen until the 9/11 and Hurricane Katrina disasters. See: Community Emergency Response Team (CERT).

Official government preparedness training has often been ridiculed or discounted by those in the survivalist movement. This goes in particular for the 1950s/1960s era duck and cover drills. One main tenet of the survivalist movement has been that people should prepare on their own or with like-minded people, not rely on the government to take care of them in emergencies. On the other hand, there is a growing body of thought in favor of community based efforts, widespread involvement in CERTs, and working together with first responders. Many of those in favor of this approach reject the term "survivalist" [6] because they see preparing in conjunction with government agencies, and preparing completely apart from the government, as two separate things; also because they emphasize that they do not anticipate any permanent or long-term breakdown of society which they say survivalists do.

Adherents of the back to the land movement, which has been sporadically popular in the United States, especially in the 1930s inspired by Helen and Scott Nearing, and more recently in the 1970s, as exemplified by The Mother Earth News magazine, share many of the same interests in self-sufficiency and preparedness with survivalists. They differ from most survivalists in that they have a greater interest in ecology, and sometimes the counterculture, than most survivalists do. The Mother Earth News was, as a result, widely read by survivalists as well as back-to-the-landers during that magazine's early years, and there was some overlap between the two movements.

Ernest Callenbach's 1975 novel Ecotopia, about the secession of the Pacific Northwest from the United States to form a new country based on environmentalism, named the political party governing the new country the Survivalist Party. However in his 1981 sequel to the book, Ecotopia Emerging, he qualified that choice of name by having the party leader state that the name Survivalist referred to the survival of the planet's ecosystems, not to people who hoard food and guns.

People outside the survivalist movement in third world countries or as a lifestyle choice have criticized survivalists, arguing that a scenario of socioeconomic collapse is unlikely. Others who do anticipate and advocate preparation for response to a serious depletion of non-renewable resources are critical of survivalists on the grounds that their approach engenders paranoia and suspicion in contrast with preservationist approaches that increase cooperation and increase the likelihood of long-term sustainability. Advocates of nuclear disarmament are critical of survivalists in general and preparations to survive nuclear war in particular, on the grounds that, attempting to survive a nuclear war is neither possible nor desirable.


In fiction

Novels

Alas, Babylon by Pat Frank is a story dealing with life in Florida after a nuclear war with the USSR. Philip Wylie's novel Tomorrow (1954) is the story of two American cities weathering a nuclear attack. One was prepared with an extensive civil defense plan while the other was not. Hatchet is a novel that follows the life of a teenage boy as he survives in the Canadian wilderness after the plane he was on crashes. John Wyndham's 1951 novel The Day of the Triffids is the story of the survival of a small group of people in a post-apocalyptic world dominated by carnivorous plants.

Robert A. Heinlein used survivalism as a theme in much of his science fiction. Farnham's Freehold begins as a story of survivalism in a nuclear war. Tunnel in the Sky explores issues of survivalism and social interactions in an unfamiliar environment. Heinlein also wrote essays such as How to be a Survivor [7] which provide advice on preparing for and surviving a nuclear war. Lucifer's Hammer by Jerry Pournelle and Larry Niven is about a cataclysmic comet hitting the Earth, and various groups of people struggling to survive the aftermath in southern California. Lights Out is an online novel written by David Crawford (aka Halffast) that depicts life after an atmospheric nuclear explosion's electro-magnetic pulse (EMP) causes a worldwide electronic blackout (see the link below).

Patriots: Surviving the Coming Collapse by James Wesley, Rawles[8] (the editor of SurvivalBlog) is a novel about a full-scale socio-economic collapse and subsequent invasion of the US, which a review has called "a survival manual dressed as fiction." One of the most popular survivalist novels, it had circulated in an earlier draft form as shareware and had nearly 90,000 downloads in the mid-1990s, well before the Internet became heavily populated. Edward Abbey's 1980 novel Good News is about small bands of people in the Phoenix, Arizona area trying to fend off the rise of a military dictatorship after the collapse of the economy and government. The Survivalist is the title of a series of paperback novels by Jerry Ahern.

Things Fall Apart... (2002) by Fred Heiser concerns a Los Angeles area family's struggle to survive after an EMP (Electromagnetic pulse) attack and subsequent nuclear exchange with China. Other survivalism-themed material includes Pulling Through by Dean Ing (1987), and Le Temps du Loup (2003).

Television programs

Two made-for-TV movies made during the 1980s, The Day After in the US and Threads in the UK, portray a nuclear war and its aftermath of social chaos and economic collapse. Both movies were, at the time, among the most controversial movies ever made for television. Jericho (2006) is a TV series that portrays a small town in Kansas after a series of nuclear explosions across the United States. In the series, the character Robert Hawkins uses his prior planning and survival skills to stay alive.

Films

The 1962 movie Panic in the Year Zero starring Ray Milland, Jean Hagen, Frankie Avalon and Mary Mitchel portrays the Baldwin family's attempt to flee the Los Angeles area for a rural location after a nuclear war between the US and the USSR.: [9]Dawn of the Dead, both the original and the remake, deal with survival in a zombie-apocalypse scenario. The 1984 movie Red Dawn portrays Colorado high school students who take to the hills after a fictional invasion of the US by the Soviet Union. The students survive with supplies gathered at the beginning of the invasion, by hunting, and by ambushing Soviet patrols and supply convoys.

In Terminator 2: Judgment Day (1991) John Connor's mother, Sarah Connor stores weapons in an underground shelter in the desert, as instructed by Kyle Reese, John's father, in preparation for an apocalypse precipitated by computerized machines. The Postman is a novel and movie that depicts a post-apocalyptical future in America in which a survivalist militia preys on weaker communities.


In the Tremors (film) movie and television franchise the character Burt Gummer (Michael Gross) is a self admitted survivalist. In the first film he and his wife are preparing for social upheaval. Later in the series Burt shifts his focus towards the "graboids" that infest the soil of his home valley.


In the 1983 made for TV movie "Packin' It In", the main character Gary Webber (Richard Benjamin) moves his family from suburban L.A. to the wilderness of Oregon. The family moves in to a small rural community where most of the residents are survivalists.


In the 1983 film "The Survivors" Robin Williams plays a man who becomes obsessed with the survivalist culture after being robbed. Walter Matthau costars as Williams more level headed companion.

Games and other formats

Fallout is a role-playing game set in a post-nuclear apocalypse world, 70 years after a global nuclear war. The gameplay is centered around the character's own survival instinct and skills, and communities of survivalists.

The antagonist of The Ghostway by Tony Hillerman is a survivalist who finances his preparations for nuclear war by working as a hit man. Sean Kennedy's Tales From the Afternow follows a character who life in the wasteland of post-nuclear holocaust America and must live his life by the survivalist creed to survive in the dangerous lands. The Zombie Survival Guide is a survival handbook written by Max Brooks; despite the title, the book has a serious tone. It deals with the implications of various levels of zombie outbreaks.

In Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas, a mission involves stealing a harvester from a survivalist farm. The survivalists are portrayed as extremely violent and aggressive individuals.

See also

  • Survival kits: a packaged collection of emergency survival equipment such as a basic shelter tent, fire-starting tools, first- aid supplies, and food.
  • Kurt Saxon Kurt Saxon's Preparedness Page
  • "Lights Out", Location of Online book "Lights Out" in PDF
  • Things Fall Apart... (2002) by Fred Heiser concerns a Los Angeles area family's struggle to survive after an EMP strike and subsequent nuclear exchange with China. First five chapters available online.
  • The Library (an idea) an open-source approach to helping civilization survive the coming collapse

Classic survival books

The text of some classic survival books and other writings from the 1970s and early 1980s can be found online:

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