Duck and Cultivate

The fear of decivilization has been strong for decades, but only recently has the fear turned green.  In a recent Alternet article entitled, "Massive Economic Disaster Seems Possible -- Will Survivalists Get the Last Laugh?," Scott Thill discusses the early history of survivalism, its recent focus on community and agriculture, and how this once marginalized group is getting a lot of mainstream attention.

Thill states: "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."

In the article, social critic James Kunstler tells us the importance of keeping the agricultural heartland sane.  "Peak-oil survivalists are different from the Ruby Ridge generation. They don't think that a bolt-hole in the woods is a very promising strategy. We have no idea at this point what the level of social cohesion or disorder may be, but if the rural areas, especially the agricultural centers, become too lawless for farming, then we'll be in pretty severe trouble because there will be nothing for us to eat."

Read more here.