These folks driven by fears of economic or societal collapse are preparing themselves for survival. What is interesting about these particular survivalist networks is their fears are driven by practicality as opposed to ideology. In other words, they do not fear an oppressive, liberal government but the total collapse of American society. I guess they aren’t of the usual tinfoil hat wearing variety.
You can go to Prepper.org to find out more.
This Reuters story highlights the details and motivations.
When Patty Tegeler looks out the window of her home overlooking the Appalachian Mountains in southwestern Virginia, she sees trouble on the horizon.
“In an instant, anything can happen,” she told Reuters. “And I firmly believe that you have to be prepared.”
Tegeler is among a growing subculture of Americans who refer to themselves informally as “preppers.” Some are driven by a fear of imminent societal collapse, others are worried about terrorism, and many have a vague concern that an escalating series of natural disasters is leading to some type of environmental cataclysm.
They are following in the footsteps of hippies in the 1960s who set up communes to separate themselves from what they saw as a materialistic society, and the survivalists in the 1990s who were hoping to escape the dictates of what they perceived as an increasingly secular and oppressive government.
Preppers, though are, worried about no government.
Tegeler, 57, has turned her home in rural Virginia into a “survival center,” complete with a large generator, portable heaters, water tanks, and a two-year supply of freeze-dried food that her sister recently gave her as a birthday present. She says that in case of emergency, she could survive indefinitely in her home. And she thinks that emergency could come soon.
“I think this economy is about to fall apart,” she said.
A wide range of vendors market products to preppers, mainly online. They sell everything from water tanks to guns to survival skills.
Conservative talk radio host Glenn Beck seems to preach preppers’ message when he tells listeners: “It’s never too late to prepare for the end of the world as we know it.”
“Unfortunately, given the increasing complexity and fragility of our modern technological society, the chances of a societal collapse are increasing year after year,” said author James Wesley Rawles, whose Survival Blog is considered the guiding light of the prepper movement.
- Differences Between Preppers and Survivalists (afterac.wordpress.com)
- Letter Re: Why are Preppers So Hatefully Persecuted? (survivalblog.com)
- Preppers- a new look (contrafighter.wordpress.com)
Reblogged this on YOU DECIDE.
I can`t figure out why peppers would be a subculture – we`ve been eating them for years – stuffed with cheddar, wrapped in bacon and deep fried, sliced and pickled (remember peter?) pan fried with scrambled eggs and onions, chopped with cilantro and made into salsa, hell, sometimes we get out raw jalapeno`s just to see how brave (or stupid) our drunk buddies are – but sub culture???? the whole worlds goin to hell, I`m headed back for the bunker……….. oh, and using tin foil for hats is just a waste of good foil – we make ours outta empty cut up bud cans.
Lol@Rick!
This is nothing new really. Back in the 1950′s people were building fallout shelters in their back yards all over the place. Can’t say I completely blame them for thinking that the world is going to hell though.
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