(Redirected from Survivalist)
A 'survivalist' is a person who anticipates and prepares for a future disruption in local, regional or worldwide social or political order. 'Survivalism' is a commonly used term for the subculture or movement of people who make such preparations. 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:
#
Natural disasters, such as
tornadoes,
hurricanes,
earthquakes,
blizzards, and severe
thunderstorms
# A disaster brought about by the activities of mankind:
chemical spills, release of
radioactive materials,
war.
# General collapse of society, resulting from the unavailability of electricity, fuel, food, and water.
# 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.
A Duck & Cover movie poster
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.
[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, and 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 1970s, 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 the
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 community of disaster preparedness specialists and survivalists, provides free basic survival/preparedness information on its website. Some of the information discusses how to protect family members in a disaster, staying out of 'survival situations', running a home from alternate power, pandemics and protection equipment, basic medical how-to and information, protection from 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 the Rubicon section have access to an additional password-protected portion of the website. Individuals applying to Rubicon must contribute articles, or post on the message boards regularly, on survival topics to the website during a probationary period, before they are given full membership. The Rubicon’s motto is "Facta Non Verba" (Deeds, Not Words), which refers to the organization’s insistence that all survival techniques presented in its website be tested and proven to work. They can be found at http://www.alpharubicon.com
★
Zombie Squad is a disaster preparation community. The efforts are focused towards promoting the importance of emergency preparation awareness and working with local communities around the globe to teach them what is needed to survive whatever crisis may come along like natural disasters or man made disasters. Zombie Squad also supports other local and international disaster relief organizations/charities. The
tongue-in-cheek nature of also preparing for zombies helps draw a younger crowd that would perhaps otherwise not consider survival preparation. Site traffic for both the main page and the forums increases noticeably when high-profile zombie movies such as 2005's Land of the Dead are announced or released, attesting to the effectiveness of the zombie-metaphor as a hook.
Numerous survival groups also exist on the internet and can be found on any search engine. These sites are free and have many sources of information. People use these groups as a tool to locate others in their areas that share the same ideas.
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 distancing oneself from society, adopting a survivalist stance, and the acquisition of suitable small arms. However, not all who take military matters into their own hands are survivalists.
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.
Such a militaristic approach is not shared by many survivalists, and is indeed condemned by many survivalists. As a result, the term "survivalist" is sometimes used interchangeably with
right-wing reactionarism. In particular, the mainstream media tends to label militants and miscellaneous extremists as "survivalists" .
A small portion of survivalists hold
racist or white supremacist beliefs. For instance,
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. A booklet released by the office of the
Executive Office of the President of the
United States shortly after the start of the cold war called
Survival Under Atomic Attack depicts the nature of the early civil defense initiatives.
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"
[3] 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.
Other groups related to survivalism
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 prepare for an economic or political collapse.
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.
''
The Postman'' by
David Brin is set in a time after a massive plague and political fracture resulted in a complete collapse of society. The quasi-survivalist "Holnist" characters are portrayed negatively. They are despised by the remaining population. The Holnists follow a totalitarian social theory idolizing the powerful who enforce their perceived right to oppress the weak.
''
Dies the Fire'', the first book in
the Emberverse Series of post-apocalyptic fiction by alternate history author
S.M. Stirling. The story takes shape in a universe where electricity, guns, explosives, internal combustion engines, and steam power no longer work. More books follow in the series and flesh out the story-line in a survivalist post-Change world of agriculture, clan-based life and conflict.
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''
[4] 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.
The Postman by
David Brin has a very unflattering portrayal of survivalists as one of the causes behind the collapse of civilization in that novel.
''Patriots: Surviving the Coming Collapse'' by
James Wesley Rawles[5] (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 (1983), 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 ever made for television.
"
24" is a TV series about a federal agent named
Jack Bauer and his attempts foil terrorist plots in Los Angeles. During Season 2 Jack's daughter,
Kim Bauer, is on the run from the law and finds shelter with a survivalist.
''
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 in preparation of the attacks. Most of the episodes center around the sudden collapse of American society resulting in a six way split of the country. The town usually must fight an outside enemy in order to preserve their food and supplies.
''
Lost'', a group of crash survivors are stranded on an island with little food and only the remains of the aircraft and baggage to survive with. Over the course of the series, the survivors adapt to life on the jungle isle while some even welcome it. One of the main characters of the series,
John Locke, appears to be a survivalist even before the events of the crash, both carrying knives with him as baggage, hunting and
tracking skills, and was part of a pseudo-survivalist commune earlier in life.
The BBC TV series
Survivors from 1975-1977 highlights the typical UK view of survivalism with a small, white, middle-class band of survivors emerging from the biological apocalypse. Following the success of the new series of Dr Who the BBC are rumoured to be looking at Terry Nation's other works and are considering a remake of the show.
[6].
''
Survivor'' (2000-present) is a
reality television game show which places a group of contestants in remote location and awards a prize to the one which lasts the longest. Generally, the game is structured such that a player's social skills are more important to winning than survival skills.
In the
HBO TV series ''
Six Feet Under'', one of the characters' (
George Sibley) delusions manifests itself as a form of survivalism, and he becomes terrified that a number of apocalyptic or damaging events, ranging from nuclear war and the disappearance of water to earthquakes, are imminent and takes precautions against it, much to the horror of his wife- who realises that it is beyond cautious and is becoming obsessive.
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.
[7] The 1970 movie ''No Blade of Grass'' starring
Nigel Davenport, based on the book by
John Christopher, features an apocalyptic scenario in England.
[8]
Both ''
Dawn of the Dead'' and the
2004 remake deal with survival in a zombie-apocalypse scenario. 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.
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 the ''
Tremors'' film 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.
''
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
Mad Max, a global oil shortage causes a total socioeconomic collapse and depopulation. The few scattered survivors in the
Australian Outback are depicted fighting for survival, with precious "guzzoline" as their main object.
In '' (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.
In the film "
Cast Away, a FedEx employee is stranded on a deserted island, requiring his skills to survive.
Many
zombie movies feature aspects of post-apocalyptic survivalism in the characters' attempts to survive an undead plague.
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 follows a character who lives 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 , a mission involves stealing a harvester from a survivalist farm. The survivalists are portrayed as extremely violent and aggressive individuals.
In
Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri the Spartan Federation faction is run by a survivalist.
The concept album ''
Year Zero'' by industrial rock group
Nine Inch Nails, based around a theme of a hypothetical oppressive US government in the year 2022, contains a single entitled "Survivalism".
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.
★
SurvivalBlog: A daily survivalist blog
External links
★
AusSurvivalist an Australian site devoted to survivalism from an Australian point of view.
★
SurvivalBlog A daily blog on survival and preparedness topics
★
Feature article on how to assemble a kit of survival gear.
★
SurvivalistBooks.com This site includes a survivalist group finder service for those seeking to find, start or join a local group.
Classic survival books
The text of some classic survival books and other writings from the 1950s thru the 1980s can be found online:
★
Fallout Protection (1961)
[9]
★ ''
Nuclear War Survival Skills'' by
Cresson Kearny (1979, updated 1987 version):
[10]
★ ''Possum Living'' by Dolly Freed (1978):
[11]
★
Survival Under Atomic Attack (1950)
[12]
★ ''Tappan on Survival'' by
Mel Tappan (1981):
[13]
★ Textfiles.com archive of articles that circulated online during the
BBS era, includes several Kurt Saxon articles from his old newsletter:
[14]
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