The recent anti-survivalist post mentioned in SurvivalBlog dismissing survivalists is destructive. He’s entitled to his opinion. Everybody’s got one. I think that those who are brave enough and ethically strong enough to be survivalists have an obligation to their culture, people, and species to survive. It’s a thankless job, and too many survivalists go crazy from the sacrifices they make. Being a survivalist and being sane is tough because it requires many personal sacrifices. You have to balance work and home life, learning skills for independence, and skip buying fancy toys in favor of equipping yourself for a worst case scenario. Missing out on some parts of popular culture can be depressing though I’ll never miss regular broadcast television.
Some survivalists hope to make the rules if they get through a disaster, but that’s more of a fantasy than realistic, in my opinion. The real world of survivalism is having to deal with keeping secrets, ridicule, poverty, and constant training. The upshot? You learn to enjoy Heinlein’s checklist of Manhood. You learn to do things other men have forgotten, and you get the self respect that comes with it. It’s this reason I persevere, that and I’m too damned mean to die, despite my diabetes. While you and most survivalists will be heading for the hills, I have to stay near the insulin supplies and be an urban or suburban survivor, walking the tightrope between what will eventually look a lot like Fascism/1984 and rebellion in the cooling class wars as the Middle class descends into eternal Poverty. I will be learning gardening, teaching cooking to the ignorant masses, and repairing bicycles so the public can keep working their day jobs as the economy tries to stay afloat on local currency and inflated food and energy prices. I really don’t have any choice in the matter. Most of you aren’t going to be tied to civilization and I envy you your freedom. I will have to deal with oppression and probably various kinds of corruption. Like Argentina, with various differences. You will have the freedom to be your own boss and tend your own place to your own rules. Peak Oil, my particular Bogie, scares me well and truly because I understand its implications and it’s all happening in slow motion, just like glaciers, and just as unstoppable.
While that author thinks that survivalists are being selfish, he disregards the simple imperative of survival. Choosing to survive rather than go down with Titanic is hard to do. Choosing to live when others lose their humanity, to survive in order to remain both alive and human is very hard. The author of that opinion piece labors under the impression that survivalists are greedy and selfish but he’s dead wrong. Survivalists are choosing human dignity over squalor, and opting out of the rat race for moral and ethical reasons, and that’s one of the most important sacrifices a man can make. That demands respect. He doesn’t get it yet. Maybe someday he will. It’s not for us to be concerned about. We have to keep our little piece of Western Civilization together and pull through the mess that is bearing down on us like a semi on the expressway. – Inyokern