Saturday, July 18, 2026
VLADVAMPIRELORD'S STRANGE EXPERIENCE: SURVIVALISTS VERSUS PREPPERS
Most people have no idea when they talk about how great the 80's were because they gloss completely over the dark side of the decade which was very dark indeed as the COLD WAR was in full swing against the SOVIET UNION and just about everyone thought the United States would either be overrun and made COMMUNIST or destroyed in a mad round of NUCLEAR ANNIHILATION. We all assumed we would be dead in a NUCLEAR HOLOCAUST sooner than later and that is why there was such a burst of creativity and lust for pleasure. People had the thought that I might as well enjoy my life now because I will soon be dead from the coming NUCLEAR WAR. Everyone had this idea in their head except one group, the SURVIVALISTS, who were preparing for a post apocalyptic wasteland where their perverse dreams of surviving could become reality so they began stocking supplies, guns, food and learning survival skills to address the coming nuclear clusterfuck.
It just so turns out that due to the weird attracting the weird, I met a self proclaimed survivalist while attending university. The guy had a tent in his car and walked around with micro film which he showed me had information on guns, how to poison someone, and treat a broken limb in the forest among other things. The guy did not want to be known as a survivalist and what brought him to me I do not know beyond me being a strange dude, but it surprised everyone in 1990 when the Soviet Union collapsed and the wall between East And West Germany came down. Music became more celebratory with much Euro Dancing and Survivalism morphed into the modern day PREPPER movement which retained some of the apocalyptic doom, but was centered around the preparing for disasters of all kinds, not just military, but natural as well.
Since my world view is pretty much one of doom, both Survivalism and the Prepper movement has been ones I have embraced. I have stored stacks of rice to deal with starvation fears only to realize there are insect eggs in the rice which when the climate becomes humid erupt into insects. Yes, we are all eating insect eggs with our rice. I have stored boxes of macaroni too to address my fear of starving, only to find out you will die faster from dehydration by not having water than starving which will take much longer. I started storing water which actually helped when the apartment lost water due to a pipe bursting, but most times it is hard to predict what kind of disaster you will be dealing with and thus how to prepare.
Apparently, this guy in our apartment complex is also a PREPPER as when we lost power, he strung a wire half way across the center of the field to another apartment which he must have arranged to hook up with in advance so that he had power, while 70 percent of the apartment dwellers did not. Pretty balsy.
I am still preparing for the next disaster, but it is a guessing game. When Hurricane Sandy hit and we lost power, I was reduced to burning candles and eating dethawed steak from the freezer fried in a pan. Spend two weeks like that and you see that civilization is a convenient lie dependent on electricity we all embrace.
The truth is that chaos is just one disaster away.
Alas.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)