Prepper Posers

Last night I watched a very depressing and annoying documentary about British "preppers"; these are people that in the United States would be called "survivalists". See here for Preppers UK- Surviving Armageddon: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HqKI7Pgf_6o (Thanks to Lemsip on the HPANWO Forum for bringing this to my attention). As I've said before, I consider prepping to be basically a form of surrender; these people are dropping to the floor, bowing their heads and wailing that the world is doomed and there's nothing we can do to stop it. It's essentially a very self-indulgent and pessimistic vision of the future. And it's a total cop-out because all the disasters they hope to escape are man-made; this includes the aftermath of natural disasters. (It's possible that some natural disasters are man-made too. HAARP was operating when both Fukushima and Katrina struck, but that's a big subject that requires its own article.) However I know that if you've got small children the world looks very different, so I don't want to be too harsh on them. Another feature of the prepper is an obsession with social Darwinism. In fact if these people shaved off their hair and were filmed from behind they echo "Charles" perfectly, see: http://hpanwo-tv.blogspot.co.uk/2011/01/charles.html. The first man interviewed, Michael Sanderson, was the most extreme. He is presented to the viewer as a Military Religious figure, see: http://hpanwo-voice.blogspot.co.uk/2012/11/lest-we-remember.html. The fundamental problem for people in a post-apocalyptic world, as they see it, will be other people; as Edward O'Toole says at 10.03: "Seventy million people on an island all competing for the same resources." Catchphrases like "dog-eat-dog world", "Law of the Jungle" and "survival of the fittest"; or, among the more articulate, "Leviathan will eat itself" are cliches within the prepper community. Two of the people interviewed had lived through the London riots of 2011 and this seemed to have been a catalyst which galvanized them. Yet those riots were organized by sources unknown who may well have originated from within the Government. The Fukushima Disaster, in 2011 as well, seems to have also been a major turning point in people's lives, a moment which inspired many of these individuals into becoming preppers. But in fact during the worst of the disaster in Japan, social cohesion didn't break down. Some people explain this as the highly stable and communitarian nature of Japanese culture, but I still think we should ask: are anarchy and what the Preppers call: "BLO", the Breakdown of Law and Order, an inevitable part of a cataclysm? I've spoken and written about this subject before, see: http://hpanwo-voice.blogspot.co.uk/2012/11/thats-just-human-nature-man.html and: http://hpanwo-tv.blogspot.co.uk/2012/07/friday-13th-man.html I think it's a myth that human society is essentially unstable and that we need governmental control to save us from our natural urges towards internecine predation; this is a very convenient notion for the Government I might add!: "You need us! Look what will happen to you if we're not there to protect you!" If this is the case, then I repeat a question I've asked many times before: why is it that this "just human nature, Mate" requires constant maintenance? The manipulators jump through hoop after hoop and sweat buckets in their effort to keep us at each other’s throats. If it really is a dog-eat-dog world then why don’t they just sit back and watch the show as we tear each other to pieces?

In the film Michael Sanderson says: "People tell me 'I don't understand why you're a prepper'; I reply: 'I don't understand why you're not!'." If I were with him and I happened to be in a provocative mood I would reply: "Because if everybody were a prepper like you, who would you feel superior to?" There is a distinct whiff of superciliousness with these people. At 16.00 Sanderson states how in a world without law and order only "duh biggest n' meanest on da stweets" would survive. I can't help thinking that if in such a situation people instead stuck together and took care of each other, it would be his worst nightmare come true! He seems to be virtually egging reality on to prove his social Darwinist fantasies true. The alternative would destroy his worldview and strip him of something essential to his self-esteem. I'm not a prepper. I don't have a single can of food stored and I don't posses so much as a pop gun. Why? Because while these auto-sodomites are strutting around Welsh hillsides like Sylvester Stallone feeling self-important, somebody has to stay behind and fight! Somebody has to work to prevent this New World Order from happening in the first place, not considering it a foregone conclusion and "bugging out WTSHTF- (When The Shit Hits The Fan)". If these threats are man-made then there have to be man-made solutions; but we will never find them if we flee at the first sign of danger, like the rabbits these people hunt and trap.

(Edit 17-12-12) On reflection I think I was a tad too harsh here with some preppers. Most of the people featured in the film have small children. My own daughter is now nearly 18, but I can remember when she was little. When you're a man with small children, the world looks very different indeed!