Survivalism Is an Interesting Social Movement

Tagged with apocalypse, radiation, supplies, videos on March 14, 2024

It’s not difficult to become interested in survivalism with the constant threat of nuclear war hanging over our heads. It’s also not difficult to imagine how quickly society would break down, regardless of what actually causes an apocalypse.

Wikipedia has a fairly long page on various aspects of survivalism. Unless you’re an avid reader, it will take a while to digest all the information it provides.

Survivalism and the Remnants of Life

Survivalism means nothing if there’s no one left. A nuclear war, even a limited one, would probably leave very few survivors who would probably not live very long after the war. Some forms of radiation won’t dissipate completely for decades. The Chernobyl disaster occurred in 1986 and the exclusion zone is still off limits. More information is available from the United States EPA.

There is a chance for what’s left of society if the type of apocalypse is something else, like an out-of-control pandemic. If the COVID-19 pandemic had been much worse, most people would not have survived it. People were stockpiling toilet paper — you can’t eat toilet paper.

Disaster Preparation

For most people, disaster preparation isn’t even feasible. The first thing you need is a place where you can stay, along with your supplies, until the brunt of the disaster has subsided. Most basements are woefully inadequate. You require a minimum of three feet of hard packed earth, or two feet of concrete, on all sides to prevent radiation from reaching you. Still, they’re better than nothing.

In all my years, I’ve never lived in a house with a basement. Visiting someone who has one doesn’t count. I’m sure there are places that could double as fallout shelters, even in the Philippines, but I can’t tell you where any of them are.

Prepper Media

I didn’t pay much attention to prepper media until I stumbled upon one of the videos from The Lost Ways YouTube channel. The videos promote a book, which is probably pretty good. Another channel, 2 Guys & A Cooler, is a bit more entertaining to me.

YouTube has a way of “suggesting” related videos, and that’s how I came upon the Pinch of Patience channel. All of these videos promote one form of survivalism or another. While all of them are interesting to me in some way, they aren’t very practical for me, and that’s all I can really say about them.

Apocalyptic Movies and Television Series

I could spend all day listing the various movies and series involved, but I won’t. The latest streaming series becomes available on Amazon Prime Video in April 2024. It’s based on a video game series called “Fallout”. It looks intriguing, but I can’t judge it until I’ve seen the first episode.

A lot of people are fond of the “Mad Max” movie series, but I haven’t really enjoyed an apocalyptic movie since I saw “A Boy and His Dog” in 1975. The story is supposed to take place this year, by the way.

Image by Pete Linforth from Pixabay