A Proliferation Of ‘Preppers’: Apocalypse Cult On The Rise

The good folks at The Activist give us a portrait of a rising movement that has attracted some seriously scared — and scary — people:

Self-proclaimed Preppers (a diminutive or perhaps a bizarre mispronunciation of “prepare”) constitute a growing movement that emphasizes building personal security measures such as stockpiling food and weapons caches for the coming apocalypse or something.

The movement has already got pulled into the trash TV gold rush with the NatGeo series “Doomsday Preppers,” and received some peripheral media attention in the Sandy Hook tragedy, when it was revealed that the gunman obtained his weapons from his Prepper mother. Preppers are the most literal manifestation of the libertarian movement’s apocalypticism and cult of self-reliance, and with the exception of a few purely religious offshoots, they are committed to defending their perverse image of our republic and fighting the chaos that will follow its inevitable destruction.

One person put this apocalypticism, an idea that sits in tandem with racism behind the anti-tax , anti-gun, and myriad populist anti-government impulses, into a creed:

I will prepare myself and my family, mentally, financially and physically to the best of our abilities to survive small or large natural and man-made disasters. As best as possible I will integrate preparing into our daily lifestyle and seek to comply as best as possible with all existing laws.

By: dave-dr-gonzo

David Hirsch, a.k.a. Dave "Doctor" Gonzo*, is a renegade record producer, video producer, writer, reformed corporate shill, and still-registered lobbyist for non-one-percenter performing artists and musicians. He lives in a heavily fortified compound in one of Manhattan's less trendy neighborhoods.

* Hirsch is the third person to use the pseudonym, a not-so-veiled tribute to journalist and author Hunter S. Thompson, with the permission of his predecessors Gene Gaudette of American Politics Journal (currently webmaster and chief bottlewasher at Liberaland) and Stephen Meese at Smashmouth Politics.