That's funny.

And I was, and still am a survivalist. Some folks do take it a bit too far though, yeah.

Maybe the best way of taking survivalism is as a sort of sport -- like spelunking or climbing mountains. It's hard, it's often unpleasant, but you feel like you'd done something challenging when you're done. But odds don't favour survivalists especially, should the world come to an abrupt end. You could be in a hardware store buying garden gnones when the bombs fall, and your skill in fricassing slugs or making fire with pine needles will do you no good as you flash into vapour. But a very slow global fall can leave the survivalist almost as badly prepared. Knowing how to lay a bear trap may not be helpful getting extra rations from the bread line.

One of the things about survivalism that seemed rather futile to me is that the environment won't support many of them -- especially in some post holocaus scneario where there may be very little game left, and even edible plants may be dying from excess UV.

Back in those days and earlier, there was a Mormon bookstore in the region back of Rice University, that besides the usual religious pamphlets etc also stocked great sealed cans of wheat, rice etc etc. along with other sirvivalist materials. It has long since either closed or I suspect moved to location of a less vulnerable nature.

Some aspects of Survivalism can be quite helpful in the midst of man-made and/or natural disaster (like our recent hurricanes down here on the Third Coast, though I'm not sure under which heading they would qualify). For the longest time, we only heard about Survivalists when they had come to grief at the hands of the police/military, incidents ripe with irony as they invariably failed to live up to their name.

The Mormon Church has long stressed independence from outsiders, and embraced the idea of stocking up against hardship. This actually makes sense... Not so much that the state of Utah might have to resist a seige by the U.S. Army any time soon. But because you can get better prices buying in bulk. And having some extra food, water, blankets, a source of light and heat, a way to make fire, basic tools, a radio running on batteries, some gasoline for the car, etc. can serve you well in an ordinary emergency.

I don't know if I'd call that survivalism though. I associate the survivalist movement with things like learning to skin game, hiding guns under the floor boards, and pretending to practice battle tactics when really all you and your buds are doing is drinking a lot of beer.