Originally published at Notes from the bunker…. You can comment here or there.

I am starting to wonder if there is anyone I know who isn’t either contemplating the end of the world as we know it, or preparing for the same.

I was chatting with someone last week and we were talking about food and diet. I said “Yeah, of course if I suddenly decided to give up things like grains I’d wind up with a ton of storage food I cant eat.” He commented that, hey, he and his wife were trying to put together a years supply of food. The conversation, naturally, turned in that direction and I loaned him a few books on the subject. I also emailed him some links and told him that I’d be happy to answer any questions he may have. This wasnt too surprising, I’d suspected that, to some degree or another, this person had some interest in preparedness. Apparently, I was right. I think this means that I know virtually no one in this town who is not, in some way, preparing against some sort of impending apocalypse, imagined or real.

Today, I was talking to someone and I asked, quite casually, how the sale of his out-of-state property was coming along. He said he hadn’t any takers yet, but that was okay because if the world ends it would be a good place for him to move to. He said the nearest population center was x miles way, game was plentiful, and there was no problem with water, etc. So, again, someone I didn’t suspect turned out to at least be thinking along similar lines as me and a surprisingly large amount of people I know.

So, either the handwriting on the wall is becoming more and more apparent and people are planning accordingly or “Hammer Fever” is contagious. (Hammer Fever was the name given in the book ‘Lucifers Hammer’ to the sudden interest in preparedness exhibited by some people when they discovered that a comet would be passing uncomfortably close to the earth. But you knew that, right? Go read the book.)

Personally, I welcome any who is interested to the fraternity of preparedness. Mostly because, in Darwinian fashion, I want those people who think like me to be the dominant forms of life. Im sure that in other parts of the country there may be survivalists of a more left or liberal stripe, but every survivalist Ive ever met has been, to some degree or another, pretty like-minded with how I think politically and socially. Not always, mind you, but often enough. I’m sure there are lefty, commie, share-the-wealth survivalist types out there but in my day-to-day life I’ve never met one in person. Of course, the right leaning survivalists dont automatically qualify as being the same as me either…especially the superstitious/religious ones…but I can usually get along with them better than the ones at the other side of the spectrum.

Regardless, I’m always pleased to discover someone else is thinking along similar lines as myself.