You might be a survivalist if the Number One tip in your list of additional uses for salt is to

1. Soak stained bandanas in salt water before washing to help eliminate the stains.

I had to chuckle picturing someone salting down their basket of sweat-stained bandannas. Honestly, my bandanna needs have never been that pressing, but who am I to judge–maybe this guy goes through a lot of bandannas, even if I can’t imagine how. But if you are the type to wear that many bandannas, are you seriously that worried about sweat stains? Or is that tip just for your formal bandanna attire?

The general survivalist/preparedness community is interesting and has a strong online presence. The members appear either conservative or libertarian in their politics, and often Christian. If you accept on faith, as they do, that an apocalypse is coming, then you’d be foolish not to practice the rites of the prepper.

There is an attractiveness to many of the practices: I like martial arts, firearms, self-sufficiency, and many of the other topics they discuss. But there is something insidious about the whole movement that I’ve been trying to put my finger on.

All of the survivalist blogs and websites think that an apocalyptic event is likely, if not inevitable. But, like talk radio, they feed off one another’s fears in a way that reinforces the idea that an apocalyptic event is not only inevitable, but imminent. In other words, it’s easy to think that if all these other folk feel like I do about this happening, it must be true that it’s going to happen.

Too much of that mindset and the next thing you know all your big decisions are overshadowed by the looming doom. Just like anyone who may need their funds quickly, they avoid the stock market and plenty aren’t thinking about retirement. Their long term planning often goes no further than buying and stocking a dream retreat.

Whereas to me, a stock market crash just means it’s time to buy, not that it’s a sign of the End of Days. Maybe my concern is that continual exposure to the survivalist message leads to long-term planning for something that, while catastrophic if it does happen, is still at a low risk of occurring. The impression I get is that the normal long-term planning, i.e., for life events at a high risk of occurrence, such as obtaining health insurance and saving for the kids’ college fund and your retirement, etc., is being sacrificed for more guns and freeze-dried food.

Of course, if they turn out to be right, they’ll be the ones laughing as they grab their bug-out bag, fire up the 4wd and flatten zombies on the way to their self-sufficient retreat in the Ozarks.