Survivalism in the South: 'Response is Key'

When was the last time you thought about the end of civilisation as we know it?

The recent antics of Robert Mugabe are obviously thought provoking in this regard, so too are the soaring fuel, food and energy prices. Global warming, we now know, is a real and inconvenient truth much like the inability of the UN to secure world peace as well as continued political instability and human rights injustices across the world, not just Africa. Given this, when was the last time you thought about survivalist strategies to protect yourself from all these incumbent problems?

In turns out that people in the North have been thinking about ‘surviving’ for a while now since the nuclear anxiety caused by the Cold War. One man in fact has 58.8 gigabytes of information that he has collected and written towards survival guide in the event of the total collapse of society. There is also an Australian forum that is dedicated to providing information and a platform for discussion around survivalism, whether this be surviving a global economic crisis or being retrenched from work. The main aim of this website is to get people informed about the need to be prepared because a controlled response is key to surviving.

Personally, it’s been a while since I thought about moving to the mountains and starting my own micro-society so that I can be self-sufficient. The end of the world or of ‘civilisation as we know it’ is a distant thought in my mind and my own views on the matter keep me from getting too anxious or paranoid. Concerns about climate change, peak oil and peace and stability are obviously real and need to be taken seriously (to this end I recycle, drive a scooter and try my best to love my neighbour as myself) but what I find most ironic is that here in the South, where there is a far greater chance of civil society collapsing, hardly anyone seems bothered. Fair enough around 1992 there was the odd story here and there about right-wingers going underground into fallout shelters somewhere in the Free State with a 3 year supply of bully-beef and bullets, but other than that not much has happened. Africa has more pressing problems before it – HIV/AIDS, famine, war, extreme poverty and poor health and education systems – which need to first be sorted out before anyone can even begin to think about preparing for societal shutdown.

Most survivalist websites are rather disturbing to me (the thought of removing myself from society to live in an undisclosed location is wholly off-putting) with the exception of one that I found today called Transition Culture. The site is maintained by Rob Hopkins who is dedicated to equipping communities to survive peak oil by educating people with skills that they can learn for use in a time where there is no oil to power the machines to do all the things that we humans have long stopped doing. Hopkins writes about the exciting opportunities that await society in the oil crisis because of the creativity that will be put to use in coming up with alternative energy sources. Hopkins has started a ‘transition town’ in Totnes (South Devon, England) where he holds seminars to skill people up for a power down that cover everything from gardening to micro-economics. What I like about the concept of a transition culture is the fact that it necessitates cooperation and dialogue within civil society and local communities and it promotes active citizenship – all of which are vital to growing democracy.

As I have said, things in the South are different. The free national healthcare system as well as the housing policies that support those loopy tree-huggers in Totnes and free up their worries so that they can focus on forest gardening does not apply here. But the fact remains that climate change is real and rising oil prices are having a detrimental impact on everyone, even the rich. In the face of all this response is key: Perhaps it is time that the South looks at adopting a transition culture of its own so that we will not have to rely on one that is handed out to us at a later stage, in the form of some sort of aid, making us even more dependent than we already are.