Thursday, December 11, 2008

Letter to the Editor

To the Editor,

An armchair survivalist believes the nation is falling into chaos, and he wants to help! On Monday December 1st there was an article titled “Survivalist cashes in on fear of chaos”. My idea is that we should be prepared but not go to extremes.

What is a survivalist? According to the online Urban dictionary survivalist means; “A person that believes in self reliance. A "survivalist" does not wish to depend on other people, or the government to take care of them or their family.” What causes people to become survivalists? Info according to Wikipedia shows in the 80's the “arms race” and “energy shortages” were reasons. In the 90's fears of the Y2K computer bug. This century it has been terrorist attacks, increased awareness of environmental disasters, global climate change, and economic troubles.

I believe in being prepared but that we should avoid extremism. What is extreme? The Herald article mentions not only stockpiling food and water but also weapons as people anticipate a breakdown of civilized society. What is reasonable? Its always a good idea to be prepared for unexpected disasters, but do we really need to be prepared to shoot it out over a can of green beans?

Encouraging people to be paranoid seems to be trying to help cause some disasters instead of preventing them. Be prepared but let's not go to extremes! Be prepared for catastrophes but don't be the cause of one.

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