THE ADVOCATE 295
VOL. 79 PART 2 MARCH 2021
second deals with outdoor hints that could have come directly from a Boy
Scout magazine (“Matchless—making fire with flint and steel”, “Winter survival
techniques”, etc.), the only difference being that no Boy Scout would
have to be told the elementary stuff in some of these articles. The Oc tober/
November 1992 issue has an article, “On Your Feet”, concerning the need to
look after your feet when you have to walk a lot. Highlighted are the benefits
to be obtained from washing your feet and wearing clean socks! I don’t
think we’re dealing with serious outdoorspeople here.
The two types of article fit together in this way: the mag is dedicated to
the propo sition that the civilized world as we know it is shortly going to
come to an end, to be followed by anarchy in which life will be nasty,
brutish and short. It therefore be hooves us, first, to turn our houses into
fortresses and be prepared to blast the hell out of any neighbour who comes
to the door (for sure he’ll be up to no good!) and secondly to brush up our
skills at coping with the wilderness to which America will shortly revert. To
me, the two ideas are mutually exclusive, in the sense that the paranoid
machine-gunner in his city fortress is hardly likely to take a stroll in the
woods to see which side of the trunks the moss is growing on, but the Survivalist
takes such minimal inconsistencies in his stride, having already
swallowed the greater unreason.
So, why is the civilized world going to come to an end? For many years,
the answer was obvious—the “Combloc” was going to barbecue us with atom
bombs. It is not so easy to work out a scenario that would have led from
nuclear war to medieval an archy, but that is what the Survivalists believed
would happen. Now that the “Combloc” has ceased to be either Com or a
bloc, they are rather at a loss. They are still committed to the belief that disaster
will come, but they now see that this must be based on something less
changeable than international politics. There are letters, editorials and articles
on this dilemma, and the most serviceable rationale sug gested to date
is that America is so riddled by hippies, non-whites and liberals that it’s
likely to disintegrate spontaneously. We have an article about looting following
Hurricane Andrew in Florida, and several on the Los Angeles riots
following the ac quittal of the L.A. police who beat Rodney King. Perusal of
these articles will leave you in no doubt that hordes of non-white giants in
masks are poised to rush into your living room, raping and robbing. However,
a year has passed and they haven’t showed up yet. It’s getting embarrassing.
Gorbachev and Yeltsin have a lot to answer for.
How does one explain this? The best I can do is hypothesize that it’s a
cross between the paranoia of less successful white people and the nostalgia
for simpler days. If you have difficulty coping with the complexities of life