Article – Survival camps cater to new fear: America’s political unrest

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Ah, another ‘tactical timeshare’.

 

FORTITUDE RANCH, Colo., Dec 23 (Reuters) – Aiming an AR-15 rifle across a Colorado valley dotted with antelope and cattle, Drew Miller explains how members of his new survival ranch would ride out an apocalypse.

The former U.S. Air Force intelligence officer said his latest Fortitude Ranch community, under construction below mountain forests, will shelter Americans fleeing anything from a bioengineered pandemic to an attack on the electricity grid.

For an annual fee of around $1,000, members can vacation at the camps in good times, and use them as a refuge during a societal collapse.

“If you’ve got a lot of weapons, if you’ve got a lot of members at guard posts, defensive walls, we don’t think we’re going to need to fight,” said Miller, crouching on top of a fortified position on the camp perimeter.

The expansion of Miller’s camp chain underscores the growing mainstream appeal of the “prepper” movement long associated with anti-government survivalists.

I am all about entrepreneurship. But next time you’re in a crowded elevator imagine having to ride out Ragnarok with the people standing next to you. The notion of running off to some heavily fortified Holiday Inn has some appeal but, geez, even when it isn’t the end of the world your average co-op board is a pit of vipers. Now imagine that co-op board wearing multicam.

What makes a ‘survial group’ or ‘mutual aid group’ isn’t the gear, it’s the people. Twenty strangers in a fortified compound will be less effective and less efficient, I wager, than twenty close friends or close family members camped in a burned out WalMart. Community is about people, not buildings. We like to say that spending all the money in the world on super-high-speed gear will not make you an ‘expert’ (or whatever)….same story with people. You can’t really expect that just because you’ve built an awesome Führerbunker it means that throwing a random selection of people in it will create a close-knit group that is willing to take risks and look out for each other. When it’s the end of the world and I need someone to keep an eye on things while I catch some sleep, I’m going to feel a lot better knowing its my buddy I’ve known for twenty years and not some manager from a Kansas Best Buy I just met yesterday.

Your mileage may vary, but any ‘stronghold’ whose requirement for admission is the ability to have their check clear seems like a bad place to ride out a rough episode. I’d rather take my chances with a half-dozen longtime friends and family in the shattered remains of my house than share a communal bathroom with a hundred armed strangers whose main bond is a shared zip code.

 

11 thoughts on “Article – Survival camps cater to new fear: America’s political unrest”

  2. Great until the 80/20 rule raise its head, I say less than 1 hour into post shtf. 20% do all the work and 80% want free a ride. been there done that. if family is involved the non blood members gets the short end of the stick. A reason why tribal cultures that exist right now have such hard laws and punishments. 80% do everything they can to do little as possible. then the other 20% say fuck it and stop humping the load, I rather be on a buddy team or have small fire team.

  3. Yeah, better to stock for a buddy who isn’t a prepper, but you can trust, than to try to find another prepper. Wheat is still cheap, as is steel cased ammo. For now.

  4. Yeah, this is Yuppie surivival at the most. Unless the persons are screened for “wilderness – school of hard knocks” experience, what you said above is correct. And you stand the real risk of being removed once you bring your BO supplies to the compound.

  5. 99% of the article is “See? It’s those Trumptards who are the crazy ones. Aren’t they extra weird? That’s where all the extremism is located”.

    Never mind that 100% of the social upheaval is driven by the left. All we’re asking for is to leave the basic socio-political-economic structures alone. We like the country the way it is.

  6. Looks like a great business to me. $175k a year (or more if you get more suckers to buy in) in cash flow. Figure the land/improvements get paid off quickly at that rate and then almost all the rest is gravy.
    My money is on the owners being nowhere near that CF when the shit hits. The smart money will have a nice bolthole that hasn’t been advertised all over the internet.

  7. They lost me at the word millennial…the minute the shtf it would be a power struggle in a situation like that…liberal prepping is an oxymoron…4 legs good 2 legs better

  8. To me, this looks like a con with the objective of getting others to buy in and pay for the setup and operating costs. Then, when SHTF, the gates get locked and the paying clients that have nothing in their skillset to offer are left out in the cold to fend for themselves.

  9. This guy isn’t the only one setting up this type of business. Personally I can think of much better things to do with a grand a year.

  10. Zero is entirely correct when he says it is better to count on friends and ( some ) family than total strangers when things go badly sideways. Trust and long term bonds mean way more than you are paid up and ready to go safe seekers. Even neighbors, like in my area of suburbia, have more of a common interest to secure their turf and lay it on the line than strangers who just pay a fee and hope to be secure from the nasties.

  11. “a hundred armed strangers whose main bond is a shared zip code.”
    My, CZ, you sure can turn a phrase! Darn near poetical.

    As for friends vs. non-invested acquaintances, um, nevermind, I don’t want my roomie to know he is eminently expendable.

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