"Survivalism" to me covers many different related and unrelated groups of 
people.
    A. Monetary disaster type - people that have read lots of Gary North, 
Ludvig Von Mises, Franz Pick, Ayn Rand and understand how evil the Federal 
Reserve system is. Current hero Ron Paul. Newsletter any of several hard asset 
gold and silver boulion coin oriented investments. Preparing for paper money to 
become worthless, have a good burglar alarm system, enough food and supplies to 
last the couple months or perhaps a year until a new monetary system (formal or 
informal) is re-established.
    B. Natural disaster type, brief - people that live in a tornado, hurricane, 
earthquake, heavy snow fall area and like the idea of not dying or continueing 
present life style.  Heavy investment in tools for rebuilding or temporary 
shelter, perhaps have a below ground hiwind shelter, food, water, medicine, etc 
enough to get buy till contact with the rest of the world resumes.
    C. Natural disaster type, longterm - people that are concerned with long  
term weather cycles in terms of the 2-10 year unusually cold or warm periods 
that have happened on and off over the last thousand years.  Might stock  
several tons of food per family member and have a heavy duty greenhouse with 
packed in nitrogen non-hybrid seeds.
    D. Medical emergency type - takes paramedic courses.  Has very complete 
medical pack in house and car, donates blood, active in Red Cross, has taken 
CPR, Multi-Media course, vital signs, stocks medicines, etc.
    E. General social decline type - concerned about growing cultural 
immorality - very into anti-crime measures, both passive (alarms) and active 
(neighborhood watch).  Probably invloved in MADD, Rape prevention groups, 
Project IDENT, etc.
    F. Political delcine type - concerned about the slow destruction of the 
constitution and the bill of rights.  Involved in CCRKBA, CATO, CRC and other 
groups that advocate personal freedoms.
    G. Nuclear war preparedness - is aware that if you avoid the heavy blast 
region of a nuclear bomb (1-6 miles depending on type and whethered sheltered 
or not, or even ground zero if in elaborate shelter) and keep away from the 
fallout which reduces in activity by 90% in 7 hours, by 99% in 2 days, by 99.9% 
in 2 weeks, by 99.99% in 14 weeks and decays even faster after 14 weeks, that 
there is no reason to allow yourself to be killed.  Many survivalist prepare 
for nuclear war as an exercise in that if you are prepared for nuke war, your 
are prepared for all of the above.
    H. Religious type - Christ is going to return VERY soon, the final battle 
with the devil will occur in their lifetime, the rapture is eminant.  Very wide 
range of beliefs and attitudes in this group. Pacifist to armed-camp, no food 
(leave that to God) to decades for food, etc.
    I. Wacko nuts - very small percentage of the survivalist movement, though 
they get 99% of all the mass media publicity.  Morally the equivalent of 
canibals.  Few in this group would survive anything long term.  Lots of guns, 
not enough medical supplies or food.  These types are dispised by main stream 
survivalists due to 1. their lack of morals which are the source of man-made 
disasters 2. they get all of the free pulicity which the main stream people 
wish that they could get 3. they fear them for the same reason that everybody 
else should fear them.  Many of the Wacko Nuts types are rejects from the 
Religious types since the ability to put trust in faith rather than logic and 
rationality are essential to both.  Both groups usually follow one very 
charismatic leader typically.
   My impression is that the vast majority are interested in the economic,  
short term natural disaster and nuclear aspects. This is based on 6 years of 
reading, 5 years of being active in the movement by joining the world's oldest 
and largest survivalist organization, attending survivalist meetings in 
Missouri, Indiana, Alabama, and North Carolina, reading all of the posts in the 
National SURVIVE! Echonet BBS link, running a survivalist BBS since 1986, and 
being a survival lecturer. 

Ken Seger 1-7-88