Survivalism: a “Trend” in Pop Culture?
In today’s world of post-COVID lockdowns, mass weather events, failing electrical grids, and the not-so-distant memory of 9/11, it seems that everyone has a crystal-clear picture in their heads of just what an EOTWAWKI scenario would look like. “Coincidentally,” without my realizing it, a film about this very subject came out just last October of 2021. It’s called The Survivalist, and it stars John Milkovich as a post-apocalyptic warlord. While the film doesn’t showcase the most affluent or even the fairly well-heeled, it clearly depicts the motivating reasons why the so-called extreme measures of “Doomsday Preppers” persist.
Today on Rob Raskins’ Millionaire Survivalist, we’ll visit the film The Survivalist and consider its role as a tool to instruct the masses. If art imitates life, then this film is both capitalizing on the fear of recent events and making people reevaluate their priorities for existence. Meanwhile, society’s elites have never stopped measuring their own success, not just financially but as a persistent force on Earth.
The Survivalist – Synopsis
Per IMDB, “A year and a half after the fall of civilization due to a viral outbreak, a former FBI agent is forced to protect a young woman immune to the disease from a dangerous gang leader hunting her.”
If you look at the trailer, what you’ll see is the absolute downfall of society, as a major urban area succumbs to mass chaos and violence, loss of control by authorities, guerrilla warfare in the streets, and so on. This, of course, is what sets the stage for the difficult but important task of the girl surviving all of this and struggling to find her way to the FBI agent turned survivalist. All the while, she’s being hunted by a maniacal warlord, likely focused on her detainment for scientific observation since her immune system holds the key to everyone’s survival. Clearly, conflict will ensue, drama will unfold, and theaters will sell much popcorn and soda.
The World of Survivalism in the Public Consciousness
While the plot synopsis and storyline are focused on the dramatic struggle of the characters, it’s clear that this film is capitalizing on the mass hysteria generated by COVID. Naturally, you can expect the masses to become cognizant of the problems they all face at the same time. However, those who’ve survived such battles unfamiliar to the masses seem to march to the tune of a different drummer. Whether it’s an immigrant in NYC having escaped apartheid in his homeland or your garden variety religious zealot, they don’t need anyone to tell them what’s coming.
Who can’t help but notice a pattern of global destruction of “Biblical Proportions?” Viewing through the prophetic lens of Judgement Day, as famously foretold in the Gospel of John, the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse spread pestilence (plague), famine, war, and subsequently, death. Meanwhile, every day, the news sees increasing mass casualties related to COVID, Putin’s war against Ukraine, and of course, the struggle of supply lines caused by all of the above, plus rising fuel costs.
Religion aside, history teaches us that the last thing to give way when civilization falls is trade. It’s the mutual relationship between neighboring communities, domestic and abroad, that ensures our survival for the long haul while promoting peaceful relations. If this weren’t true, much of the world would still be small farming communities with virtually no need for money. But I digress… when it comes to consciousness, it seems that the masses are focused on pop culture while the “powers that be” remain hidden in plain sight.
What Would Ted Turner Do?
If a classic meat-eating, salt-of-the-earth, winner-take-all capitalist like Ted Turner were around today, my hunch is he’d be spending more time on his Montana ranch, far from the idiosyncratic masses seeking any means of distraction from the fear that governs the cogs in the social wheels. Why? Not because he hates them, but because he doesn’t wait for other people to explain things to him. Surely there are millionaire survivalists today who take great pains to cultivate their public persona while hedging their bets with compounds in New Zealand, for example.
In short, at the glacial pace that society moves, anyone who is driven to have, be, do, create, or experience more has to learn to be guided from within. Who doesn’t have that little voice in their head that refuses to be pacified by the “leaders” who take turns gracing the world stage every four years? The real members of this planet are busy thinking for themselves and making preparations for the future based on credible data extrapolated from long-term trends. The same thought process that wins in the stock market is responsible for the survival of modern humans, despite all the mass-extinction events and cyclical problems of war, disease, plagues, pestilence, famine, and all the other problems that challenged our ancestors.
So, to the masses, we say, “Hope you enjoy the film. Now here are a bunch of things to consider buying.” Meanwhile, to the millionaire survivalists already planning to survive even bigger challenges to their existence, what does it matter what anyone says?
Click here to see the film trailer: https://www.rollingstone.com/movies/movie-news/john-malkovich-the-survivalist-trailer-1212979/
Works Cited:
IMDb.com. (n.d.). The Survivalist. IMDb. Retrieved May 10, 2022, from https://www.imdb.com/title/tt13694706/plotsummary?ref_=tt_ov_pl