The Doomsday Brigade
by Steven Hager
EPUB ISBN 978-1-4660-1531-9
copyright 2012 by Steven Hager
Published by Steven Hager at Smashwords

This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only and may not be re-sold or even given away to others. Please respect the hard work of this self-publisher. Feel free to contact my blog (http://stevenhager420.wordpress.com/) if you have suggestions or corrections to help improve any of my ebooks. Their greatest value, besides saving trees, is they can be effortlessly updated and purchasers at Smashwords freely upload the newest versions without fees or penalties. I invite you to participate in making this the best possible book.
Foreword
Many religions have an apocalyptic element embedded deep inside their dogmas. Since religion attempts to explain the origin of the universe and since everything has a beginning, then everything must have an ending at some point down the line. The Zoroastrian tradition laid the framework for predicting the coming apocalypse and that tradition has been imitated by various religions for eons.

But the real fervor for this type of thinking seems to be peculiarly American, starting with the granddaddy of survivalists William Miller, a veteran of the War of 1812 who became convinced the return of Jesus Christ was imminent in his lifetime. Miller’s cause was taken up by thousands, including a publisher who spread his dire predictions through a publication called Sign of the Times.
Many people gave up all possessions to await the end with Miller, and when it didn’t come on schedule, it became known as “The Big Disappointment.” Undeterred, many followers went on to form the Seventh Day Adventist Church, as well as other splinter groups, all of which maintained a fanatical belief in the imminent end of the world as we know it.

My generation was the first to grow up under the specter of nuclear annihilation and that might explain why so many of us buy into fears of an impending apocalypse. In the 1950s, this fear took the form of building atomic fallout shelters in basements as we prepared for World War III to engulf the globe. Early on, some shelter builders wondered if they also needed to worry about their neighbors when the complete breakdown of society as we know it inevitably took place.
However, in most cases of disaster, communities band together and help each other. They seldom turn on each other like mad dogs, which is what some Americans seem to be expecting and why they feel the need to arm themselves in anticipation of the apocalypse.
In 1981, when I became a reporter for the New York Daily News, I decided to document the survivalist movement that had just appeared. Soon this movement would morph into the militia movement and would continue expanding until the bombing of a Federal building in Oklahoma City on April 19, 1995. That attack killed 168 people, the deadliest act of terrorism in America until 9/11 happened six years later. But the bombing also spelled the end of the militia movement for a time as the country sickened towards violence. April 19th was selected because it was the same day the Branch Davidian siege ended in Waco with 76 fatalities, all killed supposedly because the FBI believed they were planning group suicide? False allegations of child abuse were also circulated to help bring that siege to its violent conclusion.
Why are people so easily manipulated by these sorts of false fears? Fear is the basis of all mind control and you can see how effective it is in the psychological mechanism of Christianity. We live in a world in which millions of people carry a fervent wish for an apocalyptic end to all humankind. This is not a nightmare for them, but something to hope and pray for, all part of their God’s master plan to punish the wicked and reward the virtuous believers like themselves. Yes, the world is coming to an end someday, probably in a few million years, but the bigger question is whether the human race can conquer irrational feelings and construct a more harmonious environment for us all, one based on empathy and compassion instead of fear.
The Doomsday Brigade
When nuclear attack threatens New York City, Clesont Mitchell will be ready.
Mitchell, who lives in the Bronx with a wife and two daughters, will flee with his family and drive 150 miles to a secret mountain retreat upstate. Squirreled away at the site are several years' worth of food, emergency medical supplies, camping equipment and guns.
Once they arrive, the Mitchells will prepare a makeshift fallout shelter. It's unlikely any of the bombs will land near their retreat. But since the area will be exposed to drifts of radioactive fallout, the Mitchell's will stay in the shelter for several weeks. When the radioactivity begins to dissipate, they will venture out for short periods wearing goggles, raincoats and other protective gear.
The Michell's will need protective clothing because the ozone layer, scientists predict, will be severely depleted for at least three years after a large-scale nuclear exchange. Without an ozone layer the sun can seriously burn skin in a matter of minutes.
After the war the Mitchells will not return to their co-op in the Bronx. They don't think anything will be left of it. They will spend the next few years farming and raising children. At this point, Mitchell fears the only problem will be fending off the thousands of looters and marauders he expects to encounter. But that's what the guns are for.
"I'm confident I can protect my family no matter what happens," says Mitchell. "I'm capable of killing another person if necessary. A lot of people can't say that."
In fact, more and more people can say that. They are people, like Mitchell who believe that nuclear war and/or the collapse of society are inevitable. To protect themselves, these people, who call themselves "survivalists," are arming themselves with everything from food to automatic weapons. "The government refuses to protect us," says Mitchell, "so we have to do it."
The country hasn't seen anything like the survivalist movement since the Cuban Missile Crisis. At that time interest in civil defense reached a fever pitch, but it soon subsided. By the mid-'70s civil defense was a dead issue. Even Gov. Nelson A. Rockefeller, one of the few politicians promoting civil defense, dropped the subject because his advisors told him it had no support.
However, times have changed. In 1979, shortly after the Iranian students stormed the American Embassy, a new mood overtook the country. Nuclear war fever returned and with it came a renewed interest in bomb shelters.
According to Walter Murphy, editor of the Journal of Civil Defense, "There are 2 million survivalists," either loners, like Mitchell, or members of groups, some of which are paramilitary. And, opines Murphy, whose journal is relatively non-inflammatory, "The movement is here to stay."

Some evidence: A new Utah real estate company called Survive Tomorrow, Inc., is building bomb shelter condominiums.  A shelter construction cocmpany in Muncy Valley, PA, reports a surge of interest in shelters, with clients coming from as far away as New York City. A group of concerned citizens in Kansas began converting a limestone mine to a bomb shelter big enough to hold the population of Kansas City. Newsletters and magazines devoted to nuclear war survival have suddenly appeared.
In addition to Murphy's magisterial Journal of Civil Defense, there are the American Survialist, The Shooter's Survival Guide, the Survivalist, and the Long Survival Newsletter, whose founder Duncan Long is one of the few people who have made a successful career from survivalism, which is still more of a cottage industry than a go-go enterprise. "Most people who work in the field have to have other jobs too, " comments Long.
But this is no mere fringe effort promoted by nuts. Many large corporations—Citicorp, Mobil, MGM—and even the federal government itself have spent great amounts of time, money and energy in setting up elaborate survival strategies and logistics. There is, in fact, a full-fledged national unit, the Federal Emergency Management Agency, which does nothing else but plan for Armageddon.
Recognizing this shift in national mood, the Republican Party platform called for "a strategic civil defense to protect the American people against nuclear war." But development of such a program may take several years, if it ever happens. Hard-core survivalists aren't willing to wait.
"I've been a survivalist for the past seven years," says Mitchell. "I saw the way things were going, and I knew we weren't going to turn things around. Nuclear war used to be my main concern. Today, I'm more concerned about nuclear terrorism."
Mitchell, 34, works for a mirror-installation company and has attended CCNY for four years. In many ways, he is not a typical survivalist. For one thing, he's black and most survivalists are white. He describes himself as politically moderate, while many survivalists are militantly right wing.
Consider, for example, the Christian Patriots Defense League, an Illinois-based paramilitary survivalist group organized two years ago to "maintain and preserve the white culture." According to John Austin, head of the New York chapter which has 300 members, most of them Vietnam veterans.
"Nuclear War is becoming more and more likely," said Austin, "but our main scenario is a gradual disintegration of society, similar to what is happening in England. We've got large tracts of land throughout the country where members are instructed to go in time of crisis."
According to Austin, members are given training in weapons use and military tactics. But training for nuclear war and the collapse of society is not all they do. During quieter moments they patrol New York neighborhoods looking for illegal aliens.
"We've caught and arrested eight so far," says Austin proudly.
In the event of an international crisis, members may station themselves at crucial inter-passes of the New York City highway system. "People fleeing from Long Island will have to come through the city," explains Austin, "and we have to make sure the roads are kept open."
Austin, 28, describes himself as a journalist, but explains his real job is classified information. "We're not like the KKK," he says. "Their approach is shallow and one-dimensional compared with ours."
Psychologists are at a loss to explain the sudden growth of survialism, but some do not think the threat of nuclear war is the primary cause.
"Survivalism represents the perfect capstone for the me-decade," says New York psychiatrist Nathan Kline. "Preparing for catastrophe may have a therapeutic effect for some people, but pushed to the extreme, survivalism is just another example of the me-first attitude. If nuclear weapons didn't exist, they'd create some other threat."
Kline's observations are supported by the writings of survivalist Bruce Clayton, author of "Life After Doomsday." "There is a pervasive humanitarian attitude that it is 'noble' to sacrifice yourself and your loved ones to a stranger," Clayton wrote. "I do not agree with this point of view. I feel I have a moral obligation to warn people of the troubled times ahead and show them how to prepare themselves, but once they have been warned, I feel no further obligation."
The End
Note from the author: If you enjoyed this ebook, please check out Hip Hop, Art After Midnight, Looking for the Perfect Beat, The Pied Piper of Hip Hop, The Steam Tunnels, Bugging Out on the Endless Beat, True Ghost Stories, Cannabis Cures Cancer?, Dirty Money, Rock's First Diva, The East Village, also available at smashwords.com