The following are a collection of subcultures gleaned from real life or defined for future reference when they become more noticeable. They are relevant at the present and some are quite well established. Most will be relevant for writing of scifi and general fiction for the next hundred years, perhaps, depending on technological changes. Hacking is limited by crackability of computer systems, for example, and others have their own limitations. Culture being what it is, most of these groups are enough of a market to be self-sustaining indefinitely. That said, most futurists will find some value or ideas for extrapolation on a group listed or invent your own, or pose some conflict to resolve worth writing about.

Fans and fan clubs are a device born of popular culture. Fans may pursue sports teams, music groups, politicians, movie stars, artists, novelists, journalists, TV stars, rich or otherwise famous persons or organizations. Some do so merely to associate with others of similar tastes, even to enjoy or celebrate the achievements of their obsession, together. Others may think that associating themselves with liking something will make them become that person in some small way. There’s a balance between expression and obsession.

Members of fan clubs gather on IRC, internet BBS’s, write newsletters or web pages dedicated to the latest gossip on their idols, any statistics or side information not readily available in a daily newspaper.

Music produces a number of subcultures via its differences between varieties. Fans dress differently, act differently, and think differently from other musical genres, acting out archetypes.

Metal is the music of the ancient elderlies, the people in long curly hair, lots of hairspray and gaudy glam imagery on black teeshirts. Metal has a number of sub-sub-groups like Death Metal and Speed Metal. Black leather jackets are standard attire. Punk came and went, leaving Grunge and Industrial and Aggro as it heirs. Grunge has always been jeans and flannel shirts, skateboards and fuzz guitars. Industrial features certain punk visual sensibilities but a more electronic approach to music, finding sounds in noise. Industrial has since split into Noise, Darkwave and Coldwave. Noise is instrumental Industrial, which without lyrics resembles its name. Darkwave and Coldwave are slight variations on approach to musical expression, removing human touch from highly mechanical compositions. Techno is soulless Industrial with lots of repetition. Ambient is like Industrial without lyrics, but can also suffer from Techno’s weaknesses. Aggro is the last vestige of punk, slightly different from Speed Metal as being more attitude than high tempo for definition.

Acid rock is for the drugged out hippies and stoners with the flower power and "groovy" the first words on their lips. Rap has devolved into Gangsta-Rap and Hip-Hop. Gangsta Rap is the music of choice of young gangers and their wannabes. Hip-Hop is for Africans who like to dance, bright colors poppy rhythms, usually about sex. Jazz and Blues both remain the same as they were back in the 1920’s. New Age is Jazz with a synthesizer and an alto saxophone. World Beat is like the UN on Prozac, with various African clothings and mismatched instrumentation. Classical was dead a hundred years ago. Folk music is barely alive. Country is king anywhere further than 70 miles from a coastline. Cowboy hats and boots, and big belt buckles are part of the image. Cowboys drive trucks and four wheel drive vehicles. The Redneck is a subculture to himself.

Rave culture goes beyond the music, which is simple techno, to include the whole purpose of raver lifestyle; the all night marathon drug-dance parties called "raves". A rave is the center of the raver’s life and these bi-monthly excursions into high volume drug euphoria are what he plans around. The drug of choice is X (Ecstasy), which produces a sexual euphoria in the user as well as mild hallucinogenic effects. Ravers avoid alcohol, preferring stimulants and hallucinogens and so called smart drugs though caffeine will do in a pinch. Newer drugs in the rave scene include GHB, BMD and CAT, both of which produce euphoria and hallucinations and overdoses cause seizures and may be lethal. Their usage of drugs as part of the deal makes them part of the Drug Culture.

Certain subcultures are actually fashions that pretend to be lifestyles but aren’t. Skaters that don’t skate. Cowboy hats for people who don’t rope steers. Motorcycle jackets on people who’ve never ridden one. Identification with an archetype that provides the wearer with the illusion of legitimacy rather than facing their inadequacy.

Lumberjacks aren’t lumberjacks but the nickname they’ve taken for their use of outdoors clothing, boots, vests and hats that gives one the impression they actually camp and climb mountains. Proud displays of pseudo-courage include metal climbing gear in an inappropriate location, like a belt or backpack, fake rock climbing shoes which have street soles on the bottom, or fake hiking boots which lack a proper heel, but have trail tread to look like boots. Wealthier owners have four wheel drive vehicles that never touch gravel much less dirt roads yet are fully outfitted for the most rugged safari road trips. A major subculture of the mid to late 90’s among Yuppies.

Goths wear black, whiten their skin to transparency, including use of makeup to line their eyes with lipstick or kohl so they appear sickened and grotesque. Some practitioners also display body piercing, rings through eyebrows or lips or nostrils or navels, as well many through the ears. Hair is only allowed on the head and eyebrows, the rest is shaved off, vampiric. Tattoos include thorns and bats as well as various crosses. Goths are never fit or muscular, instead preferring to look skinny and asexual for body style conformity.

Cowboys look like rednecks but have corporate jobs. They wear cowboy hats, boots, a wide cowhide leather belt, form fitting bluejeans, embroidered shirts, string ties, and a big belt buckle. They drive trucks that never carry anything, mostly, and gun racks with no guns. They listen to CW music and talk with a twang in their accent, often affected and intentional. On weekends they gather in cowboy bars to line dance or have BBQ’s with other cowboy friends. Few even own horses, but some take vacations on dude ranches to play pretend western cowboys.

Posergangs are white middle class youth who listen to rap music and form fake gangs to pretend to be black and thereby have power. As a display they frequently convert their cars into boomtrucks, typified by loud bass rumbles one can hear from a block away, dress in gang clothing, use fake gang signs, talk in gang speech. Some even buy guns and start fights, becoming gangs by pretending hard enough. Posergangs rose in the early 90’s and remain a danger and the single greatest threat to suburbanites. Often overlooked and ignored by the police, posergangs often surprise the authorities by committing Charlie Manson style atrocities, drive by shootings, starting riots and building and exploding pipe bombs, all to gain attention of their peers and parents. Frequently exterminated by vigilantes, posergangs are the sick underbelly of the suburbs.

There are many other poser cultures, but these are the most common.

Garagetechers and other hobbyists are a peculiar extension of some unused skill the owner has gained. Hobbyists practice a number of odd activities, usually involving building something and then using it for its intended purpose at least until it breaks, which may be right away. Hobbyists are peculiar in that they expect failure and aren’t particularly disappointed when it comes. Anything from building LowRiders, restoring WW2 aircraft, models to hang from the ceiling, designing stained glass windows, knitting spidersilk armor, building optoelectronic computer chips, or plastic handguns, its all a hobby. They aren’t done to make money. Frequently they cost money to do. This does not keep them from turning hobbies to businesses and possibly even breaking even. But that isn’t the issue. A hobbyist does what he does because he likes it.

The Greens were the result of an environmental movement gone bad, turned to terrorism to make a point about environmental damage. The movement began with tree spiking in the Pacific Northwest, but may have its roots in Luddism from 19th century England. The Greens movement consists of several factions. The Luddites, Techno- Pastoralists, Radical Greens, and Peaceniks. The other factions are intercessional.

The greens movement as a whole has some support among many lower class and rebelling middle class suburbanite youth, but like most fads, loses its hold with time and common sense. Those who maintain the interest eventually take up one position or another.

The Peaceniks resemble hippies from the 1960's and are much like traditional turn the other cheek kind of Christians who like plants and lead by example. They avoid power-sucking gadgets and prefer hand powered or simple implements, particularly in cooking, which they all know how to do very well. Peacenik greens tend to grow, sell, and smoke a lot of marijuana but may also be into growth of organic Psilocybin mushrooms or run labs to produce LSD or X. They like to wear handmade clothes and burn lots of incense and candles but have trouble removing themselves from the grid-fuel-food dependencies. Many of them drive Volvos or Volkswagens if they’re poorer.

Technopastoralists are tinkers who use the benefits of good environmental policy and technology to help them live a low impact lifestyle preferably far from cities, but sometimes in them. (see the Houston chapter of Black Flags). Pastoralists cultivate no drugs but instead concentrate on independence from the electric grid and self-sustainable agriculture. Most own PEM fuel cells and maintain their own satellite hookups to various free web ISP’s. They’re very interested in technology so long as they can find a way to improve their quality of life. They like to live in the country and hope that city people will stay there so they won’t make the countryside crowded. It is their goal to find a happy medium of high technology providing the answers to life in the countryside. Pastoralists have enormous gardens and are also excellent cooks. They drive electric or methanol conversion powered vehicles, sometimes cars but often motorcycles or 4wd since a remote location is a source of pride to the Pastoralist.

Radical Greens use technology to try and find means to stop or reverse environmental damage and frequently do so without asking permission from the law. As a group they are only partially successful since they frequently do as much damage to the environment as they stop. Radical greens are militaristic but hide behind non-violence by not openly carrying or using guns as their main weapon. They prefer chemical weapons (like mace, pepper spray, hardening foam, tirespike crystal), viral/bacterial agents (rubber cracker, petrochem gellybug, oil spill eater) and simple mechanical devices which are more deadly than bullets when placed properly anyway. Their hackers like to scramble the computer systems of their enemies out of spite. Radical greens spike trees and kill at a distance, the mentality of a mine layer. They never read anything to the right of the Bay Guardian and call everyone a "fascist". The terrorist aspect of "saving the earth" seems to appeal to them most. (groups include EarthFirst!, GreenPeace, and others).

Luddites seek only to return mankind to his agrarian lifestyle and let nature repair itself while they go about destroying the chief cause of environmental damage, human beings. Luddites expect to emmanantize the Gnostic eschaton any day now and live off the ashes in a less populated world. (The Unabomer and part of EarthFirst! support this ideal, as do others.) Luddites want anywhere from one-third to two-thirds of the world population to be killed off, tomorrow if possible. This convenient megadeath would leave them the enjoyable task of destroying the machines and the cities they’re housed in so they can go about living with a spear and hunting for dinner. They have disgust for anything not handmade, dislike automobiles, and think intellectuals and scientists should all be summarily executed for screwing up such a nice planet and making life so complicated.

Each science has its own quirks and specialized language. They study their own obscure things and keep track of one another’s efforts through special publications. Scientists are so focussed on their own fragmentary field that they ignore others and stick to a narrow interest. Science in general seems very specific to this cause and most unusual for a system of learning based on integration of the research of others as well as one’s one small field. Advances would be made were they listening to others rather than just themselves, it would seem. Despite the contradiction, scientists prefer to operate this way and continue to obfuscate, divide themselves and become otherwise entrenched in their labors.

Being a Sportsman means you identify with others who practice your trade or passion and this recognition allows grouping. Divers clique, just as tennis players and golfers do. They have particular signs and signals they use to identify themselves as well their secret languages. "Take a drop and you can still get a Mulligan" says the Golfer. Divers display a red flag with a white diagonal line across it, even on cars, as a signal of their sport. Sailors and fishermen and hunters all do certain things in keeping with their sport and shun those of other pursuits. Sportsmen stick together, chase new techniques or toys to enhance their fun or just appearance and generally spend a lot of money to be more accepted and therefore liked. It’s shallow, sure, but hobbies are like that.

The Kinetics are people (often sportsmen) who like to go fast. Dangerously fast. They like to ride, roll, fall, jump, skate, run, rappel, bungee or whatever fast. Kinetics are people addicted to the adrenaline rush of near death experience. I get the same feeling from biking in traffic, but I don't make it a habit. These people do.

As a group Kinetics have existed since the beginning of time, but it has become more affordable, and the number of subcultural organizations providing room for tastes in exotic risk taking are plentiful. Examples are "extreme sports" of the above listed varieties like downhill mountain bike racing, long distance running, rock climbing, sky diving, bungee jumping, hang gliding, rollerblading, elevator surfing, base jumping, and down hill skiing. Other events like auto racing, bar fights, video games, and more mundane items result in the same high, which is the point of the exercise, whether the participants want to admit it as such or not.

This is pretty typical stuff. The recognition of risk taking sports as a subculture linked by adrenaline addiction is the key here.

A psychotic group of bored suburban Sprawl yuppies take their weekends to hop on fast motorbikes to race out of the sprawls and into the Badlands, the Wilderness, the Outback, the Sticks or whatever your favorite term. On this ride they cut loose and turn savage, raping and killing. They stay wired on drugs and alcohol, making their run only a couple days long, living for the adrenaline high of fear and tension. They release their week of pent up anger by taking it out on whatever yokels are unlucky enough to get in their way. Being yuppies on a killing sprees with no threat of legal sanction, they tend toward greater violence and sadism. Being yuppies, they also tend toward expensive and sleek looking gear and wheels, made for appearance and flash power, rather than basic dependability or trust. Absolutely despised by all but bar owners, Streakers are avoided as much as possible and fought when necessary. With basically unlimited money they have access to the cutting edge black market or open market weaponry and are more than willing to use it all like some deadly fireworks display. They enjoy killing more than any other group, including the Hells Angels. They do it for the thrill. Despite a high death rate on their Runs, enough people keep doing it to maintain the subculture as viable. Occasionally they’ll pick a wily enough human target and have a Foxhunt, chasing down a man and killing him, making the most of their hunt and keeping it "fair" so it lasts long enough. While technically similar to Kinetics, they are different in that they also want to kill other people while Kinetics want only to kill themselves.

The hicks of the backwoods are a distinctly ignorant-and-proud-of-it group fond of bashing people who are different, bar fights, cowboy hats, buy-American, damn- foreigners, gun racks, NRA members, PTA meetings and church socials. They like both kinds of music: Country AND Western. They stick to the backwoods and avoid cities, mainly because the dangers there and the general ugliness are too alien to their understanding. Despite the appearance of stupidity, it’s merely a front. They’re no more stupid than any city dweller and have better lungs for it anyway. No pollution.

Blue Collars

Blue Collars are similar to Rednecks except that Blue Collars live in cities, taking their Union jobs for granted. Both consume copious quantities of adult beverage, preferably cheap beer. Blue Collars go to stripper joints rather than cowboy bars, but the resulting fights are the same, regardless. They like football and baseball and bowling, vote Democrat, pay their Union dues, support the Mafia, and go on strike now and then to remind the company the workers still exist.

As the large industrial manufacturing jobs are going away, the Blue Collar subculture will either shrink or become a Temp employed subculture, but the passivity to work will be lost in the exchange. Temp requires more flexibility to new assignments, so some may not make the change over and instead go to govt work.

This underpaid and continually shuffling workforce is always going from job to job, doing different tasks at each, forced to continually do labors for a short period of time before moving on to the next assignment. Temps work for roughly 2/3 the wage the employer pays to his agency, less taxes. The hours, and the jobs, are uneven and makes planning even a week ahead impossible. Access to transportation is critical to make it to the job, often not knowing what that job might be.

Yuppies are the most despised and unethical members of the workforce, and because they are rich, frequently visible. They tend to associate themselves with other yuppies, always striving to keep up the Jones’s. Social climbers, yuppies spend their time flaunting wealth, bragging about how much they pay for things. The whole extravagance is shallow and poisonous, one reason people hate them so much. Yuppies frequently don’t tip, pay too much for everything so they can brag about it, buy the most outrageously expensive car, boat, cruise, and vacation to show off and impress other yuppies. They drink Chablis and talk nonsense about anything, spouting opinions. When they’re actually working its most often some highly specialized task which they have managed to make a killing at, whether they can actually do it or not. They always have a Golden Parachute, and never bother with honor or guilt. Anyone they manage to cheat is a story to laugh over later. Of course, the separation of yuppies from that fabulous wealth is also of interest to every conceivable merchant. That may be the only reason they weren’t all killed by now.

Corporations work a system similar to feudal structures of the Middle Ages, requiring allegiance by the serf/worker class to the corporation and its king/CEO in return for the protection and financial support of the barony/company. A bonded corp assures fealty via a network of complicated legal contracts that basically amount to the same losses one would have should one have left the service of a king. The bigger the corp, the more invasive and complicated the web is, and the better able to separate the serf from his possessions and credit rating. "Sold my soul to the company store" was not just a song, it was life. The system is arranged around providing the new employee all he wants and inducements to stay under the wing of the company rather than demand a higher salary to do the same thing on his own. Many corps will attempt to construct company towns to discourage interaction with outsiders and possible espionage and crime opportunities. It mostly works.

Angry youth afraid of the streets, and for good reason, gather together becoming co-dependant units. All for one, one for all, etc. Their primary mission is a combined show of force to deter violence, even committing violence to induce fear in the opposition. This results in murders, drive by shootings, tagging, and is usually the perfect avenue for illegal behavior like drug sales or prostitution. Usually short-lived, a few dozen years until the youth in the gang move away or are killed, gang units flux and flow with their territory. Older gangs dating from the Middle Ages are the Crips and Bloods, though they went under different names at the time. Their methodology and recruiting are identical however, as are the conditions in modern times. Brought over by the Conquistadors and imprinted in Mexican youth over the centuries, gangs have become a long-standing tradition, ritual in extent. That doesn’t change the facts that they are vicious sociopathic killers.

They spend a great deal of time tagging graffiti signs all over their territory. It is imperative to overwrite any rival signs in their territory as soon as possible. Gang members tend to wear specific clothes and colors to help them identify each other as both unified and separate from other gangs. Their vehicles emphasize dramatic shapes and bright colors, as with low riders. Gang members prefer to carry concealed pistols like 9mm or .22 cal handguns, even to school, but will carry machine pistols or assault rifles when planning an attack. Aim is not a concern, so much as lots of bullets and attitude, in equal portions. Gangs usually don’t achieve anything greater than driveby shooting type ambushes or robberies of liquor stores. Sometimes they get gutsy and tackle a snatch and grab of a casino cash box, sliding the smallest ganger through the window to grab the money and back out again. This is dangerous as the Mafia usually kill them later, if not on sight.

Drug culture is about money and getting high. The money resulting from sales of whatever drug is in demand provides payment for large structures like organized crime, even multinational organizations like the Italian Mafia and various Cartels. They supply guns and drugs to their distributors, one to sell the other to keep the money made in the deal. The underground funneling drugs and weapons around on the proceeds is part of the subculture. It is very secret and operations are run in such a way as to minimize risk.

The users interact with the dealers and the dealers interact with their suppliers. Suppliers interact with the producers and smugglers, should it need to be moved across a border. The interdependent web resulting is durable so long as replacements are readily available, as they usually are.

Users are of value only so long as they can continue to pay the asking price. Those who steal from dealers are usually murdered as a warning to other users. Junkies who can’t afford the "good stuff" will shoot up anything and eventually die.

The Mafia just wants respect, they say. Fear mostly, money otherwise, but deep down they want legitimacy, to be accepted as a necessary and unavoidable evil. The Mafia got going really well during the 1920’s and 30’s as bootlegging operations that expanded to meet the market demands. As things improved beyond those, the Mafia expanded into other avenues: unifying gangs into organized criminal establishment, taking over gambling, prostitution, smuggling other cargoes, protection rackets, union bashing and later union corruption. Eventually the Mafia expanded into modern efforts of major drug cartels, money laundering, buying entire elections, political manipulation or assassinations, soft money political racketeering and stays in the Lincoln Bedroom. They control everything from garbage collecting to how your congressman votes to whether you can paint your own house or repair the plumbing.

The government is no more legitimate than the Mafia, but people think it is out of dumb acceptance. Members of govt believe that their sacrifice of real wages entitles them to bully others, exert what little power they have, and look forward to any opportunity of valuable corruption that may slide their way. The acceptance of the biggest con of all time since marriage has led to some peculiar achievements such as a trillion-dollar defense arsenal based on "the lowest bidder". Govt contracts that make the contractor wealthy but don’t seem to produce much that lasts anywhere near what something like that needs to last. Obscene waste over so called "moral" issues. A Justice system that is slow and rarely just. A legal system that requires overpaid arrogant interpreters who may still be wrong even so. It takes a curious type to enter service in a system whose one success seems to be the ability to get mail coast to coast in 3 days time for 32 cents a letter.

Govt thinks itself necessary and they have convinced enough people to accept that unquestioningly to make it a truth. "Is govt as real as God?" That remains to be seen.

Adepts to the preaching of Law are the Lawmen, all different kinds of cops, sheriffs, marshals, vigilantes, death squads, etc. In order to maintain Law and Order, or return to it, followers pursue and bring to Justice law breakers. As the concept is largely obsolete and mostly for show, only Vigilantes and Death Squads accomplish anything substantial, the main reason for their popularity. Mostly, nobody cares about it very much and the pursuit of Law and Order is a lost cause in all but a small confined area, which explains the paranoia of Burbclaves (see N. Stephenson’s Snow Crash). A lawman is concerned with the greater good, not merely local, and takes his job to religious heights. Often privately funded by radicals, these last bastions of Teutonic heraldry pursue law breakers like a quest for the grail, defending their own actions with the shield of Justice, whether it be sensible or prudent or not. Numbers fell off dramatically after the Fall but are slowly climbing thanks to the nonsense of narrowcast TV adventure drama, with their moralizing etc. Law and Order are gone forever but there will always be a few people dumb enough to try it anyway.

Religious cults are the purest form of subculture, being based on supernatural ideals and within the cult take on religious significance. The cult frequently starts by drawing in vulnerable and emotionally scrambled people and offering them some sort of answer, no matter how ridiculous. This usually entails brainwashing by sleep deprivation, being surrounded by cult members repeating endlessly their answer to your problems until the inductee starts mumbling them himself like they’re true. Once that’s done, it’s all downhill, so to speak.

At the start, cults offer some sort of social service, benign openness and compassion towards the poor. This is when they are gathering most of their followers. At the middle stage, the cult begins to see problems between their goals and what can actually be accomplished. At this stage, to survive, the cult must start purges, insisting that an evil force, such as a traitor on the outside or inside is responsible for their problems functioning, which are usually based on money but called something else. The cult begins to build walls between its members and the outside world. As problems continue, the cult builds physical walls and stronger isolation, attempting to shield itself from its enemies, at this point its various creditors and the local authorities. Moonies and Freemen know this well, as did the Branch Davidians. Armament for a "final battle" and military training begins and isolation becomes total. All truth is the truth of the cult. Eventually a military confrontation occurs and either the cult explodes and the members die or they are all imprisoned for life, totally insane like the Free Lebanese Army and the Manson Family.

Cults are ultimately destroyed because they fail to make the critical leap to accepting one must wait for results and even then may not succeed, which is what separates them from organized churches. A cult is to a gang as the church is to the Mafia, so to speak.

Nation of Islam and Aryan Nation differ mainly in skin color, not politics. Each is built around a desire for self-determination and a rejection of others not genetically similar to themselves. Such was the fuel of Nazism and Apartheid and Hinduism by the Arya. Hebrews have long practiced their own form of this via Deuteronomy and their enslavement of the Canaanites who were genetically brothers, no longer practicing their religion. Africans, Asians, all major tribes practice or have practiced racism and genocide against persons who are different from themselves. Gatherings of similarly minded racists tend to form organizations, secret if the climate is hostile to their beliefs. Often these organizations take on religious and criminal trappings, securing weapons for militia-like defense. Often these groups will actively persecute those "enemies", usually someone weak and downtrodden, but sometimes will take down someone strong just to show they are too, and put fear into the survivors. Terrorist actions are common by these groups, from nerve gas and pipe bombings to larger bombs or weapons. Regions controlled by these groups are considered very unsafe for travel, and dangerous at night.

Modern militias rose from fantasies of vicious government oppression stemming from a coup of the USA by the UN or the old USSR, which either will happen or already has, according to some. While govt oppression does exist to varying degrees, militias serve as premeditated feudal constructs based on military chain of command in the event such disasters might occur. This is a larger scale and more organized form of survivalist groups, and therefore more affordable to members, but having less rights. They are to defend their homes and that of other members rather than moving to some remote location.

Militia effectiveness is depressed by anti-govt propagandization, racism, calls for coup d’etat or assassination schemes, all of which result in investigation by the FBI. Terrorist acts committed by members have cost support of a Constitutionally protected right under the 2nd Amendment. Legal implications and the problems associated with large scale arrest lend credence to their oppression claims, but it is unclear whether these organizations will be able to remain operating openly or be forced underground like the PLO was for the last 35 years. Should such a thing occur, it is very likely that their reaction will be far more violent than Oklahoma City.

Survivalists believe, perhaps rightly so, that civilization is corrupted and is on the verge of total collapse and anarchy. They feel that nothing can be done to stop this inevitable apocalypse and believe that they can only save themselves. Most of them do this by exiting populated areas and taking up subsistence farming practices and all work is done on a barter or non-taxable basis. Others continue to work in urban areas but begin to outfit themselves with cabins in the woods. Survivalism is expensive if you plan to do so with any comfort. Frequently, groups gather to divide responsibilities and costs among themselves.

Strategies of survivalism take two opposing views. One is that a fortified and outfitted position is safest, the Bunker Mentality. Usually this requires it be remote to reduce passerby and therefore firefights. In the event a survivalism scenario did occur, they must be prepared with countermeasures to the disaster, be that nuclear war, an asteroid impact, plague, massive earthquakes, civil war, race rioting, or general anarchy resulting from one or more of those causes. That means food, water, firearms, and medicine must be stockpiled and stored in such a way as they last a long time and decayable products must be replaced so in the event they are needed, the product will still work. This is critical with medicines, for instance.

The problem with a bunker is that none is ever perfect and should someone choose to defeat it by Siege Scenario, they will. Even a simple tactician can figure out a way other than frontal assault to take a fortified bunker. Furthermore, those working in an urban environment will find it difficult if not impossible to relocate to the remote bunker in the event of a major disaster. Repeated false warnings will shake the faith of members and they may not respond soon enough in a real disaster in time to reach their hideout.

The opposing strategy in survivalism is Nomadic roaming. This is dangerous as well since it lets the nomad blunder into various territories of others, likely defended. As well, there would be fewer resources to draw on so a Predatory/Scavenging mindset would be required to survive under these conditions. The ability to throw off traditional Christian Good-Samaritan values of helping people in need and instead robbing and possibly killing them for what you need or want is sinister and Machiavellian and unfortunately necessary for most Nomadic strategies. Forget about them, worry about yourself. Eventually, people will figure your kind out and simply shoot you on sight. The advantage to Nomadic strategy is it is cheaper to start out, requires no advance warning (though some will aid in survival greatly), and subverts the Siege Scenario.

Naturally, these views are dissonant. It is likely that the Bunker Mentality will result in death should the group be unable to leave their precious fort when overwhelming force is brought to bear. Likewise, nomads are likely to blunder into something they can’t fight their way out of and die as well.

Survivalists also believe that after the chaos of anarchy, whatever the cause, they, having survived it sanely and carefully, would be in a position to enforce their idea of civilization, whatever form that might take. Be it democracy, communism, or dictatorship or a dozen other varieties, the Restructuring Fantasy is critical to the maintenance of the ideal that cements cooperation and hope among survival groups. Cults that go the survivalist route, as most do eventually, rely on this though frequently with supernatural goals in mind. The Restructuring Fantasy offers some hope that the ideal they follow is the Right and Good Truth that all people can and should follow for happiness and joy. This has never been the case in the past and will never be the case in the future either. Groups that try to enforce order will either establish some form of dictatorship with themselves as leaders or be wiped out in the attempt by stronger opposition.

This is the fatal flaw in survivalist theory, perhaps just a straying from the point which is To Survive. One survives by avoiding trouble, getting enough to eat, and being lucky at the right times. Under the best of conditions, survivalism is not a sure thing. Even smart people die from accidents.

Nomads come in many flavors. Their prime directive is moving around, so to speak. This is both obvious and complicated. Some are as simple as migrant farm laborers. Others are retired SnowBirds moving out of the summer mountains to the winter deserts to keep warm. Migrants can move singly or in packs for mutual support and protection. Pack behavior is more important as a culture however since it comprises enough individuals to act as such.

Migrant labor has been a force in California and Texas agriculture for generations, being cheaper than local labor and easily gathered for what to them is high pay and no questions asked. A certain amount of Mexican labor is undocumented "alien". It may even be the majority. Whatever the case, they move from site to site, harvesting, hoeing, and tending fields for the agribusiness. Eventually mechanization will make them mostly obsolete and the culture will either find new skills or die.

Snowbirds are retired elderly couples who drive mobile homes or RV’s around, singly or in caravans to flock in certain areas where the climate is comfortable and warm. Frequently, they flock during winter and spread out in the summer time, but not necessarily so. In winter they seek warm places where the living is cheap since pensions make for small checks. They tend to find someplace warm, like the desert, and park for a few months or the whole season. Deserts are cheap as can be and the Mojave collect a fair share of SnowBirds fleeing the cold of the mountains and great Plains. Cross-country travel is an adventure. The joy of returning to the comforts of their favorite gathering places enables these elderly nomads to continue to return to them each year. In the summers they will either travel to the mountains or pick a favorite campsite and gather again. It is repetitive, true, but for their age that may be a good thing. Nostalgia is no small thing.

There are other nomadic groups of course. The infamous Gypsies with their bright clothing, the various circus companies, carnivals, travelling shows of every description, and the various hobby-based sports tours, such as PGA Golf, car shows, etc. The various bus tour companies whose organizations rotate through the same areas while the passengers change. Airline personnel whose job moves and spend each night in a different identical hotel room. Add corporate business consultants of various kinds and company or govt spokespeople, and you find a menagerie of movement from place to place. Some random, some pathetically repetitive.

One can expect less organized nomadic groups to form offering a variety of technical skills but travelling together. It remains to be seen if that will ever amount to anything though.

The dangers of moving are that predictability means it can be taken advantage of, by thieves, hijackers, highwaymen, businessmen, vengeful communities, or what have you. Crime waves and reactionary antics against the migrants are common enough now, and will likely remain bad in the future. Biker gangs may meet roadblocks or angry snipers. SnowBirds may find campgrounds closed or too pricey to stay in for months at a time. Migrant farm laborers may find social services cut (and some say rightfully since they pay no taxes) or laws enacted against them. Truckers may see rates and fines increased, roads blocked to their access, speed traps and all the other nonsense one expects to encounter. Some want to travel, others don’t want them passing through. "It’s as simple as that," to quote Ross Perot.

Truckers are a nomadic subculture who move alone but gather in-groups at truck stops. Hauling freight to keep the economy humming. They have their own language, their own curious concerns. They often own homes but rarely spend time in them. If they have families they don’t see them enough. Payment is either dock-to-dock hauling or by the hour. The expenses involved push the envelope with safety: running tires till they explode (hence the scraps on various freeways), driving longer than is legal (4 hours a shift), speeding (a necessity when quick delivery is proportional to pay), overloading the truck (which makes it dangerous but cargo is money). Truckers not resigned to the normal delays end up either crashing or quitting. The calm ones keep going and maintain a good attitude through life’s little miseries. Truckers once spent a fair amount of time on the CB, but in later years have shied away to rely on cellular phones and cassette tapes.

Biker culture is based on the Harley-Davidson Motorcycle, the foundation of which is a large vee-twin engine, two cylinders of the aircraft radial engine. This has an eccentric operation, which causes it to leak oil and gives it the distinctive ba-bum, ba-bum, ba-bum rumble and an enormous amount of torque, making it an overpowered vehicle. Motorcyclists ride other bikes, true, but the Harley is what spawned the Hell’s Angels and many other biker gangs in the aftermath of WW2, when combat veterans felt disenfranchised by the promises of civilization after witnessing atrocities during the war. They became wanderers and the Harley and heavy motorcycles like it, Norton and Vincent, became the means to achieve it.

To ride a hog, one must expect to crash now and then. If the crash is not immediately fatal, lack of protective leather suit will allow significant injuries to the skin called "road rash". So leather is worn by all motorcyclists, almost always black leather, often painted with various symbols of death or club membership. The will to be fearless causes a number of fights and losers don’t like to lose, so they go armed. The winners don’t like to lose either, so they’re armed too. The result is a nomadic tribe clad in barbaric armor, bearded, armed, mean, likely as not to descend on a town and pillage it. At least that’s the mythology behind biker culture.

In more modern times bikers have been known to run gun and drug smuggling operations. They are also known for producing methamphetimines, the drug of choice among bikers. Most often found in deserts convoying around in biker gangs, converging on "biker bars" and various gathering places to camp and party. Bikers often overlap into survivalist and drug subcultures.

The infamous Hell’s Angels biker clubs can swarm into towns like a crime wave but the price of a Harley has outstripped all but the yuppie these days. Doctors and stockbrokers ride Harleys now. At $15 K bottom end, that’s way more money than a drugged out rebel can afford. The only people who can afford this are folks with real jobs to produce real money, and the time to play tough guys like Bankers, Stock Brokers, Lawyers, and other such yuppie types. Not outlaws. The most modern result of biker mythology is the rise of pseudo-Bikers. The cost of the Harley has saved the company but priced it out of the range of the people responsible for its popularity. Still, enough enthusiasts remain that Biker culture hasn’t gone completely to the dogs but non-Harley bikes are entering the picture since they are the only kind some members can afford. Non-Harley owners are scorned, of course but if the subculture is to survive, they must be allowed to participate fully.

A solo is a person who made the mistake of trusting someone, really trusting, once and was totally betrayed. They learned their lesson and will never trust a soul again. Perhaps this is paranoid, or perhaps this is wise. Whatever the case, a Solo trusts no one and works and lives entirely by their own wits and counsel. They may work for others, but only so long as and to the extent that it serves them. When that time is past they move on.

This person is more of an archetype than something real and seems to exist far more in novels and Spaghetti Westerns than it does in real life. Even the most die-hard claimants of the solo lifestyle seem to have their own network of friends and support. It can be fun to write but it’s probably not particularly realistic. As an archetype, this is the oldest myth of human history. It rises from Enkidu, a Babylonian hero who cleaned up Ur by breaking all the rules, the only way it could be done, and then went back to his jungle because by breaking those rules he made himself a social outcast. Not very encouraging paradox, but it’s the oldest story of mankind, and the first archetype. The origin of Enkidu is even darker but too much a tangent for discussion here.

Gypsies are as great a legend as they are a fact. Most common in Europe, in America they are exclusively linked to carnivals and circuses. Often chased out of town for robbing the place blind, gypsies are hated and despised in Europe for their immoral behavior. Gypsy bands take in orphans and street urchins sometimes, adopting or stealing the children for their own, raising them to be gypsies. In America, these carnivals and circuses travel the Midwest and east, bringing some excitement and entertainment to an otherwise dull town. Usually this corresponds with the county fair, where the carnival has an approved time and place to visit.

Anarchists are a curious factor of the New World Order. They occur spontaneously in various sectors of society with the realization that civilization is unfit to decide what people should do. So they leave it.

This said they choose one of two pathways. The first is direct revolt to overthrow civilization. It is possible to overthrow organized culture as "no civilization is more than three meals from rebellion." Destruction of an entire civilization has never actually been successful in modern times though a large enough disaster would result in anarchy for a few weeks or perhaps months at most. Thereafter natural human instincts towards feudal structure, a form of hierarchy, would result and the anarchy would be replaced by the strong ruling the weak, probably just smaller scale to what we have now in various Banana Republics. As this is clearly a short term result for a lot of effort. Creating general anarchy is a failure and practitioners are basically delusional terrorists with no hope of success. Most people who spend time studying the problem have realized this already. That is why there are so few Radical anarchists running around blowing people up.

The second pathway is passive resistance, refusing to contribute to civilization and thereby weaken it and its hold over them. This can be as simple as agrarian self-sufficiency or hermitage to more complicated communism. As communism never worked anyway, it is more frequently somewhere between the two. Agrarian anarchists rely upon open invisibility and survivalism to maintain themselves. Pretend to be Technopastoralists, Snowbirds or even Rednecks, blend in with the background. Suburban anarchists use barter trade and under the table compensation, avoiding taxes and therefore support of the government that tries to oppress them.

Passive resistance requires either scavenging what they need from castoffs or building things from scratch. Unhindered by laws, this allows a great deal of creativity. In nomads this comes out in equipment, not just vehicles but in miniaturization since what one possessed had to be carried on one’s back and weight cost a person’s ability to move about. Vehicles do not have to follow any legal requirements so are more efficient and powerful than law abiding, at least where they can get away with it. They tend to be creative and sneaky and never ever brag. When in doubt in conversation, they tend to silence. When pressed for an answer they don’t want to give anarchists will be evasive or lie. To successfully survive in a state of passive resistance one must get away with what one can, consume as little as possible, and not draw attention to oneself. It’s tricky at first but the right personality can carry it off.

The anarchists have a code, a belief in common handed down from the founders of the anarchist movement: "Use only what you understand." Sometimes paraphrased to: "Use what you know." Using tools one doesn’t understand is just begging for them to break, and then what do you do? Rather than be at the mercy of the collapsing infrastructure, anarchists spend a great deal of time learning how to make things work, and how to make them work better. Each one becomes a wealth of information as he or she tried to understand each kind of tool that falls into their hands, the better to use more tools and eventually make their own. Tools include simple things like pliers and telescopes to internal combustion engines and PEM fuel cells. Mechanical aptitude is prized. Those who don't fit into the New World Order build tools to last and live independently from the rat race of production and consumption. This common practice is an incredible lever toward learning, making the Anarchists, a previously ignorant counter culture group calling for riots and rebellion, the most learned people in North America.