A similar diatribe has been percolating in my brain for years.

It is absolutely a fetish.

The Science Fiction author John Varley talked about this in his introduction to his story "The Manhattan Phonebook, Abridged." (1984) How some fantasize that they will be the ones that survive a nuclear conflagration. But in his story, everybody dies. Everybody.

Or look at Heinlein's novel "Farnham's Freehold" (1964). With proper planning and training, the protagonist is able to survive a nuclear war, get projected into the future, to find himself the savior.

Then, in the late 1980's and early 1990's, we get the series of novels called the "Turner Diaries." A set of books that tell of civil war that restores the white race to total control, abet through lots of death and violence. Timothy McVeigh was a huge fan before he blew up a building.

Next up, the "Left Behind" novels. This is all Christian Rapture shit, the anti-christ, tribulation, all that crap.

And that is the fetish not woven into American culture, but part of the warp. Cooper's Hawkeye and his long gun. Every damn Western ever made. The protagonist survives disaster not with his wits but with a gun. And faith. Man verses nature, man verses man, man verses everything he doesn't like. But when we ran out of frontier for a person to test themselves against, maybe just burn it all down and start over.

Now this is no great or novel insight from the Mind Of Podrock. Many much smarter people know this and exploit it, for power and profit. Don't be afraid but be afraid. Prepare. This gun will make you strong. Buy freeze dried food, gold, silver, and bullets. You can never have enough bullets. Did you notice how, when Obama was elected, gun and ammo sales went through the roof? After this latest horror, I'll not be surprised if the same has happened. "Oh No, they'll change the laws, better stock up! Before it is too late." And this pushing of this idea is not all coming from inside the country. What a great way to destabilize a culture! Arm it, sow fear, turn it against itself.

There are those that want destruction believing they will be the unscathed survivors. They are wrong. They are pawns who think of themselves as kings.

I like to think you are overly pessimistic about our trajectory and the pendulum will swing again in the other direction. Because I like sleeping at night. That, and I think we can change. Don't know how.