I Will Survive

Donald Trump’s stunning victory has sent shockwaves rippling through financial markets and electorates worldwide. In America especially, citizens are feeling more unsettled than ever about the future: According to Gallup, 42% of adults nationwide say that Trump’s election made them feel “afraid.”

To be sure, in the days since Trump’s election, equities have risen, while gold and the VIX have fallen. But that was only after a catastrophic risk-off landslide the night of the election—and nobody knows when circuit-breaking fear will return to the markets. It could be soon. U.S. anxiety about revolutionary political change is likely to further boost a movement and an industry with a uniquely dark outlook on America’s future: “survivalism.”

Survivalism, defined by active disaster preparation, has been around in some form for decades. The movement has gone through three waves. The first began in the late ‘60s and ‘70s, when rampant inflation fueled fears of economic collapse and energy shortages, and peaked in the ‘80s as concerns shifted to nuclear war. The second wave peaked in 1999—coinciding with the impeachment of Bill Clinton, the Y2K scare, and the deepening of the “Culture Wars.” The third wave was triggered by 9/11 and has continued to surge with every national tragedy and presidential election.

HOW THIRD-WAVE SURVIVALISM IS DIFFERENT

Unlike previous iterations of survivalism, today’s movement is defined…