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Introduction:

There are now millions of people in the US and elsewhere that see their "world" as fragile and about to hit discontinuities that will make current societal structures tenuous at best. Two growing groups ("Preppers" and "Transition Town") give us a sense of two poles of reaction to the same view that the "world" we know today, meaning mainstream social norms and livelihoods, are about to come to an abrupt end for them and their communities.

Preppers are survivalists. They are concerned about the survival of themselves and their Prepper friends against the other masses that are not prepped.

The other movement that also sees the likelihood of large discontinuities in mainstream social ecologies as being high is the Transition Town movement. Transition Town is in some ways the opposite of the Preppers movement, in that they are community-centric versus focusing on their own survival at any cost.

What is your view of these movements and their assessments of impending discontinuities in current mainstream social order requiring changes in behavior and focus? If you believe that current mainstream social ecologies might have discontinuities under rapid global or regional change, do you side with the individualist survivalists or in the creation of a new social order in which Resilience Communities are resilient enough to help ensure that the communities around them are also resilient, further strengthening their own resilience?

The purpose of the "Hurricane Irene - Social Media" forum is to document important communications transmitted through social media during and immediately following the events occurring as a result of Hurricane Irene. We welcome your comments.