Preppers Are Getting Ready for the Barackalypse

     WITH HIS LOAFERS, KHAKIS, and polo shirt, James Talmage Stevens isn’t exactly dressed for the end of the world. When I run into the 73-year-old Texan 10 days before the November election, America’s most celebrated self-reliance guru seems better suited for an early bird special than a black swan event. The only hint of his notoriety is a patch over his left breast depicting his professional alter ego—”Doctor Prepper.”

     Stevens’ book, Making the Best of Basics, may be the closest thing the survival industry has to a bible (aside from the actual Bible). It has sold more than 800,000 copies since hitting the shelves at Kmart during the gas crisis in 1974. Stevens is not actually a doctor, and, come to think of it, he’d rather you not call him a “prepper,” which he considers a slur meant to impugn self-reliant folks like himself as paranoid loons. But it’s become part of the lexicon, and Stevens is somewhat paranoid about where the United States is headed (he foresees a borderline tyrannical second Obama term that begins with massive gun confiscation and ends who-knows-where), so he’s rolling with it. As he puts it, “I don’t really like cuss words, but I know how to use them and I know what they mean.” Besides, it’s good for business.

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