America in Collapse

A piece from Clayton Cramer's blog (h/t Instapundit) citing a news report about a spike in sales of MREs (Meals Ready to Eat) at a chain of survival stores in Missouri. The news story is here. Mr. Cramer comments:

The fact is, American society is in fast collapse, and the politicians either do not get it, or are afraid to sound like alarmists by pointing it out.  You could almost get the impression that Washington does not care whether the society collapses or not.

A commentator suggests that it is people just being prudent because of recent natural disasters. However, this is not what the anecdotal evidence in the article stated.

Also, I have also noted a growing undercurrent showing that more and more people are, even subconsciously, preparing for major social upheaval--primarily the mainstreaming of survivalism and shows on survival (including the spreading "zombie apocalypse" meme), the rise in toys and games based around combat (far greater than when playing with toy guns was acceptable), and the acceptance of military style rifles (particularly the AR platform) among hunters, gun owners, and the public.