====== The Global Milita ======

>//...but ultimately the reason that we were stuck in that hellhole for 15 long years and lost nearly 60,000 of our boys is that we let the peaceniks back home tell us to be human was to be soft, to be weak. Charlie understood that you have to fight tooth and nail to defend your way of life, and in that he gave us a stark reminder of what it is to be truly human...//
>
>From “A New History of an American Tragedy” by Kirkland Briggs, Liberty Press, 2013
>
>//“It is the fundamental and inalienable right of an American citizen to be prepared for whatever the world may throw at him, and that’s something that the current administration has lost sight of. My opponent and his fellow soft city liberals can call honest, God fearing Americans who keep a gun under their beds rednecks all they like, but if you wake up tomorrow and the bombs are falling,  they are the ones who will keep the American spirit alive”// [Deafening applause]
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>Vice-President Walton Matthews, a recording of the 2016 Vice-Presidential debate
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>//"Acquire and store a reserve of food and supplies that will sustain life. . . . As long as I can remember, we have been taught to prepare for the future and to obtain a year's supply of necessities. I would guess that the years of plenty have almost universally caused us to set aside this counsel. I believe the time to disregard this counsel is over. With events in the world today, it must be considered with all seriousness"//
>
>From “If Ye Are Prepared Ye Shall Not Fear” by Elder L. Tom Perry of the Quorum of Twelve Apostles, //Ensign//, November 1995, 36

===== To the World =====

Put diplomatically, they are concerned citizens who want to make sure that Humanity will continue if the worst happens and the global economy collapses tomorrow. Put cynically, they are  a bunch of gun toting rednecks who would like nothing more than a new Dark Age where the strong survive at the expense of the weak. To the informed observer, the truth appears to lie somewhere between the two with, of course, members that tend towards both extremes.

===== A Brief History of the Global Militia =====


The Global Militia grew out of the resurgance of the survivalism movement in the early 00s, compounded by a decade of terrorist attacks, pandemic fears and political upheaval. More people than ever before, more even than during the most frigid parts of the Cold War, feared that life as they knew it would come to a sudden and abrupt end, and that only the prepared would survive. Sales of books not in print since the seventies, describing how to stockpile food and maintain an armoury, skyrocketed to such an extent that supply could barely keep up with demand, and so inevitably people began to turn to the internet and more informal methods of information distribution. A huge number of websites and blogs devoted to the art of survivalism popped up, and many, primarily in the United States but in other countries as well, eagerly digested every piece of advice.

In 2014, there was a gradual but definite shift in the tone of some sections of these communities. Many of the more prominent authors began to suggest that, while the end of society as we know it was something to be prepared for, it may not be such a bad thing. Comentators differ as to whether this arose from discontent at the years of liberal presidency in the United States, or merely represented underlying feelings coming to the fore in an environment where they were less likely to be dismissed out of hand. Whatever the truth may be, more and more articles advocating a return to simpler times, a fresh start, and a reminder of what makes humans the planet's top predator. In 2015, noted right-wing author Kirkland Briggs published "Protecting the Human: a Call to the Global Milita", in which he outlined what he saw as the failings of the modern, "socialised" World, and setting out a manifesto to bring society back into the simple state that it was meant to be in. The book broke sales records in several states, and its popularity is thought to have played a part in the election of President Jones in 2016, as his running mate Walton Matthews was a close personal friend and admirer of Briggs.

"Protecting the Human" was also the first book of its kind to achieve true international success. Briggs is an accomplished author, and by expertly drawing attention to perceived flaws common to many societies around the world, rather than focusing on America as most of his fellows did, he appealed not only to the Americans fearing for their right to bear arms, but also the the Britons feeling oppressed by the surveillance state, the millions of young Chinese men with no hope of finding brides thanks to the one-child policy, and the Japanese right worried about the loss of their cultural identity. Briggs drew attention in general terms with which many could empathise to how "big government" and complex society brought ill, and in doing so he won many followers worldwide.

Many of the survivalist websites and groups adopted Briggs' terminology, and began to refer to themselves as part of "The Global Militia". It was, and still is, not a single organisation but a loose collection of groups and web communities with similar beliefs and values. What the name has added is a much larger degree of cooperation and information sharing, to the point where many more moderate groups whose ideals are more in line with the original survivalist movement use the name, as it adds instant recognisability and access to a huge network of people willing to help out a fellow man. The vast majority of the groups do not, of course, advocate direct or illegal action to bring about the collapse of society, merely extolling its virtues. Many individual organisations run public courses in basic outdoorsmanship, and in 2018 the Colorado-New Mexico Outdoors Guild launched the Young Survivalists, an organisation in competition with the scouts to "Teach the Americans of the future the skills they need to survive whatever the world throws at them", which heavily places the emmphasis back on outdoor skills rather than the more socially orientated activities of the modern scouts. 

Despite most groups having a largely acceptable public face the Militia are treated with suspicion by many due to groups such as "Out of Sight, Out of Mind" founded in 2017 in England, who provide training in avoiding video surveilance, and minimising your paper trail. None of what these groups do is //technically// illegal, but many people find wanting to learn such things fairly suspect. However, few governments dare to legislate against such things, fearing a backlash from more moderate libertarians, and the Jones administration actively encourages some of the more socially upstanding groups; Vice-President Matthews' eldest son is a troop leader in the Young Survivalists. Many religious leaders are also strongly in favour of the goals of the Militia as there is a strong feeling that modern society, especially in America, is losing sight of its religious grounding.