One need only look at the phenomenon of zombies to understand preppers. I call it the elevator effect - no, not that elevator effect - the fact that we're required to be polite when we're crammed into small spaces and made uncomfortable yet what we really want to do is lash out and call people shitcamels and bash our cars into theirs. "Zombies" make it okay to fantasize about taking a sledgehammer to the masses because you've dehumanized them into "walkers" or whatever while prepping gives you the same leash: "I'm not stockpiling guns and food because I want the opportunity to treat the rest of humanity as NPCs in my first person shooter of the mind. I'm stockpiling guns and food because you never know what sort of behavior will occur when our social barriers break down!"