Apocalypse gets written about a lot these days, but that is nothing new. What changes with each generation is what form of it is popular to talk about. When I was a teenager nuclear war holocaust was by far the most popular kind to worry about. Nowadays in the 2010's, zombie apocalypse gets lots of attention - which is quite a change for me!
When apocalypse worries are taken seriously by a person or community, “hunker down” mentality gets strong. And, once again, the action that results from this mentality shifts steadily over the generations. In this section I will talk about the parade of extreme cases I have heard about over the past sixty years.
In the 1950's and 60's the threat of World War III breaking out was very real. And if it did, it would quite likely involve an exchange of nuclear-equipped missile and bomber attacks between the US and the Soviet Union - nuclear holocaust.
The responses to this threat in the US were numerous and varied. The federal Civil Defense Department blew the air raid sirens every so often and sponsored various programs to describe how to evacuate. One of the iconic PSA's from this period was the “Duck and Cover” short film that was shown in some schools. At the citizen level, one of the iconic responses was to build a home fallout shelter: a building sturdy enough to resist bomb explosions and with thick enough walls to absorb the radiation caused by fallout from the nuclear bombs - which usually meant building it at least partly underground and with an air filtration system. These fallout shelters were expensive, and when people did make them, there was plenty of media coverage.
This concept of making a safe room to weather the apocalypse changes with each generation, but doesn't go away. The 2010's version is the safe room or panic room.
Another popular hunker down response is to run away. This usually takes the form of leaving the city behind and heading into the remote hills somewhere to live life as a mountain person. Once there, it will be necessary to wait out the people-killing phase of the apocalypse and then rebuild the world when the crisis ends. People who are into this style of thinking were called "survivalists" in the 1990's and now prefer to be called “preppers”.
Why wait? People are heading for the hills all the time. This style of hunker down project is usually envisioned as a family affair, but the harsh reality can vary from solo to small village size - a commune. Harsh reality can also include petty thievery justified as “living off the land”.
The hunker down concept is the basis for a lot of entertainment. As pointed out earlier, Ayn Rand’s Atlas Shrugged (1957) resonated with this. In the story, society's brilliant, creative individuals hunker down in Galt's Gulch to survive the collectivist apocalypse. In the 2010's the icon is surviving the zombie apocalypse.
Dealing with end of the world feelings by hunkering down is a common and powerful emotional response for many people. How they choose to hunker down is quite varied. Some responses, such as the right kinds of insurance and saving for a rainy day, are quite practical and in tune with civilized living. But others can consume a lot of time, money, and attention and produce little but strange artifacts, good human-interest stories, and hopefully a better night's sleep for someone.