‘The prepper community doesn’t have the most welcoming reputation taken altogether, but an enclave in the hills of West Virginia is the exception that makes the rule. ‘The Folks with the Right Idea’ (commonly shortened to ‘The Right Idea’) exist on the opposite end of the welcoming spectrum, clocking in at something that might be considered too hospitable or, perhaps, virulently friendly. You see, ‘The Right Idea’ maintains about as low a profile as any off-the-grid group might be expected to but a traveler that happens past their gate will find a small, curated visitor’s center that outlines their philosophies, their goals, and, most importantly, the concerns that have driven them to longstanding bunkers.
That’s the theory anyway.
You see, the trouble with ‘The Right Idea’ is that their idea is so seemingly right, that anybody who spends more than half an hour perusing the literature in their visitor’s center is convinced to join them.
It would be easy to write this off as some sort of cult-like compelled initiation. Surely there is some drug in the water of the visitor’s center. Surely there is some forceful coercion. In fact, there is little evidence for either. Satellite images suggest the enclave itself is many miles away from the center and stakeouts have revealed it isn’t a manned facility, though it is visited in the evenings by a maintenance crew. As though to drive the point home, ‘The Right Idea’ has broken their inconspicuous online presence to set up a streaming webcam in the center, clear enough to maintain their integrity but not so focused as to broadcast any of their material. To date, there have been no signs of foul play.
The real intriguing aspect of ‘The Right Idea’ is not that it converts people on the spot- in fact, it tends to lie dormant, and because ‘The Right Idea’ has been around in some form or another since the 1970’s, it’s been known to lie dormant for as long as forty years. People that visited the center in their thirties live their lives and then retire to the bunker, having never crossed back into West Virginia in the meantime. ‘The Right Idea’ sticks with them through the decades.
There is potentially a lot to be concerned with, here, but the only really quantifiable concern is that, on average, the time between a person encountering ‘The Right Idea’ and their pilgrimage to the enclave is shortening. Whatever force or argument that compels an initiate to join has become insistent past 2013 or so and downright urgent in the 2020s.
Use caution when approaching ‘The Right Idea,’ reader. Consider it a one-way street.’
-an excerpt, Autumn by the Wayside
