I like your analysis, dougwalkabout!

In addition to a distrust of a system that has come to appear vulnerable, I wonder whether some of the EDC phenomenon has to do with social media. Before the age of the internet, there just wasn't such an easy way for exchanging information on what gears to carry, how to carry, what to use them for, etc. Now with forums such as this, web sites that will get you obscure fire starting tools, "tactical" vendors, Instagram, etc., emergency prep has joined forces with consumer culture. Some people just want to buy a bunch of stuff so they feel "prepared." But some people just want to buy a bunch of stuff, and the internet gives them the world on a platter.