Society
US Families Prepare For 'Modern Day Apocalypse'
Thousands
of families are hoarding food and weapons in anticipation of an impending
catastrophe, writes Sky's Dominic Waghorn.
By Dominic Waghorn, US
Correspondent
From the outside
America may seem to be a land of endless optimism and confidence. But could it
be in danger of falling apart?
An
increasing number of Americans seem to think so, and they're preparing for the
end.
They
call themselves preppers. Mainstream suburban Americans hoarding supplies and
weapons while leading otherwise perfectly normal lives.
This old nuclear missile facility has
been turned into an apocalypse refuge
It's
a national phenomenon and it's supporting a doom boom industry worth many
millions.
Braxton
Southwick is a typical father-of-six in Salt Lake City, who believes the nice
suburban neighbourhood he lives in could soon be swept away by some kind of
modern day apocalypse.
Like other preppers,
he's afraid of some impending catastrophe but also what that will do to
American society.
"I think that is what I'm scared of the
most," he told Sky News, "Not the actual events. I've already
prepared for that. It's the aftermath, when there are no police, there are no
military to protect us, we're going to be protecting ourselves."
The trigger could be a terrorist attack, a monetary
collapse, cataclysmic failure in power generation, or a natural disaster.
Preppers fear what comes next and have no faith in either their government or
human nature.
"Once people use up all their resources, they're
going to come after the people that prepared and had more resources. So
basically we have to take care of ourselves."
Braxton and his wife Kara have a basement that will
see them through Armageddon, literally. Enough dried and canned food to last
six months. Enough guns and ammunition to turn their family into a small army.
And they have trained each of their six children,
including the youngest aged 15, how to defend themselves with guns to see off
the mobs of marauding looters they predict could come after them after their
world collapses.
At the other end of America, another family are
preparing in exactly the same way. In Virginia, Jay and Holly Blevins hoard
food and weapons and run a network of like-minded families.
"We're not
talking about folks walking around wearing tin foil on their heads," Jay
tells Sky News. "We're not talking about conspiracy theorists.
"I'm talking about professionals: doctors and
lawyers and law enforcement and military. Normal, everyday people. They can't
necessarily put their finger on it. But there's something about the uncertainty
of our times. They know something isn't quite right."
Jay is a celebrity in the strange but increasingly
mainstream world of preppers, writing prepper books and touring America,
speaking at prepper expos where a bewildering range of survival supplies and
techniques are on offer.
Why is it happening? Partly, no doubt, because it
allows Americans to indulge in some of their favourite pastimes: consuming,
camping and buying lots and lots of guns.
And partly because fear sells, drives up numbers for
cable news, and increases sales for everything from dried food to assault
rifles.
But it's also arguably a sign of a country coping with
economic decline. The end of the American Dream has left people more uncertain
about their future, and their country's.
Katy Bryson is in Jay's prepper network. Prepping, she
says, puts Americans back in charge of their destiny.
"They're not in
control of whether they lose their job or not but they are in control of
whether they are prepared. So I feel like that's why the industry is just
booming right now for preparedness," Katy added.
It is also a fundamentally American phenomenon. In a
country built on the radical individualism of its founding fathers, people have
an inbuilt mistrust in their government's ability to protect them.
Sociologist Barry Glastner wrote The Culture of Fear.
He told Sky News: "Americans are fairly unique as world citizens in that
we tend to believe that we control our own destiny as individuals to a much
greater extent than we really do."
Ironically, he points out preppers may actually be
reacting to their fears in the least effective way. Dangerous weather,
terrorist attacks and economic collapses are all best dealt with by higher
authorities, he said.
"Where there are real dangers, to take an
individualistic approach is usually exactly the wrong thing to do. So the kinds
of things that the preppers are preparing to protect themselves from are much
better handled on a community-wide basis than they are in your own home."
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