• Abstract and Figures
• Public Full-text

University of Connecticut OpenCommons@UConn Doctoral Dissertations University of Connecticut Graduate School 11-17-2017 National Insecurity: Why Do So Many in the World's Most Security Conscious Nation Live in Fear? Jerry Rice University of Connecticut - Storrs, [email protected] Follow this and additional works at: https://opencommons.uconn.edu/dissertations Recommended Citation Rice, Jerry, "National Insecurity: Why Do So Many in the World's Most Security Conscious Nation Live in Fear?" (2017). Doctoral Dissertations. 1643. https://opencommons.uconn.edu/dissertations/1643 National Insecurity: Why Do So Many in the World’s Most Security Conscious Nation Live in Fear? Jerry Cheston Rice, PhD University of Connecticut, 2017 In 2017, the President proposed a budget that allocated sixty percent of US discretionary resources toward military spending, putting US military spending higher than that of the next eight nations combined. Despite this enormous allocation of resources, millions of Americans feel so insecure that they have decided to take steps to insure their own security. With stockpiles of food and weapons, in personal bunkers, these preppers are viewed by some as extreme in their approach. The purpose of this piece is to explore the causes and fears that drive prepping behavior, and what view these individuals have of the US federal government; the entity that is supposed to insure the security of the American public. Ultimately, this study concludes that cultural factors, such as religion and the way one is raised, are most likely the causes of one’s decision to prep. However, other factors such as personal history, identity, and personality, when taken in conjunction with culture, can intensify prepping behavior. Furthermore, with natural disasters and the threat of a global financial meltdown at the top of the list of fears for most preppers, there is little that a single nation-state can do to address these concerns. Rather, a more wide-spread multilateral approach is required of the key actors within the international community. Ultimately, most within the prepping community possess a somewhat negative view of the US federal government, but there is no evidence that such views have the traction that would ultimately lead to conflict between preppers and the American government. National Insecurity: Why Do So Many in the World’s Most Security Conscious Nation Live in Fear? Jerry Cheston Rice B.S., Georgia Southern University, 2002 M.A., Piedmont College, 2006 M.A., University of Connecticut, 2010 A Dissertation Submitted in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy at the University of Connecticut 2017 National Insecurity | i Copyright by Jerry Cheston Rice 2017 National Insecurity | ii APPROVAL PAGE Doctor of Philosophy Dissertation National Insecurity: Why Do So Many in the World’s Most Security Conscious Nation Live in Fear? Presented by Jerry Cheston Rice, B.S., M.A., M.A. Major Advisor ___________________________________________________________________ Mark Boyer Associate Advisor ___________________________________________________________________ Betty Hanson Associate Advisor ___________________________________________________________________ Jenifer Sterling-Folker University of Connecticut 2017 National Insecurity | iii This dissertation is dedicated to: My loving wife, Gina M. Rice Thanks for all of your hard work, loyalty, patience, and many sacrifices over the years. This achievement is as much yours as it is mine. and to: A great mentor and committee member of this project, Dr. Garry Clifford Thanks for always having an open door, the memories my kids have of our trips to the Dairy Bar, and for your advice: “Just focus on writing one page a day”. Although I was not able to write that fast, your words did serve as a reminder to keep pushing forward. National Insecurity | iv National Insecurity: Why do so Many in the World’s Most Security Conscious Nation Live in Fear? Chapter Title Page Number Chapter 1: The Insecurity in Today’s Security Paradigm 1 Chapter 2: Theories of Insecurity and Prepping 29 Chapter 3: Preparing for Seven Years of Famine, the History of Prepping 50 Chapter 4: A Word from the Experts 74 Chapter 5: A Word from the Wise 88 Chapter 6: The Proud Few 102 Chapter 7: Is it the End of the World as we Know it? 120 Appendix 134 Key Terms 140 References 143 National Insecurity | v Chapter 1 The Insecurity in Today’s Security Paradigm “If the people cannot trust their government to do the job for which it exists - to protect them and to promote their common welfare - all else is lost.” Barack Obama, An Honest Government, A Hopeful Future, 2006 It is uncomfortable to imagine a world devastated by events such as a nuclear detonation, a global pandemic, or a widespread economic collapse; where the very fabric of society is strained and individuals are forced to rely on themselves and their community for survival. However unlikely these events may be, the increasingly connected nature of the global community makes their occurrence far more probable than once was the case1. As Newman points out, the very political and economic changes that allow for increased communication and cooperation are the changes that also pose serious threats to the global community (2001, p. 245). For example, improvements in travel also make it easier to smuggle drugs, and traffic humans. Similarly, as was hinted by the 2014 Ebola outbreak, these same advancements may serve as the catalyst for the spread of a global pandemic. Likewise, the increasingly interdependent nature of the global economy that on the one hand facilitates international cooperation, could just as easily trigger an equally high level of human insecurity through a 1 President Obama warned that a nuclear terrorist attack is the single greatest threat that the United States currently faces, in both the short and long-terms. He went on to explain that a nuclear detonation in in a city such as New York or London would change the security landscape as we know it (Jackson, 2010, April 11). National Insecurity | 1 global financial meltdown. This was illustrated in 2008 with the burst of the housing bubble in the United States. The resulting economic ripples were felt globally as an unknown number lost their career and life savings over night. For many Americans, the eminent threat posed by events such as those mentioned above are very real, and these individuals are skeptical of the US government’s ability to adequately provide for their individual security2. As a result, the United States and other economically developed countries around the world have witnessed a growing prepper trend. Some have even gone so far as to refer to 2012 as “The Year of the Prepper” (2012Prepared.com, 2012), since prepping behavior dramatically increased; undoubtedly due to fears associated with the Mayan apocalypse. In a National Geographic poll, of over a thousand Americans, taken in January of 2012, forty percent said that they were opting not to put money in a 401k plan. Instead, they planned to put that money toward catastrophic preparations. Almost half of those polled stated that, if they were to purchase a new home, they would rather have a safe-room or bomb shelter, instead of new high-end appliances (TP Newswire, 2012)3. Furthermore, more than half expect that the United States would be the victim of terrorism (55%)4 or a financial collapse (51%)5 within the next twenty-five years, while a third expect to experience a significant power blackout 2 Many point to the events that followed Hurricane Katrina as evidence of the US Government’s inability to provide for their security needs (Burns, 2015). 3 This poll claimed to have a 3.1% margin of error, but it should be noted that this poll was conducted online. As such, it is not readily apparent how the pollsters controlled for issues such as those related to biased sampling and repetitive responses. 4 In a poll taken shortly after the bombing at the Boston Marathon, seventy-five percent of those surveyed now believe that an occasional act of terrorism, will be a part of American life in the future, and while sixty percent of the country feels that the steps taken by the government have made the country safer since the 9/11 attacks, forty- nine percent of Americans believe that there is more that the government could do to prevent acts of terrorism in this country (Pew Research Center, 2013 April 23). 5 A majority of Americans (63%) feel that the economy was no stronger in 2013 than it was prior to the 2008 market crash, and forty-nine percent of Americans feel that the government has not done enough to protect the market from another collapse (Pew Research Center, 2013 September 12). National Insecurity | 2 (37%) or a pandemic (29%) within the same period. A few of those polled (14%) even stated that they expect to experience nuclear fallout within the next twenty-five years. These beliefs have led many Americans to begin prepping. A prepper is an individual that prepares for a catastrophic emergency or event by stockpiling resources, such as food, survival equipment, and weapons. Whereas a survivalist merely lives off of what their environment provides them, a prepper seeks to thrive in times of catastrophe with as little change in their present living conditions as possible. Furthermore, a prepper is one who acts with the goal of indefinite self-reliance in mind. While it is true that the federal government urges all Americans to be prepared for the unexpected emergency, by having a 72-hour kit on hand (Build a Kit, 2016; Kempner, 2016), a prepper is one who looks far beyond these minimum expectations. These individuals think in terms of indefinite self-reliance by stockpiling garden seeds, tobacco, alcoholic beverages, and precious metals6.

Load more

  164

Copy Link