Doomsday Preppers and the Architecture of DreadPrepping is a practice of anticipating and adaptating to impending conditions of calamity, ranging from low-level crises to extinction-level events. The 2020 COVID-19 pandemic, which preppers consider a 'mid-level' event, and which many of them were well-prepared for, makes clear that scholarly attention to prepper's motivations and methods is both timely and valuable. Drawing from a three-year ethnographic research project with preppers, this paper traces the activity of a single bunker builder who has constructed a technically sophisticated private underground community. Supplemented by additional fieldwork, the paper argues that the boltholes preppers are building in closed communities built to survive the collapse of society, order, and even the environment itself, refract the seemingly irresolvable problems we are failing to address as a species. In the prepper ideology, faith in adaptation has supplanted hope of mitigation, making contemporary bunkers more speculative than reactionary and more temporal than spatial. The bunkers preppers build are an ark to cross through a likely (but often unspecified) catastrophe; they are a chrysalis from which to be reborn - potentially even into an improved milieu.
Keywords: Preppers, Dread, Bunkers, Survival Condo, Underground, COVID-19
Preparing for a World Without Markets: Legitimising Strategies of Preppers'Prepping' – the storing of food, water and weapons as well as the development of self-sufficiency skills for the purpose of independently surviving disasters – is an emerging market as well as an expression of generalised anxiety about existential threats (e.g. technological collapse and catastrophic climate change). Whilst accounts of eccentric prepping are common in mainstream media, there is little empirical investigation into how consumers imagine and prepare for a temporary or permanent halt to functioning market systems, and with it, a consumer society. A netnography of European preppers reveals prepping to be an anticipatory mode of practicing for a post-market, post-consumer society before it becomes a reality. We find that preparation is a struggle for cognitive legitimacy through four different modes: vulnerabilising the market, common-sensing market signals, othering civilian consumers and unblackboxing objects.
Stop Demonizing PreppersThe article offers information on the stereotyping preppers in the American subculture. It states preppers is referred to the people who raise their own food and fuel and are least dependent on supplies from outside. It mentions that the preppers are usually marginalized in the society, highlighting that the efforts of the American Preppers Network to cater to the prepper-centric issues.
They Prepared for the Worst. Now Everyone’s a PrepperAs cases of the coronavirus rise in the United States, preppers have watched with a mix of concern, weariness and even some hope that Americans will learn from their example.
Examining the Mistrust of ScienceThe Government-University-Industry Research Roundtable held a meeting on February 28 and March 1, 2017, to explore trends in public opinion of science, examine potential sources of mistrust, and consider ways that cross-sector collaboration between government, universities, and industry may improve public trust in science and scientific institutions in the future.
The Pathological Optimist (documentary film)This film explores the controversial Andrew Wakefield, who was stripped of his medical license for his infamous study suggesting a link between vaccines and autism that sparked one of the biggest firestorms in modern medicine.
Taking Distrust of Science SeriouslyTo overcome public distrust in science, scientists need to stop pretending that there is a scientific consensus on controversial issues when there is not
Vaccinations Real and Imagined (documentary film)Focus now on myths surrounding the safety of vaccines, including the mumps-measles-rubella (MMR) vaccine and its false link to autism in children. Because of the unwarranted fear and confusion among parents, this particular myth has led to decreased vaccination rates and the reemergence of serious infectious diseases.
Mental Health
Depression Out of the ShadowsA lot of Americans are keeping an important, possibly deadly secret.
The National Institute of Mental Health reports that approximately 18.8 million American adults have a depressive disorder. The disease is not discriminating, seeping into all age, race, gender, and socioeconomic groups. Depression stalls careers, strains relationships, and sometimes ends lives. So if this many people are living with the disease, why the silence? DEPRESSION: Out of the Shadows is a multi-dimensional PBS project that explores the disease's complex terrain, offering a comprehensive and timely examination of this devastating disorder.
The first component of the project is a 90-minute documentary, By weaving together the science and treatment of depression with intimate portrayals of families and individuals coping with its wide-ranging effects, the film raises awareness and eliminates the stigma surrounding this prevalent disease, underscoring the fact that whether we are battling it in our families, our workplaces, or in our own minds, depression touches everyone.
Through the voices and stories of people living with depression, the film provides a portrait of the disease never before seen on American television. Along with consumers, DEPRESSION: Out of the Shadows also follows acclaimed scientists as they describe the latest neurological research and groundbreaking new treatments for depression.
Mental Health Guide for College StudentsMental health issues are becoming more prevalent in the college setting, which is why it is important for students and concerned family members to be familiar with it.
My Depression (streaming video)Both heartfelt and entertaining, MY DEPRESSION uniquely illuminates the symptoms, emotions and side effects of depression using animation, comedy and music.The film helps to make a difficult and sometimes taboo topic more understandable, both for those who may be suffering from depression as well as family and friends of people with the disorder. MY DEPRESSION takes viewers through an individual's journey from the early symptoms through the darkest moments, and the search to try to find help and light at the end of the tunnel.
While the film uses humor to make the subject more accessible and combat the stigma associated with depression, it is also serious in its intent to show how difficult it is to live in a constant state of psychic pain and diminished energy.Although there is no definitive cure for depression, as the film illustrates, there are a variety of ways to alleviate the pain, survive depression, and move towards a positive, fulfilling life.
Rural Youth Often Lack Access to Suicide Prevention ServicesResearchers found that despite higher suicide rates among rural youth, rural areas have fewer mental health facilities that provide suicide prevention services for youths.
The findings highlight the need to improve availability of mental health care in rural areas.
Can You Trust Your Earliest Childhood MemoriesThe moments we remember from the first years of our lives are often our most treasured because we have carried them longest. The chances are, they are also completely made up.
The Stacks Podcast Interviews Tara WestoverWe are talking about Educated by Tara Westover on The Stacks Book Club today. Author and podcast host Sarah Enni helps us break down why this story became a mega-bestseller and why its the book that everyone is still talking about. We also debate the role of fact versus memory in memoir, and what this book means in the current political climate.
There are spoilers on this episode.
What Makes Me? (PBS Series Part of the Brain)Dr. David Eagleman explores memory as an important pillar of self, and reveals that rather than being a faithful record of our past, memory is fallible and often unreliable, making our life of memories more personal mythology than digital recording.