That's very interesting Millie, thanks for sharing. The people who stockpile here use their cache as a pantry.. using the old and replacing with new throughout the year. Preparation isn't a bad thing.. unless taken to extremes.
I did my university dissertation on people's behavioural response to living in disaster areas. Why people farm on the slopes of a volcano, etc. This was in the 1980s (when everything was a little odd), but one of the papers I studied was to do with people's earthquake preparedness in the San Andreas fault area. This was following a massive public education exercise of measures to take in advance, how to stay informed and what to do in the event of a quake. TV commercials were run, poster campaigns were held all over the state, etc, etc.
In the survey that followed the public education campaign the number that always sticks in my head was that 85% of people's planned response to a quake would be to ......... pray!
“Success is the ability to go from one failure to another with no loss of enthusiasm.” Winston Churchill
I prepp because I hate shopping. That and buying in bulk is usually cheaper. There's usually enough supplies in the house to ride out any crisis. We've been snowed in for a week several times and not had any problem. My neighbours on the other hand can't even manage to remember to take bags when they walk the mile to the shop in the snow to buy basic food. We also do a lot of camping so our 'off-grid survival' kit is pretty useful.
If you can keep your head, while those around you are losing theirs, you may not have grasped the seriousness of the situation.
It was only my college thesis - it wasn't impacting government policy or anything, but I was really interested in how people's attitudes would change given more information. Effectively asking the question - is it worth governments spending enormous sums of money on public information or would they be better off just sending the army in to forcibly evacuate people if the worst happened. It was interesting how different attitude groups emerged, Head in the Sanders, the false alarm rebels like you mention, etc.
My favourite, although a very small grouping, are the Garps, who will actively look to move in to a disaster area. If you remember the World According to Garp, where Garp and his wife are looking at a house to buy when a plane flies into it. Garp immediately says "we'll buy it" and his wife asks if he's gone mad. Garp says "just think of the odds of that ever happening again!"
“Success is the ability to go from one failure to another with no loss of enthusiasm.” Winston Churchill
Apparently the same as before they were hit. But who would believe that?
I was inspired by this thread to look at US civil defence films in the 1960s. It appears that bunkers were full of middle class white people and all of the men wore ties and were calm , but slightly concerned except for one chap with dark hair and a poorly crafted crewcut who twitched in the corner ( a Donald Pleasance type - the first one you would pitch out of the balloon, if you get my meaning.)
Apparently, should you wish to check for nuclear fallout at night, you should put a dinner plate outside the patio doors and check every 15 minutes for dust. I didn't hang around to see what to do next.
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I believe Margaret Thatcher hoarded tins of stuff.
I think we're more into panic buying over here.
I was inspired by this thread to look at US civil defence films in the 1960s.
It appears that bunkers were full of middle class white people and all of the men wore ties and were calm , but slightly concerned except for one chap with dark hair and a poorly crafted crewcut who twitched in the corner ( a Donald Pleasance type - the first one you would pitch out of the balloon, if you get my meaning.)
Apparently, should you wish to check for nuclear fallout at night, you should put a dinner plate outside the patio doors and check every 15 minutes for dust. I didn't hang around to see what to do next.
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2018/may/22/florida-city-zombies-power-outage.