I honestly don't know; it's interesting that in Europe, the same culture - certainly present in the nineteenth century - has atrophied very quickly after WWII.
I'm not sure how to explain that; urbanization? The expansion of the welfare state? Faith in the EU as the promise of enduring peace and prosperity? It happened in most of the Soviet Bloc countries, too, so perhaps the welfare state aspect is key.
In the US, my first guess is that it might have been kept alive, even in suburban and urban communities, because of the exposure to the Cold War paranoia, school drills, and so on. "The Russkies" and the specter of the nuclear apocalypse left an ominous mark on the American psyche.
But you are right, the desire to capitalize on the phenomenon might have played a role, too. On the flip side, Europe is not a very different market; the buyers are a bit more smug and you can't sell guns, but that's about it - so why aren't we seeing more of the "new" prepper culture cropping up on the other side of the pond?
> so why aren't we seeing more of the "new" prepper culture cropping up on the other side of the pond?
Maybe it's because there's not as much individual land ownership in Europe because there isn't as much land. In America we have a vast frontier so to speak, plus we've had the act of homesteading as a the cornerstone of our traditional values for a long time.
There's room for everyone to have their own little homestead, at least thats been the feeling culturally for a couple of hundred years, and so people today are also prone to think along the lines that traditional homesteaders thought.. well water, garden, dogs, fishing, shotgun, shovel, plow, etc.. maybe even horses if you can afford it. One difference is today people also care about an Internet connection. In my view these people aren't paranoid at all they're just passing on the traditional values.
> On the flip side, Europe is not a very different market; the buyers are a bit more smug and you can't sell guns, but that's about it - so why aren't we seeing more of the "new" prepper culture cropping up on the other side of the pond?
It is, slowly. We have a lot of gun enthusiasts, even though they're not gun owners. They visit the shooting range regularly instead. ASG is a popular sport too, and that's pretty much as much firearms combat training as you can get without actual firearms. In my country (Poland), there was a visible uptick of survivalist narratives when the war in Ukraine started (after all, we're next-door neighbors). And while HAM radio is not very popular (though my friends are doing some serious work in changing that), a lot of drivers have CB radios (installed primarily to facilitate breaking traffic laws).
I'm not sure how to explain that; urbanization? The expansion of the welfare state? Faith in the EU as the promise of enduring peace and prosperity? It happened in most of the Soviet Bloc countries, too, so perhaps the welfare state aspect is key.
In the US, my first guess is that it might have been kept alive, even in suburban and urban communities, because of the exposure to the Cold War paranoia, school drills, and so on. "The Russkies" and the specter of the nuclear apocalypse left an ominous mark on the American psyche.
But you are right, the desire to capitalize on the phenomenon might have played a role, too. On the flip side, Europe is not a very different market; the buyers are a bit more smug and you can't sell guns, but that's about it - so why aren't we seeing more of the "new" prepper culture cropping up on the other side of the pond?