Atomization

 

Last week in class, Christine brought up the term “atomization” which explains the breaking up of society into small units mainly of families or individuals who looked out only for their own well-being. During the Cold War, the nuclear arms race against Russia kept our society on edge and ready for nuclear attacks and radiation. Even if their idea to survive the end of the world was not a plan that would initially succeed, the people believed it. The nuclear arms race and nuclear bomb formed a society panic and mass paranoia. The emergency preparation guidelines and tips were only brought to attention through means of media (radio, television, film, etc.)

After discussing this topic in class, so many scenes from movies and shows depicting atomization came to mind. Being a Mad Men series fanatic, I remembered a scene from an early episode of the series when two house wives were gossiping about another woman in their neighborhood that they both disliked. One of the housewives said something similar to “well if the Russians bomb us anytime soon, there won’t be any room left in our bomb shelter for her!” The scene is a clear example of atomization, at least at a low level of it amongst gossiping house wives.

Another example of atomization I found is much more recent. The year of 2012 was believed by many to be the “end of the world” and people began building more modern versions of the bomb shelters made in the United States by many over fifty years ago. Paranoia was at an increased level but rather through news and politics, reality television created this recent hysteria. There were so many reality television shows during this speculation of our planet’s end that focused on how families would survive it. The show I remembered was called Doomsday Preppers. They often only had a specific number of people to care for and would hold try outs for people who would be fit to survive. The small groups of people all had roles to play if the world did come to end and were prepared to shoot and kill looters, thieves and other survivors trying to get into their safety net.