In the May 2011 issue of Foreign Affairs magazine, Stephen Flynn writes that "...the United States has made a mess of homeland security." While you may agree or disagree with the statement, to me his argument, that the federal government (under the current and previous administrations) has taken the posture that only its agencies are capable of defending the homeland, rings true. Mr. Flynn postulates that the American civil society and its private sector have been left out of the loop, for the most part, and been given no real responsibility for protecting itself. Unfortunately this article sits behind FA's paywall, but you can purchase a .pdf version here for a buck.

While the central argument of the piece is off-topic for this forum (it centers around the lifting of the veil of secrecy concerning threats against the US) Mr. Flynn goes on to argue the case for the promotion of societal resilience. His definition of resilience "is the capacity of individuals, communities, companies and the government to withstand, respond to, adapt to, and recover from disasters." He promotes the concept of '...building a general level of preparedness." by informing and training the population on how to prepare for, survive and recover from disasters whether natural or man made.

He goes on to say "Resilience begins on the level of individuals. A program of resilience would promote self-reliance in the face of unexpected events..." He also visits the concept of resilience in communities suggesting that federal resources be used to educate, train and equip communities to be able to cope with emergencies without waiting for FEMA or the National Guard to show up.

The author makes reference to the Community and Regional Resilience Institute (CARRI) a joint effort of DHS and Oak Ridge National Laboratory as good start by the federal government to address the need for building resilience. The fact that I had never heard of this organization before underscores the lack of visibility in the general media of the concept of resilience.

On any number of threads on these forums, ETS members have promoted the concept of working together in the face of disaster. And that while it may be necessary to "bug-out" on rare occasions, most of us would prefer to 'bug-in', work with our neighbors and survive together. I, for one, don't relish the idea of the lone wolf survivor experience.

In a past thread I noted that being responsible was a key indicator of having character. I think I will add being resilient as another worthy attribute.

Andy

PS. To the mods, just wondering why the name of the current president of the United States was automatically censored? That seems an inappropriate and judgemental action without analysis of the context, which is this case was non-political.