I’m going to try to articulate some thoughts that may be stupid or self evident to many of you. I apologize in advance if that is the case. I often find this kind of exercise helpful — for myself, first of all. If it is helpful for me, generally I find it will also be useful for other people. But not always! Sometimes I am just particularly thick.
Here is today’s starting question: Why is it so difficult, even impossible, for most of us to fully comprehend that this huge, technologically advanced, globe-spanning post-industrial civilization we are enmeshed in is, in all probability, going to collapse quite soon?
I speak for myself here, first of all. Even though I often reflect on the likelihood of collapse and write about it, I still don’t do anything much to prepare myself for it. I find most of the options and requirements for “prepping” for collapse in any meaningful way beyond my means, financially as well as psychologically. I am, by nature, an impractical person, someone who prefers to live in a dreamworld of idealism, art, and intellectual curiosity. I never tried to amass capital. I am slow to develop new habits. I am from Manhattan and I prefer living in a big city with a diverse population and a crazy quilt of culture. I am not attracted to the country or farming and have only the vaguest interest in gardening. I suspect this makes me a useful barometer for many fellow urbanites who also have not started “prepping,” and don’t even know how they would do so.
I remember I bought a bunch of canned food back in 2008, when I thought the financial system was about to expire (actually, I think it did kick the bucket, but that’s another story). I either ate what was in them eventually, or decided they were too far past their expiration date, and tossed them.
Apparently, some part of me still expects a “Big Other” — the government or some kind of phantasmal global federation — to step in and fix everything. Apparently some part of me, programmed by endless Hollywood films, hopes or even believes there will be some magical last-second intervention… the harnessing of nuclear fusion to provide limitless energy, and/or Artificial Intelligence plus Genetic Engineering creating infinite nutritious food — fungi? Lichens? — that doesn’t require huge inputs of fossil fuels and water, as modern agriculture sadly does.
We tend to have psychologically ingrained cultural beliefs. For instance, we tend to believe there are experts who know more than us. These experts, we subconsciously imagine, run the world behind the scenes. They must make long-term forecasts and important decisions based on their intelligence, depth of experience, and education.
It is scary to realize this is not the case — a bit like realizing you are walking on a tightrope, high up in the air, without a net. Of course, there are people and organizations with a great deal of power. But I don’t think there is a secret group of super-intelligent experts plotting the New World Order out in advance from an invisible control room: Not even Bill Gates, the Tavistock Institute, the Rothschilds, nor Karl Schwab.
Of course, different elite groups seek to turn everything that happens to their advantage. But reality is always, in some sense, up for grabs. For instance, I don’t think leaders of the Anglo-European alliance actually know what to do about Putin’s frequent threats that he is ready to launch a nuclear strike. Similarly, I don’t think some subtle collusion of deep state operatives allowed Trump to take the 2016 election. I don’t think the masterminds behind AI planned out the existential risks and threats to society they have unleashed. Like all of us, they are riding blind.
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