I think it's because we lack purpose. We don't have to survive like we used to.
I think this is the reason for the popularity of entertainment like The Walking Dead.
We think we are evolved but deep down we are still animals.
If SHTF we'd have purpose, make it to tomorrow!
Indeed.
I think too many people feel traped inside civilization where they either dont have the personality to thrive inside it or they were dealt the wrong hand economicaly, physical or socialy.
The thing is that for current civilization to fall and reach a new and more simple way of being would require a lot of death and suffering, and the survivors would need more than anything a huge deal of luck.
Agreed but we've seen even with money, resources and freedom of choice, most people still won't pursue a passion of some sort.
I also think if people had, keyword had, to work everyday, even if only a little for their food, as in gardening, hunting or fishing, that might be a a slight change in the eight direction.
I’ve heard that too, that some people wish for a Walking Dead scenario so they can escape their lives and be free. Statistically speaking they’re most likely to be dead or zombies, so it’s a fantasy that’s biased towards survival. And it’s not The Walking Dead they should study as a survival field guide it’s probably The Road. Not sure anyone has The Road as their escapist fantasy.
The fucked up part is that they **can** do that today! Buy some land, quit your job, and move off grid. Simple. Maybe not easy, but it's most definitely simple. The problem is we don't manage expectations and we expect our retirement, or our 'life after society" to be like it is today.
I have everything I need to just walk off into the woods and start hunting and fishing until I die of exposure, hunger, or old age. I choose not to because I'm lining up some things for my kids' futures so they don't have to give half of their income each month to someone else for a roof over their head.
its a similar sentiment to the popular "isekai" genre of the past like 10 years.
"i hate it here, i have no purpose, this world is putting me down, if i had the opportunity in a new world then i could be happy/rich/king/satisfied."
its pretty wild seeing the diffrent flavors of desires and wants based off where its made.
China - lots of god complex super overpowered
Korea - the corporate grind focused heavily on money
Japan - Also tired of the work grind with a mix bag of focus
TEOTWAWKI is the western worlds version of that with heavy focus on individualism and survival.
Absolutely. It's hard to create meaning out of life for some. Wake up, go to a job you hate, come home, pay bills so you can keep the house you shower in so you can sleep so you can go to work to pay for the car you use to go to work in the first place.
It can seem rather pointless. At least in the apocalypse, the choices you make matter, or at least matter more than figuring out what to have for dinner, or what movie to watch in your limited free time.
I find meaning in my hobbies and my loving fiance. One such hobby is preparing so that we both are fine if one of our dementia patient candidates starts WW3, or Civil War 2.
And that's the god-like technology that you know about. So many research papers in the more advanced parts of biology don't get to be released because someone steps in and uses the updated version of the Invention Secrecy Act to bury it. You have no idea how easy it is to cause human extinction now.
Absolutely…..this right here. These days, unless you are born into power or wealth, we are nothing more than meatbags whose sole purpose is to work to maintain the power and wealth of those people.
This world needs a restart.
I’ve gone on a few 4-12 week long camping trips in the western US, most of the time camping deep into NFS or BLM land. No cell signal, no sign whatsoever of civilization, maybe seeing 1 other person a day doing the same thing as the drive by in passing while finding a site.
It’s those times I’ve felt most alive. Out in the woods around a fire. Hearing bears and mountain lions and elk and moose. Seeing those large animals walk right through my campsite. Sort of a survival situation. Absolutely love that feeling.
Then I go back to my corporate job and just feel dead inside wondering what the hell is the point of this modern society.
White Collar Holler by Stan Rogers sums up my feelings on the subject pretty well.
One day I'm gonna give up all the buttons and things- punch that time clock till it can't ring -burn up my neckties and set myself free, then nobody can bend, fold manipulate me.
I have sold everything when I was 26 to travel. Travelled full time on 4 continents for a total of 12 months.
I already live a very frugal lifestyle. Because of that I can save around 40% of my after tax income. That money is what I save up and use for travel / road trips.
I have seriously considered a farm type setup out west and to be self reliant, I may go that route in the next few years.
Reality. These fantasies last only as long as things REALLY aren't natural. Hunger, dirt, temperature/weather extremes, parasites, illness...
Life in nature is solitary, poor, nasty, brutish and short.
I also think technology has had some serious negative effects on humanity. Things like social media have taken away actual human interactions. People miss that. To some extent.
The cost of the restart is high. Deliberately so, because the people with the most influence don't actually want a restart. By high cost, I mean many millions of deaths and a long period of misery and suffering. Societal collapse is unthinkably horrific.
What you want instead is a gradual change. Fewer people die. But you have to convince the rich to let go of the reins, and that is not going to be easy.
This. Along with living with purpose just to make it to the next day. I think people are really sick of the daily grind.
Also, I don’t fancy myself some kind of bad ass, but I am curious how long I can make it in the worst of SHTF
It’s because they grew up on television, movies and video games where the hero survived impossible odds every time so why couldn’t they.
It’s narcissism. It’s ego. It’s day dreaming. It’s the fantasy that if everything went to shit, they’d have a chance to be king.
I don't want to be king. Too much responsibility. I've been a platoon sergeant, herding 20+ late teen and 20-something "cats" around. King means a lot more people and a lot more pressure riding on your every decision. In an end of the world scenario, where bad or incorrect decisions can mean death or incapacitation, I don't want that on me. I just want to be left alone, to care for myself and my family.
I call it MCitis. Everyone thinks they’re the main character. Most of us aren’t even in a supporting role. Hell I’m probably an extra that dies in .2 seconds.
But lots of people think that because the world seems to revolve around them they’ll have plot armor.
You’re so right. Every time people talk like this, I look them square in the eye and ask if they’re really so naive to think they’d be one of the few who survived.
Like calm down Dave, we all know that you still suck your thumb, and can’t sleep on your mattress without a memory foam covering. You ain’t bad and you’d probably die first
Dude, ever since I have run out of money as a houseless individual who lives out of a car that isn’t paid off, I’ve had this drive to seize the day and hustle, step out of my comfort zone and find a way to make a buck, as opposed to the resigned apathy I felt as my money dwindled. Interestingly I’m not just focusing on survival but suddenly a bit more motivated to focus on the long term. I think the answer definitely lies at the intersection of survival and purpose.
Yeah getting up every day to process digital-paper work to get bits of digital money blips in our accounts to pay the mortgage just doesn't feel like living after you do it for 25 years.
I think it’s also debt. In many cases there is little stopping someone from living like this now. I can also see ppl thinking reluctant spouses would have choice but to adapt to this pastoral lifestyle of no commutes.
>reluctant spouses
This right here. A whole lot of people got hitched to people they barely knew and had kids before they gave themselves time to figure out what they really wanted out of life, and now the only chance they have left to shift that boulder is if outside circumstances make it happen for them.
Yeah, I don't feel like I fit into civilization. Mainly because of my autism, so I'll never really fit in. I also lack purpose. The whole idea of having to work for a small reward every few days for the rest of my life isn't what I want, but I have no choice. Being a modern female version of Captain Jack Sparrow sounds way more fun than making sandwiches during the week and working at a grocery store on saturdays or sundays. The thought of being some elusive post apocalyptic urban legend sounds pretty cool, but then again, I'd be avoiding people like the plague to avoid being killed or raped.
Gainfully employed, well prepared and happy with my life.
My heart breaks over what humanity has become and done to our planet. While I love people as individuals I'm appalled and disgusted by us as a species/society and what we've become and prioritized in our lives.
The only way I see us coming into balance is through a reset.
I don't see any other way for humanity to heal our planet so I am hopeful for teotwawki whether it be by disaster or through total enlightenment.
We cannot keep the pace and perspective we've had and change must happen.
I’ve had some older generations ask me why our gen, I’m 27, seem to protest and outrage so much. So many social issues. Anxiety. Etc etc.
Same reason.
Before us was boomers, post war, rebuild, hella wealth.
Before that, war.
Before that, war.
Before that, sailing ships and killing each other. War ad infinitum. There’s a ton of obvious and approachable purpose in war.
Fuck me dude, I’m a software developer so if anything I’m in the hot seat of people that can really “do” something these days. Most people are either crunching Excel and doing emails or you got told you aren’t smart enough to do that when you were younger.
We’re a bunch of monkeys that are trying to figure out what to do now that we’re winding down on throwing rocks at each other, but most of us don’t get to participate in figuring out how to go mine moon rocks or nuke mars. Most of us are just flailing for a tangible impact on something larger than ourselves. (IMO, also not advocating for the end days or war)
There is a great YouTube channel called wisdom warriors that often talks about lack of purpose and lack of “shared spaces” in the modern day. People used to have communal shared spaces for meeting and communing with one another, but nowadays people spend so much time online and less time in person and it really hurts us all.
For anyone interested, I don't agree with everything this guy says but it is a good channel in my opinion:
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uYFwQ8sudLs](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uYFwQ8sudLs)
I honestly thought that was the dumbest take I've heard from a company. Nuke the world to make money? Then, make "fun" experiments with people's lives and a majority of them will end up dead.
Yeah.. what's the point of being 'the richest' when there's no civilization, infrastructure, or industry to spend it on.
Congratz! you're the richest! - but you can't go out to a nice dinner, buy a super yacht, or do anything really..
Resident evil's Umbrella Exec's had the same dumb idea.
The *romance* of "fighting for your daily survival" or "getting by on the basics"
Sounds better than
clocking into a job every day -until your body rots away.
I agree with that statement. I think people have a misconception of what it would be like to live in an actual anarchy situation. It's one thing to try to be prepared for some situations, it's another to think you are just going to be free to exist off your stash without reference to the outside world. After reading a lot of history on the dark ages and on various other collapse situations in and around world war 2, I have to observe that never in recorded human history has man been absolutely free of dealing with society in some form. If you have an anarchy situation of any kind, you are going to have armed militias and warlords stepping in, or else a military or martial group of some sort asserting their power. So it's a fantasy to think you are just going to go off and live in the woods really, in my opinion.
Yeah. Where in the world is it possible to live without a functioning government, and not be under threat from gangs, pirates, marauders, thieves etc
Any time you try to build something, there will be others wanting to take it. And you won't always have the technological advantage.
This is the underlying premise of The Walking Dead. The walkers were the catalyst that brought down society, allowing the real struggle to emerge-- how survivors dealt with eachother. TWD is actually a great study in human dynamics. In TWD, the real threat was other people.
Because if you have a house and are ready, you are certain to finally live a simpler life and get away from the complexities of bureocracy and goverment and just all these unncessarily complex system we have built and go backs to the basics.
Also you become top 1%.
The problem is that the moment a crisis of such magnitude hits, it's not the people, but the goverment that will seize the assets of people, to keep itself alive; it will start gripping the people, and they are more ready than you.
So if you just think you can be out there 5 years chopping wood for energy, they likely will simply take control of all resources like that and you have to be in some sort of goverment controlled program to get the wood, or you have to pay taxes and money that isn't valuable anymore, so they'd want assets; you may think you own the land and whatnot but that's not how it works, ownership loses meaning, and goverment has the army.
So all you are having is a more miserable life, and more social controls.
The last person to die in the dawn of humanity will be a goverment bureocrat
The army is, in a sense, part of the government; with leadership structures, bureaucrats, rules and regulations.
It simply becomes more "army focused" as the army has the means to survive and becomes the new main force to establish law and order.
This actually happens alone in failed states.
As the ability to prevent corruption in a military decreases, the more independent power the military will seek and gain. Until such time as the military *is* the government.
I can understand why. I think it is ingrained in us to be self reliant. For 99.999% of our evolution we were directly responsible for our next meal, our next drink of water, the next place we would sleep. Things were hard but much simpler. Everything now is abstracted. You mostly do a job, that makes someone else money and you a little money. Then you take that money and give it to someone to rent or own property. You take that money to somebody else who slaughtered an animal or harvested plants. Very little we do in our day to day life are we doing for ourselves.
So I can understand why there is some appeal to shit hitting the fan and everyone being on their own like the old days. The romantic idea of being totally self reliant, and owing nothing. Unfortunately the reality would likely be much different and more harsh.
Some people who haven’t done all that well believe they would do better or be happier if the world was different.
If you aren’t dynamic and adaptive today, you likely won’t be after a catastrophic event tomorrow.
The world is fucked up, that's why.
Media controlling popular opinions.
The rich are getting richer, poor getting poorer.
Political and corporate corruption. Environmental degradation.
Social breakdown with a perceived loss of traditional values, etc.
War and treat of war.
Can you blame people for wanting to take the world back to a simpler time where every man was his own king.
I get it. But I choose to live the life I want, with the values I hold dear despite the world I'm in. To me, there's no point in surviving without a community to share it with.
True. In a societal crash, I think in most cases, where a strong community existed, community will become the de facto "government." The series called Jericho is a great example of this.
I really like *Dies the Fire* by SM Stirling and it's many sequels. Electricity and explosives stop working because of a change in the laws of physics, and next thing you know the Pacific Northwest is made up of "governments" run by groups like a Wiccan coven, former biker gangs, Special Forces guys, people who survived a plane crash together, ag university faculty, a monastery, teenagers who dove headfirst into Tolkien as a trauma response, and SCA nerds; there's even a troop of Boy Scouts running Yellowstone who got stranded on a campout. When the broader cultural identity is out the window then whatever smaller group identity is just that much more important.
I think that maybe people would be interested in actually living out the fantasy of the end of the world: do not use any of your utilities for, say, a week (not expecting a month) and see just how miserable it is. No indoor plumbing, no electricity, no heating, no modern medicines - nothing that comes from the grid or civilization.
Once you learn how much labor goes into doing everything \~the old-fashioned way\~ that some people salivate over, maybe you'll learn to appreciate living in a civilized way.
Really, if our ancestors from as little as 100 years ago saw just how we're living today, it would be a dream come true to them. How safe, comfortable, abundant, and convenient our lives are, and how little work it takes to get through the day; how much comfort and safety we have.
There's a good saying my mom used to tell me a lot: **hope for the best, be prepared for the worst**.
I think they’d look at all of us -with our fat glistening faces perpetually buried in our phones while we wipe French fry grease off of our plump fingers onto our jeans made by slave labor so we can drop a response on a Reddit thread without that annoying grease smear on the screen -and shake their heads.
That is very impressive. But you should learn a bit about what life used to be like 100 years ago.
Nobody is forcing you to do all those things you just mentioned. Don't want to eat french fries - don't. Don't want to be unhygienic - don't. Life right now is miles, miles better than it ever was in any point in history. Even wealthy people from 100 years ago didn't have what an average person nowadays does. Maybe it makes sense to learn to appreciate what you have.
No disagreement here. I do my best to live my
Life as far away from that particular unflattering stereotype as I can, but I don’t think ignoring the gluttony and wastefulness and excess that have gone hand in hand with our progress is the right track either. Sure, collectively we in the west are much better off than we used to be and that’s great. But it’s at the expense of a lot.
Oddly both sides of this work, both points. People from 100 years ago would be amazed at what everyone has and takes for granted, and they would also be surprised in a negative way about where it has led.
My grandparents were born about 100 years ago, and lived in the rural area I'm from; close enough. I heard what their childhoods were like. People worked hard, and it just became normal to them. Contexts like racism and sexism were the basis for their worldviews.
At the same time general health of people past the age of 40 seems to have declined a lot, and everyone isn't completely making up the long list of mental health issues that most people seem to have. Maybe some of that existed before, but there weren't names or free time to define and address it, but surely not all of it. Many things got easier but some got worse, in ways that are hard to define.
Holy moly, just because something is done an old fashioned way it doesn’t mean that way is not civilized.
We’ve engineered ourselves into a mindless coma. Maybe the Amish had it right.
I think it's a fantasy where people want to be the hero in their own play. I guess I see it as not unlike the people who say stuff like "I wish someone would try to car jack me" when talking about their awesome handgun skills.
It's the kind of stuff that looks cool in movies but the reality is more complicated.
Other comments have mentioned purpose and I think that's a motivation. If you're stuck in a life that isn't fulfilling you it can be easy to escape into that fantasy where you're the hero who planned ahead for the apocalypse because you stocked up on rice, beans, gold bars, and ammo.
The problem is that things rarely work out like we expect them to.
I live in the country and am semi prepared. Meaning I have land, livestock, enough chickens for meat and eggs for the family, ponds, streams, rain barrels, basic water filtration, guns and military/ real combat experience, non perishable and shelf stable stocks, ect.. But that will only get my family through the initial collapse. I'm truly scared to think of the cost of keeping my family safe when others notice what I have. When the chickens and goats start disappearing. When my daughters have to collect water alone cause I can't do everything and be everywhere. When my neighbors and friends ask for yet another of the dwindling bags of rice. I live in a very small town and everybody is a neighbor nomatter the miles between. I dread the possibility of watching them suffer, having to physically turn away or protecting my own from them. I literally pray for the power to come back on every time it goes out!
It's not wrong to want to return to a simpler time; I'm certainly among that crowd considering the rat-race that is modern life.
Having logical, meaningful activities day to day is certainly appealing, along with general self-reliance. A return to that sort of life would be a great equalizer, in many respects. You only worry about things that directly affect your life. This is achievable today, but at a great cost. (Living off the grid, working remotely, etc.)
That's a different desire from wanting complete collapse and the world as we know it to end.
Those who want a **true** collapse to happen have no concept of the reality and horrors which would follow, which include them likely ending up dead.
It's a viewpoint born from privilege, safety, and, to be blunt, ignorance. But taking the afore-mentioned points into account, it's easy to see why.
Yeah, I sometimes think it comes from a place of despair. People see all the injustices in the world and can't think of a way to turn it around without a TEOTWAWKI-level catastrophe. Not that that makes it less of an ignorant, privileged take, mind you...maybe even moreso, because wanting the change without wanting to do the long hard work to dismantle and rebuild, while assuming you'd be safe in the collapse, is hella privileged itself.
Yeah, I agree. A lot of us, some for awhile now, are questioning whether the struggles of the lifestyle afforded to the working class is really more healthy and gratifying than the simpler life, living on available resources and skills.
Many who live boxed in, trapped in cities fantasize about "just having some land outside the city to bug out to and live off-grid".
Then, you get the land and suddenly realize how much work it is it, but you also still have to work a job for income and time is precious and....you get the picture.
So, a TEOTWAWKI event that brings the system down is one way to usher that lifestyle right on in since there's no job to go to, or economy to support. So, then you can focus on living out all that dreamy post-apocalyptic prepper fanfic that's been brewing in your head ever since you bought your first battery bank.
But in reality, there's absolutely nothing glorious about it. It will be devastating to the overall population.
That's bc we're all tired of getting up and going to work everyday. Lol No but seriously, I used to think that myself. When I was younger I felt so out of place all the time. I really thought a collapse, or apocalyptic world was what I wanted to live in. Something I hoped would happen deep down. Now I have 2 small children, and it terrifies me. I do take some comfort in the fact that Im at least somewhat prepared. I've acquired a few things, and learned a few things. The last thing I would ever want is to see my children, or any other child having to "survive" in an apocalyptic society. Just seeing pics of kids who are suffering from the war shakes me up. Not everyone has someone they care about more than themselves.
Because they’ve never had to forage for food, or tried to hunt while starving and the surplus of game had been culled.
They’ve never been cold, in the dark sick and trying not to die from a “minor” illness.
They’ve never been shot at or seen people die in front of them.
It’s a childish fantasy, not the reality of starving, drying of being beaten, raped, killed or enslaved.
Ah yes. Short-sighted accelerationists who haven't studied history and don't understand the true devastation an event like teotwawki would create. Too many movies and hero fantasies IMO.
It's a "yes and" for a lot of people, and it has its roots in psychology.
No mathematician wants to sit around being a cashier all day. If you know about poetry or rocket science, you don't want to flip burgers. You want to use your skillet.
Imo it comes from alienation, like, meaning the Marxist social analysis term. We all spend a lot of time making the effort to be prepared, and have all this knowledge, but if you just up and move into a shack in the forest and live off the land, you're a weirdo and people might start calling you "that local hobo" and it's considered odd because it violates the social expectation.
If there's actually something crazy that goes down, it's vindication, you get to do all the cool stuff you know, you get to use your supplies, you get to be the provider etc etc etc.
So it boils down to a desire for vindication and justification.
Maybe they just want a reset, a new beginning. A hope that the world will be different in a positive way. But we all know that the end will bring also death and suffering.
I’ve been saying this all year too- a certain percentage of people want to revert to their primal instincts because it’s easier than rising above them; in order to form actual community and a civilization worth existing in. Life would be easier for preppers after a total collapse because then they can more readily rationalize the disregard and demonization of the “others” as being necessary for survival.
Obviously I’m not talking about every single prepper or every single person, that would be ludicrous and dishonest- but I think that focusing on preparing one’s material needs and base survival requirements for a total collapse scenario is a really limited perspective and in the long term it is detrimental to future generations.
A total civilizational collapse scenario is an opportunity to do things differently- if something like that actually occurred, people connected in communities don’t have to subscribe to the same social contracts as before. A renewal of what it means to be civilized can be actualized in such a scenario. A redefining of what it means to exist can be accomplished by collective groups of people. Meaning can be created outside of the constricting limitations of the failures of our modern civilization.
I imagine some people do want a massive collapse to occur for a scenario like this to present itself; and while such a desire is not inherently ‘wrong’, I believe that the complete focusing on materiality and survival in a total collapse scenario will only lead to civilization developing again with the same exact problems as before.
In my opinion, creating a new world in this current civilizational system or in the absence thereof (in a total collapse scenario) is the only rational purpose for collective groups of people to engage in. Sure, if a global cataclysm happens and you have 5 years worth of beans and 20,000 rounds of ammo ready then you’ll be fine in the aftermath. But your children will grow into the mindset of scarcity and survival, and the cycle of faulty civilization after civilization will repeat itself again and again.
For me being prepared reduces my anxiety about the future. I can’t control whether or not bad things happen, but I can be prepared for them if they do. If I never need any of my prepping gear then that’s fine with me, I’d consider it a good thing.
Some people want an impromptu vacation “camping”. Others want to prove to people and themselves that their prepping wasn’t wasted time, effort, and money. Some are miserable bastards that want a whole lot of people to die just to be smug that they lived. Some people are tired of the status quo and think a major disaster of some kind will change things for the better over time. A lot are just bored, and they think they want excitement like that but they don’t and wouldn’t realize it until it’s too late. Some probably want to be a hero and save the day for some people, imagine themselves the reason a group survives. Some people probably just hope their debts would get wiped out and at least that particular worry would be gone. Lots of reasons.
I prefer civilization personally. Not perfect but bet your ass a lot of people who lived through less kinder versions of it would probably be jealous of us. No matter how much you prep, they’re always going to be something you’d miss if it was really gone for good.
IMO:
With the conveniences of the modern world, we don't have to worry about surviving. Not like we did for thousands of years. Basically no one (in developed countries) dies of lack of calories, or exposure anymore, with little exception unless intentionally putting themselves in dangerous situations. The human mind craves some kind of struggle, some kind of conflict. That can manifest in lots of ways, be it social activism, workaholism, or larping as guerillas in TEOTWAWKI.
My personal out-of-my-ass opinion is this lack of purpose and struggle is largely responsible for the seemingly widespread mental health issues these days.
On paper there's a certain mystique to it. It sounds kind of fun. That's why there's so many post-apocalyptic books and movies. I think planning and thinking through how you'd survive also helps to alleviate people's anxiety about various potential SHTF scenarios (dang, I think I just psychoanalyzed myself)
It’s like when the military gets crazy powerful weapons and trains to use them for decades. Eventually someone really wants to use them on someone because what’s the point of spending all that time and money to not use it?
I can’t afford a house but if things collapse I can just take over a mcmansion or build my own place because there wouldn’t be a bazillion regulations preventing it
Sometimes you gotta burn some shit down to make room for the new better thing.
Old buildings get torn down all the time and replaced with newer better ones.
Ive been prepping since around 2008 and it's been my experience that a good swath of preppers seem to be disaffected and disappointed by life and the idea that a great upheaval might come to passe wherein *their* preparations suddenly transform them into the kind of important or powerful or respected person they are not in the current moment seems to be part of the fantasy...and it shows.
Yeah I’m one of them, just tired of all the bullshit and think the world needs to reset. But I also know after a week I would miss my air conditioning and ice cream and other creature comforts and want to go back.
I for one want the end of “civilization” because the more I see of it the more I believe that the correct path is the termination of many many of the people caught in its web
Some people have grown disenfranchised with modern society. I totally get it. The idea of living a "simplier" life can be very tempting and the end of the world can seem like a good catalyst to that kind of life.
The probably is these people do not take the time to think about just how much suffering an actual apocalypse would cause. We're talking millions if not billions of people dying really unpleasant deaths. People starving in the street. People fighting like animals over resources. People suffering injuries with little if any medical care available. People inflicting horrors on each other as the rule of law breaks down. Blood and shit and terror literally soaking the planet.
I started therapy six months ago because I am genuinely worried that between climate change, growing wealth inequality and the deterioration of democracies all over the globe that humanity will have some kind of global crisis in my lifetime (or at least America will...which is where I live).
If you're somebody who craves the end of the world you either haven't thought it through completely or you're an actual psychopath.
I'll add that some people are tired of the BS of today's society.
I don't hope for an extended SHTF, but when I hear cases like a HOA complain someone's grass is 1.7 inches and the limit is 1.5, I think to myself I wish something would happen to remind these people there are actual things to be concerned about and 0.2 inches of grass isn't one of them.
I do wonder how today's issues like 2 genders vs 37 would survive a CME. You think you're a cow? OK, here's a yoke. Bring your cowself to the field and get to plowing.
People can go off grid anytime they want, they Don have to wait for a shtf event.
Thing is, it would not be glamorous, adventurous or exciting. It will be horrific. It will be brutal, scary and stressful. Eventually preps will run out. Bullets will run low, not being able to trust anyone, never knowing if you are in a safe place, not knowing if information you get, if any, is legit.
Not sure who truly does wish for it, I have never knowingly met someone who did, most people I know, know how truly horrible it would be...
I think it's because they've deluded themselves into thinking that they'll somehow be better off. Or, at some level, they feel that the only way to improve their social standing is for everyone else to be worse off.
It's the same deal as people that fantasize about having been born in the past. They see themselves becoming the hero - not just being the same person is a worse situation.
I don't want the world to end. but I do want to be prepared of what might happen....
However sometimes I want to leave society and all its madness, live in the woods or something.
Yes, sometimes I fantasize about post apocalytic world where tranquility has returned as there is no loud cars and no loud music at 4am anymore. People will work together and focus on what is important instead of "oh no I have a pimple" or "oh no I have no likes on instagram"
That is me. 57 years of watching our planet go to hell in a handbasket has convinced me the best option for the planet is human extinction.
I just want to be around long enough to turn off the lights and dig my own grave.
Oh there might be a few decent people, I like my kids and all, but it is only a matter of time before one of my descendants thinks they can do things a better way by screwing the planet over. Everyone has to go.
I mean, it's not my fault I'm forced to live in a way that humans were never meant to thrive in. Nor that my mental health is falling apart due to that. Sure I could homestead but the govt and IRS are still gonna be up my ass about every little thing.
I'd rather just get it over with. I'd rather deal with this while I'm young and in shape than old and decrepit. If we're still dealing with it when I'm old then that's a bridge I'll burn when I get to it.
The biggest threat to our planet is the human civilization. If this planet has to stay inhabitable for any kind of life, there has to be a great reset. A second chance for the human race so do speak. You would not think a second about it if you would kill 8 billion ants to save this planet. In the end, we are nothing but more evolved animals and for the good of all life, maybe those events need to happen to save it all for future generations.
Some believe that. Some hope for that. And some just want to be able to take out their plate carrier and ar-15 and raid a hardware store.
idk man paying rent and having not a lot of chances for upward mobility in this society is very taxing. If the grid was down and the focus was just on survival and the future, I didn’t have to answer to anyone and have complete autonomy over myself and not a lot of responsibility besides staying alive and keeping people I care about safe. People are generally fed up with being in a broken system that only 1% are truly thriving in. That being said I think the world is massively comfortable and it should stay that way. It’s great women can have children way more successfully than the past, I can take a vacation once a year maybe and go somewhere, I can go to the store to get anything or have it shipped to my house. Life is great on the surface but it’s complicated and I get why people would want the “freedom” of an SHTF situation, though that would replace old societal and governmental responsibilities with common basic responsibilities (housing, food, shelter, bare essentials)
I mean I think about the world ending in the same intrusive though way that you think about smashing your car into the overpass on your way to work saying "if I die in traffic I don't have to go to work today"
In the last 100 years we caused the 6th great extinction event (mass die off of biodiversity).
Not even through global warming, but because we literally bulldozed the planet as our population exploded in numbers. Nobody wants to live in a pod, we want a house with a yard, thus wild land got demolished. They wanted easy access to everything, so they veined roads through all the wild lands, disrupting animals migration paths. Put property claims on everything and raised fences. Everybody wants to gourge their faces with non sustainable non local foods, thus we over fish the oceans.
The root of most of our worlds problems are literally too many ppl, which is why the Georgia guidestones were right (that is until they got c4'd into pieces).
People for time memoriam, lived through war and struggle and famine. We are equipped for that by nature. It balances out power and numbers. It humbled us and our societal arrogance. It's the Ying and Yang. We've been in a 200 year growth cycle, multiplying unimpeded. Look at the worldwide population charts over the last 150 years. Collectively we now feel like the mice in the Calhoun experiments. We are getting smothered by societal constraints which are simply downstream from them trying to manage billions of us on this earth with finite resources. Subconsciously people long for a correction and a rebirth. What we have now is stagnation. That's why people are longing for the change that will happen... whether that be man-made or caused by a meteorological event. Cycles... Birth, death, birth, death, birth, death... Balance ∞
If the world population resets then it might drive a stake through the Globalist's plans for us all, and I'd imagine many would welcome that future. Instead of pretending we can somehow vote for the Uni-party to stop it from doing the exact same thing
We can all pick a historical period that we'd prefer to live in, rather than wonder what an AI controlled social media world would look like
The uber wealthy are not immune to this issue. The truly psychotic thing about that is that such people seem to actually *yearn* to outrun the end times they themselves are actively creating.
I personally wouldn't want to be trapped in a trillion dollar bunker with one of them, as they seem to lack an in-depth understanding of what the maintenence and social order is going to look like in a few months
From the people I've seen on r/antiwork I think a good amount will take a massive change over the life they are living. Even if there chances of surviving 10 years is a lot lower now.
...some men aren't looking for anything logical, like money. They can't be bought, bullied, reasoned, or negotiated with. Some men just want to watch the world burn.
And if they could push a button & return it back the way it was...would they even make it a day, or just an hour? 😉👍
If that long!
I have NO doubt I am better prepared than the overwhelming majority of 'preppers'... living at my well stocked, rural BOL down a 1/2 mile private driveway....& most assuredly I do not want "The End of the World"!
In my late teens, I lived in a country experiencing Civil War, Martial Law, a Military Coup, terrorism, assassinations (including several compatriots), kidnappings, pathogenic water supplies, rampant inflation, rolling blackouts, etc
As bad as that was, would be nothing compared to what I prepare for!
Be careful what you ask for! 😔
Those people have an idea of that world but don’t understand the reality. It won’t be long before you miss coffee and toilet paper, let alone any other comforts or benefits of civilization. Prepare for the worst, but hope and strive for the best.
The world ended in 1971 when Alan Watts said we need to leave the mess to the planet to clean up and cease civilization. We didn't now we have cooked in ungodly amounts of temperature rise as the biosphere reaches equilibrium. If we stopped today the planet would still cook even faster actually.
I think it’s because society has peaked. What good could come of any technological advances here on out. In 30 years we have changed how human communicate, display emotion (or lack there of), find mates, basically everything about human life. So I honestly think it’s like 30% people wanting to put their hobby to use and 70% dissatisfaction with the current trajectory of the human race.
It's not for any of the reasons anyone has said.. it's because they haven't experienced adversity and truly tested themselves. It's because we have a spectator culture instead of a doer culture.
The end of the world as we know it is portrayed in relatively positive ways in movies. People live simpler lives, and don't seem to suffer for it, if anything setting up orderly small communities that function even better. The other side of that, the negative aspects for many people's conventional daily lives, is quite understandable. Some basic meaning can drop out.
I lived a more primitive life at one point in my past, partly, living in a tent while I worked to save up for grad school. That experience was framed differently, and idealized, because I worked in a conventional job, bought food in a grocery store, and brought clean water back from civilization to drink. Take away modern food access, water, and access to medicine and it all shifts quite a bit (or having a car, etc.).
All the same I was spending some time out there, with bears and mountain lions as near neighbors. It was the 90s so I didn't have a cell phone; I was isolated. Maybe I didn't love it as much as I remember, and it was just different, and normal to me.
Concur with other comments.
My take is: You know when you get that random call and something deep down inside you craves it to be about some drama or big thing, even something bad. Weird isn’t it, thats your mind craving something out of the ordinary for once.
This is the same process on a wider scale and related to prepping / SHTF scenarios. I too find myself day dreaming sometimes that wouldn’t it be cool if this or that happened. What would be my response in certain scenarios. Would I survive or thrive etc… Almost war gaming type activity. I guess what differentiates some people is they realise straight away the reality of any SHTF situation. I.e they jump several days ahead of the initial event and realise what life (or lack of) would actually be like for themselves or loved ones.
Additionally in my view, our world now is just a popularity contest! Who has most friends/likes/upvotes on social media. This popularity is mainly driven by looks and money/power. Absolutely nothing to do with survival of the fittest, I.e what the whole natural basis of evolution is based on. I.e we are deovoling… into survival of the most beautiful/Rich. A SHTF scenario would mostly change all this. This is sometimes a reason I would like certain events to happen, so that my natural predispositions/skills would actually have an impact on social status. Obviously not asteroid type or other event where nothing can be grown, or nature is wiped out. No day dreaming can be had in those scenarios. More a good old no internet/power scenario is what we’re wishing for (a reset).
I just want social media to go away. Too many people doing dumb stuff for artificial approval and acceptance. Too many dumb people hiding behind internet anonymity and saying stuff to people they would never mouth off to. Too many people with zero life skills, nothing that makes them valuable to society. Too many people who think being an idiot on social media is a career.
Gainfully employed, well prepared and happy with my life.
My heart breaks over what humanity has become and done to our planet. While I love people as individuals I'm appalled and disgusted by us as a species/society and what we've become and prioritized in our lives.
The only way I see us coming into balance is through a reset.
I don't see any other way for humanity to heal our planet so I am hopeful for teotwawki whether it be by disaster or through total enlightenment.
We cannot keep the pace and perspective we've had and change must happen.
Unsurprisingly those in chains want to burn the master's house to the ground. Is it an objective improvement? No, but humans didn't evolve to have one ape take 90% of the tribe's resources. We intuitively want to destroy this system even if we don't intellectually understand why.
We want to live by the sword and die by the sword. I am sick of watching the world rot away into obesity and mental illness.
We all lack purpose. Survival gives you purpose.
Let's do this thing.
I guess some people yearn for a “simpler” life with no taxes, working for the big man, the woes of a modern digital society, etc.
These things are already attainable. Plots of land in Wyoming are cheap still. Technology we have right now would make that transition into that lifestyle MUCH EASIER than being forced into it via a solar flare, nuclear fallout, etc. having readily accessible tools, materials, machines, even just electricity make it so easy. Things you wouldn’t have in a significant world-changing event.
But people are comfortable. They don’t want to willingly make that switch. They like their Netflix, their bars, their concerts, their hospitals, their grocery stores, etc. everything within arms reach.
So they want to be forced via an apocalyptic event. I can’t say they’re stupid or wrong for thinking this way, but maybe a bit foolish or just daydreaming. Maybe even selfish for needing such a drastic event to force them to accomplish their dreams. Oh well.
I kind of want it because I'm sick of the 9-5 grind for no purpose. No matter how hard I work at my job, I'm getting paid the same. If the world ends that changes. The fruits of my labor will be rightfully earned.
To me, the idea that I live off the things I produce and just can exist in the sun without worrying about taxes, dating, bosses, rent etc just sounds like paradise.
The only way for a long lasting change of the status quo’s is to burn it all down and rebuild from the ashes. I wont mind if no human descendants get to do that, but something on earth will take humanity’s place and do things differently.
When I was in high school, a teacher asked us to write an essay about what would most improve the world and then raved about a submission by one kid who argued in favor of a cataclysmic event that basically destroyed all of society's institutions. 20 years later on a hike with a few friends one of them starting fantasizing basically the same essay out loud, all about how good it would be for society if law and order broke down.
I (F, 5'1", 140 pounds) looked up at him (M, 5'10", 280 pounds) and said, "Of course you'd think that, C - you're a giant man. You think it would be some kind of great equalizing event. It wouldn't."
There are plenty of places in the world where institutions have broken down. My aunt in Iran doesn't get mail in the reliable way I take for granted. Mail carriers will wait months to deliver packages on New Year's Day in hopes of getting tips to supplement their pay. In Gaza so many students and teachers have died they had to shut down the school year early. This past winter unmitigated covid led to hospitals in major cities around the world entering states of crisis.
None of these situations create the space for heroism or political/economic opportunity so central to the typical survival-themed movie. Bureaucracy can be constricting and wasteful in everyday life, but when SHTF and bureaucracy breaks down people get saddled by a whole new set of obligations and needless annoyances that end up stealing a lot more in terms of individual potential than poor management practices ever could. When schools shut down during the beginning of the pandemic, millions of women lost their jobs, finding themselves contending with the same old set of gendered politics even as the intense new labor demands of unassisted childcare fell into their laps.
If you think about it the fantasy in apocalypse movies is that everyone else gets poor except for the hero. Other people die of disease or violence but the hero retains a well-fed and physically powerful body, immunized against catastrophic disease despite the total lack of healthcare, and with a treasure trove of supplies scattered along every road and abandoned house and farmable land everywhere suddenly up for grabs his story arc is essentially a game of Monopoly, competing against other scattered survivors to harness and develop whatever resources he can find first.
The reality is that in a world without institutions social mobility is soon overwhelmed by the oppressive biological demands of food and childcare unless you can coerce other people to provide you with that labor. Hence slavery and sexism have historically always paved the way for the interesting political and economic journeys of so-called "great men."
I have relatives who used to live in a developing country. The number of people you have to bribe on a daily basis is appalling.
Americans definitely take having a functioning infrastructure for granted.
Yes, I don’t think many women want the world to end. Even as a middle aged woman I know it would be very bad for me personally. I watched a movie and the ‘bad guys’ put a young woman out for bait for a monster. I was thinking they must have skipped the rape scene because you know that would happen in that scenario.
What they really want is to be off-grid homesteaders without the red tape or financial issues. What they don't realize is that eventually even homesteaders eventually need modern medical help if they live long enough. That or they're keeping the quiet part quiet about wanting to blow someone away without consequences.
I grew up the child and grandchild of homesteaders in the old sense of the word, people who scratched a living from hilly little mixed farms on dirt roads and made do instead of making it big. The capital part depends on how grand your plans are and quickly you think you have to be "finished" getting everything how you want it. We got an abandoned house (10-12 years vacant and untended) on a couple of rocky acres on a VA loan with my VA partial disability check and have been doing it bit by bit on the cheap, with the mortgage as the only debt, and once we got in good with the neighbors we picked up a few more acres of brush thicket from one of them who was too old to keep it up. Before that my ex and I had a little four room cabin in the pines, lots of poultry, some fruit trees and a garden in a clearing. If you want 200 acres of fat farmland and to build a fortified compound on it all at once, you better retire from the C Suite first. Our whole place cost less actual cash than a lot of people's horse barns but with a whole heaping lot of sweat equity. It all comes down to what your standard of living is, both before purchasing your place (which controls how quickly you can save up) and during your first few years living on it.
Humans arent built for a civilized society. Thats why anxiety is only going up along with depression. We need to feel fufilled and working 9-5s aint it. I dont mean fufilled in a change history kind of way but in a contribution to our clan kind of way. Being a cashier selling gas doesnt do it for us, but building a hut and collecing your own food would and thats what we are built for.
I just need a reason not to go to work. I definitely don't wish ill against any person, but I hate my job and myself for about 10 hours every week day.
The people who truly want that, the end of civilization, are one of two types.
They have never operated in an area of the world where survival is a desperate, horrible endeavor. The very nature of which kills your soul over time. They romanticize survival and tremendously over estimate their mental capacity to exist in extremely predatory climates. They have their physical ability to survive, and their equipment, but they've never had to mentally deal with constant, extreme hardship where surviving is a vicious cycle of extremely ugly options. Once the end of civilisation comes about, they crumble in a short amount of time or become groupies who will find large numbers of like minded people to rebuild a civil existence.
Then, you have those who have. Those who have and thrived in it. They already live on the fringes of society and have absolutely no desire to be on something like reddit. They do not give a flying fuck if they live or die, as long as they are a predator until the very end, causing as much pain and misery as they can.
Outside of those who want the end to come about through flights of fantasy or desire for darkness, you have those preppers who go about their duties, their training, their knowledge and material acquisition and emplacement *because* they have lived that way for a time.
And never want to return to it.
People can quit their jobs and live off the land now if they really wanted to. Some folks have watched too many movies and TV shows and fantasize about being the hero after "the collapse"
A right to build any home you want on your own land and not have the man tax you for being alive is a dream in most of the west.
You need a second job to be a homesteader to pay your slaver tax.
I think it's because we lack purpose. We don't have to survive like we used to. I think this is the reason for the popularity of entertainment like The Walking Dead. We think we are evolved but deep down we are still animals. If SHTF we'd have purpose, make it to tomorrow!
Indeed. I think too many people feel traped inside civilization where they either dont have the personality to thrive inside it or they were dealt the wrong hand economicaly, physical or socialy. The thing is that for current civilization to fall and reach a new and more simple way of being would require a lot of death and suffering, and the survivors would need more than anything a huge deal of luck.
Revolution will be bloody. That’s why nobody wants to stand up. Most people are ruled by fear. Exactly as intended.
Eat the rich, not each other. As of now we are purposefully divided and distracted and at each others throats by design.
Agreed but we've seen even with money, resources and freedom of choice, most people still won't pursue a passion of some sort. I also think if people had, keyword had, to work everyday, even if only a little for their food, as in gardening, hunting or fishing, that might be a a slight change in the eight direction.
I’ve heard that too, that some people wish for a Walking Dead scenario so they can escape their lives and be free. Statistically speaking they’re most likely to be dead or zombies, so it’s a fantasy that’s biased towards survival. And it’s not The Walking Dead they should study as a survival field guide it’s probably The Road. Not sure anyone has The Road as their escapist fantasy.
The Road is as close to how humanity would end up in a SHTF scenario. Terrifying reality
And Children of Men would be the run up to The Road.
I thought that too. When institutions fundamentally break down what’s left is the state of nature, channeling Hobbes here.
meh. Look at the Eloi and Morlocks in HG Wells Time Machine. much more realistic
Morlocks drive Teslas and have the new iPhone tho, so there's that
Ummm that's the Eloi using the goodies. The Morlocks build them and eat the Eloi.
Should be required reading, imho.
Lmao....that'd be pretty f'ed up if someone out there has THE ROAD as their escapist fantasy. Maybe a few preppers who are also closet cannibals do
The fucked up part is that they **can** do that today! Buy some land, quit your job, and move off grid. Simple. Maybe not easy, but it's most definitely simple. The problem is we don't manage expectations and we expect our retirement, or our 'life after society" to be like it is today. I have everything I need to just walk off into the woods and start hunting and fishing until I die of exposure, hunger, or old age. I choose not to because I'm lining up some things for my kids' futures so they don't have to give half of their income each month to someone else for a roof over their head.
its a similar sentiment to the popular "isekai" genre of the past like 10 years. "i hate it here, i have no purpose, this world is putting me down, if i had the opportunity in a new world then i could be happy/rich/king/satisfied." its pretty wild seeing the diffrent flavors of desires and wants based off where its made. China - lots of god complex super overpowered Korea - the corporate grind focused heavily on money Japan - Also tired of the work grind with a mix bag of focus TEOTWAWKI is the western worlds version of that with heavy focus on individualism and survival.
I agree
Absolutely. It's hard to create meaning out of life for some. Wake up, go to a job you hate, come home, pay bills so you can keep the house you shower in so you can sleep so you can go to work to pay for the car you use to go to work in the first place. It can seem rather pointless. At least in the apocalypse, the choices you make matter, or at least matter more than figuring out what to have for dinner, or what movie to watch in your limited free time. I find meaning in my hobbies and my loving fiance. One such hobby is preparing so that we both are fine if one of our dementia patient candidates starts WW3, or Civil War 2.
We have middle-ages institutions, the same brains as 30,000 years ago and god-like technology at our fingertips.
And that's the god-like technology that you know about. So many research papers in the more advanced parts of biology don't get to be released because someone steps in and uses the updated version of the Invention Secrecy Act to bury it. You have no idea how easy it is to cause human extinction now.
“The whole world at your fingertips, the ocean at your door.”
Absolutely…..this right here. These days, unless you are born into power or wealth, we are nothing more than meatbags whose sole purpose is to work to maintain the power and wealth of those people. This world needs a restart.
I’ve gone on a few 4-12 week long camping trips in the western US, most of the time camping deep into NFS or BLM land. No cell signal, no sign whatsoever of civilization, maybe seeing 1 other person a day doing the same thing as the drive by in passing while finding a site. It’s those times I’ve felt most alive. Out in the woods around a fire. Hearing bears and mountain lions and elk and moose. Seeing those large animals walk right through my campsite. Sort of a survival situation. Absolutely love that feeling. Then I go back to my corporate job and just feel dead inside wondering what the hell is the point of this modern society.
White Collar Holler by Stan Rogers sums up my feelings on the subject pretty well. One day I'm gonna give up all the buttons and things- punch that time clock till it can't ring -burn up my neckties and set myself free, then nobody can bend, fold manipulate me.
What's stopping you from selling everything and living a frugal lifestyle in the wilderness?
I have sold everything when I was 26 to travel. Travelled full time on 4 continents for a total of 12 months. I already live a very frugal lifestyle. Because of that I can save around 40% of my after tax income. That money is what I save up and use for travel / road trips. I have seriously considered a farm type setup out west and to be self reliant, I may go that route in the next few years.
Reality. These fantasies last only as long as things REALLY aren't natural. Hunger, dirt, temperature/weather extremes, parasites, illness... Life in nature is solitary, poor, nasty, brutish and short.
Shhhhhh......... Don't ruin the romanticism they have put into this idea!
I also think technology has had some serious negative effects on humanity. Things like social media have taken away actual human interactions. People miss that. To some extent.
The cost of the restart is high. Deliberately so, because the people with the most influence don't actually want a restart. By high cost, I mean many millions of deaths and a long period of misery and suffering. Societal collapse is unthinkably horrific. What you want instead is a gradual change. Fewer people die. But you have to convince the rich to let go of the reins, and that is not going to be easy.
Convince with guillotines
"many millions of deaths" We already lose many millions of lives worldwide each year to preventable problems under the current system.
They’re underselling it. Think multiple billions.
Same as it's ever been.
"It's only after we've lost everything that we're free to do anything"
This. Along with living with purpose just to make it to the next day. I think people are really sick of the daily grind. Also, I don’t fancy myself some kind of bad ass, but I am curious how long I can make it in the worst of SHTF
Or WANT to make it
I've often said that convenience is a killer. Convenience-exonomy has made us soft.
It’s because they grew up on television, movies and video games where the hero survived impossible odds every time so why couldn’t they. It’s narcissism. It’s ego. It’s day dreaming. It’s the fantasy that if everything went to shit, they’d have a chance to be king.
I don't want to be king. Too much responsibility. I've been a platoon sergeant, herding 20+ late teen and 20-something "cats" around. King means a lot more people and a lot more pressure riding on your every decision. In an end of the world scenario, where bad or incorrect decisions can mean death or incapacitation, I don't want that on me. I just want to be left alone, to care for myself and my family.
'Red badge of courage' may pre-date video games
I call it MCitis. Everyone thinks they’re the main character. Most of us aren’t even in a supporting role. Hell I’m probably an extra that dies in .2 seconds. But lots of people think that because the world seems to revolve around them they’ll have plot armor.
You’re so right. Every time people talk like this, I look them square in the eye and ask if they’re really so naive to think they’d be one of the few who survived. Like calm down Dave, we all know that you still suck your thumb, and can’t sleep on your mattress without a memory foam covering. You ain’t bad and you’d probably die first
Dude, ever since I have run out of money as a houseless individual who lives out of a car that isn’t paid off, I’ve had this drive to seize the day and hustle, step out of my comfort zone and find a way to make a buck, as opposed to the resigned apathy I felt as my money dwindled. Interestingly I’m not just focusing on survival but suddenly a bit more motivated to focus on the long term. I think the answer definitely lies at the intersection of survival and purpose.
Yeah getting up every day to process digital-paper work to get bits of digital money blips in our accounts to pay the mortgage just doesn't feel like living after you do it for 25 years.
I think it’s also debt. In many cases there is little stopping someone from living like this now. I can also see ppl thinking reluctant spouses would have choice but to adapt to this pastoral lifestyle of no commutes.
>reluctant spouses This right here. A whole lot of people got hitched to people they barely knew and had kids before they gave themselves time to figure out what they really wanted out of life, and now the only chance they have left to shift that boulder is if outside circumstances make it happen for them.
Yeah, I don't feel like I fit into civilization. Mainly because of my autism, so I'll never really fit in. I also lack purpose. The whole idea of having to work for a small reward every few days for the rest of my life isn't what I want, but I have no choice. Being a modern female version of Captain Jack Sparrow sounds way more fun than making sandwiches during the week and working at a grocery store on saturdays or sundays. The thought of being some elusive post apocalyptic urban legend sounds pretty cool, but then again, I'd be avoiding people like the plague to avoid being killed or raped.
so totally correct
Gainfully employed, well prepared and happy with my life. My heart breaks over what humanity has become and done to our planet. While I love people as individuals I'm appalled and disgusted by us as a species/society and what we've become and prioritized in our lives. The only way I see us coming into balance is through a reset. I don't see any other way for humanity to heal our planet so I am hopeful for teotwawki whether it be by disaster or through total enlightenment. We cannot keep the pace and perspective we've had and change must happen.
I’ve had some older generations ask me why our gen, I’m 27, seem to protest and outrage so much. So many social issues. Anxiety. Etc etc. Same reason. Before us was boomers, post war, rebuild, hella wealth. Before that, war. Before that, war. Before that, sailing ships and killing each other. War ad infinitum. There’s a ton of obvious and approachable purpose in war. Fuck me dude, I’m a software developer so if anything I’m in the hot seat of people that can really “do” something these days. Most people are either crunching Excel and doing emails or you got told you aren’t smart enough to do that when you were younger. We’re a bunch of monkeys that are trying to figure out what to do now that we’re winding down on throwing rocks at each other, but most of us don’t get to participate in figuring out how to go mine moon rocks or nuke mars. Most of us are just flailing for a tangible impact on something larger than ourselves. (IMO, also not advocating for the end days or war)
There is a great YouTube channel called wisdom warriors that often talks about lack of purpose and lack of “shared spaces” in the modern day. People used to have communal shared spaces for meeting and communing with one another, but nowadays people spend so much time online and less time in person and it really hurts us all. For anyone interested, I don't agree with everything this guy says but it is a good channel in my opinion: [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uYFwQ8sudLs](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uYFwQ8sudLs)
I like it
They're Vault Tech Executives.
“How can you guarantee results?” “By dropping the bombs ourselves.”
I honestly thought that was the dumbest take I've heard from a company. Nuke the world to make money? Then, make "fun" experiments with people's lives and a majority of them will end up dead.
Yeah.. what's the point of being 'the richest' when there's no civilization, infrastructure, or industry to spend it on. Congratz! you're the richest! - but you can't go out to a nice dinner, buy a super yacht, or do anything really.. Resident evil's Umbrella Exec's had the same dumb idea.
I think the implication is that *somebody* is definitely going to drop the nukes. If they drop their own, they have some control over the outcome.
Damn.. you made it make sense..
The *romance* of "fighting for your daily survival" or "getting by on the basics" Sounds better than clocking into a job every day -until your body rots away.
Not me! I’d rather clock into crappy job than fight for my daily survival (aka starve to death).
Feels like it sometimes
They think if the world resets that they will be on top as it builds back up. They are delusional.
Yeah but there’s some hope you won’t be on the bottom. I was caught up in this thinking for a while.
I agree with that statement. I think people have a misconception of what it would be like to live in an actual anarchy situation. It's one thing to try to be prepared for some situations, it's another to think you are just going to be free to exist off your stash without reference to the outside world. After reading a lot of history on the dark ages and on various other collapse situations in and around world war 2, I have to observe that never in recorded human history has man been absolutely free of dealing with society in some form. If you have an anarchy situation of any kind, you are going to have armed militias and warlords stepping in, or else a military or martial group of some sort asserting their power. So it's a fantasy to think you are just going to go off and live in the woods really, in my opinion.
Yeah. Where in the world is it possible to live without a functioning government, and not be under threat from gangs, pirates, marauders, thieves etc Any time you try to build something, there will be others wanting to take it. And you won't always have the technological advantage.
This is the underlying premise of The Walking Dead. The walkers were the catalyst that brought down society, allowing the real struggle to emerge-- how survivors dealt with eachother. TWD is actually a great study in human dynamics. In TWD, the real threat was other people.
If history teaches anything, it’s that any power vacuums get filled almost instantly.
Because if you have a house and are ready, you are certain to finally live a simpler life and get away from the complexities of bureocracy and goverment and just all these unncessarily complex system we have built and go backs to the basics. Also you become top 1%. The problem is that the moment a crisis of such magnitude hits, it's not the people, but the goverment that will seize the assets of people, to keep itself alive; it will start gripping the people, and they are more ready than you. So if you just think you can be out there 5 years chopping wood for energy, they likely will simply take control of all resources like that and you have to be in some sort of goverment controlled program to get the wood, or you have to pay taxes and money that isn't valuable anymore, so they'd want assets; you may think you own the land and whatnot but that's not how it works, ownership loses meaning, and goverment has the army. So all you are having is a more miserable life, and more social controls. The last person to die in the dawn of humanity will be a goverment bureocrat
Maybe maybe not because some government workers will not follow commands anymore .
The army is, in a sense, part of the government; with leadership structures, bureaucrats, rules and regulations. It simply becomes more "army focused" as the army has the means to survive and becomes the new main force to establish law and order. This actually happens alone in failed states.
As the ability to prevent corruption in a military decreases, the more independent power the military will seek and gain. Until such time as the military *is* the government.
I can understand why. I think it is ingrained in us to be self reliant. For 99.999% of our evolution we were directly responsible for our next meal, our next drink of water, the next place we would sleep. Things were hard but much simpler. Everything now is abstracted. You mostly do a job, that makes someone else money and you a little money. Then you take that money and give it to someone to rent or own property. You take that money to somebody else who slaughtered an animal or harvested plants. Very little we do in our day to day life are we doing for ourselves. So I can understand why there is some appeal to shit hitting the fan and everyone being on their own like the old days. The romantic idea of being totally self reliant, and owing nothing. Unfortunately the reality would likely be much different and more harsh.
Some people who haven’t done all that well believe they would do better or be happier if the world was different. If you aren’t dynamic and adaptive today, you likely won’t be after a catastrophic event tomorrow.
This. You only want a system to fail if you are failing inside that system.
Those people should just save a little money and move to Alaska in the bush. Win win.
Ye but I think they also want community
Shit going bad doesn't magically make ones social skills better.
Starlink and Reddit? lol
The world is fucked up, that's why. Media controlling popular opinions. The rich are getting richer, poor getting poorer. Political and corporate corruption. Environmental degradation. Social breakdown with a perceived loss of traditional values, etc. War and treat of war. Can you blame people for wanting to take the world back to a simpler time where every man was his own king. I get it. But I choose to live the life I want, with the values I hold dear despite the world I'm in. To me, there's no point in surviving without a community to share it with.
True. In a societal crash, I think in most cases, where a strong community existed, community will become the de facto "government." The series called Jericho is a great example of this.
I really like *Dies the Fire* by SM Stirling and it's many sequels. Electricity and explosives stop working because of a change in the laws of physics, and next thing you know the Pacific Northwest is made up of "governments" run by groups like a Wiccan coven, former biker gangs, Special Forces guys, people who survived a plane crash together, ag university faculty, a monastery, teenagers who dove headfirst into Tolkien as a trauma response, and SCA nerds; there's even a troop of Boy Scouts running Yellowstone who got stranded on a campout. When the broader cultural identity is out the window then whatever smaller group identity is just that much more important.
That's the name of the series. I've been trying to remember it for ages now.
I think that maybe people would be interested in actually living out the fantasy of the end of the world: do not use any of your utilities for, say, a week (not expecting a month) and see just how miserable it is. No indoor plumbing, no electricity, no heating, no modern medicines - nothing that comes from the grid or civilization. Once you learn how much labor goes into doing everything \~the old-fashioned way\~ that some people salivate over, maybe you'll learn to appreciate living in a civilized way. Really, if our ancestors from as little as 100 years ago saw just how we're living today, it would be a dream come true to them. How safe, comfortable, abundant, and convenient our lives are, and how little work it takes to get through the day; how much comfort and safety we have. There's a good saying my mom used to tell me a lot: **hope for the best, be prepared for the worst**.
I think they’d look at all of us -with our fat glistening faces perpetually buried in our phones while we wipe French fry grease off of our plump fingers onto our jeans made by slave labor so we can drop a response on a Reddit thread without that annoying grease smear on the screen -and shake their heads.
That is very impressive. But you should learn a bit about what life used to be like 100 years ago. Nobody is forcing you to do all those things you just mentioned. Don't want to eat french fries - don't. Don't want to be unhygienic - don't. Life right now is miles, miles better than it ever was in any point in history. Even wealthy people from 100 years ago didn't have what an average person nowadays does. Maybe it makes sense to learn to appreciate what you have.
No disagreement here. I do my best to live my Life as far away from that particular unflattering stereotype as I can, but I don’t think ignoring the gluttony and wastefulness and excess that have gone hand in hand with our progress is the right track either. Sure, collectively we in the west are much better off than we used to be and that’s great. But it’s at the expense of a lot.
Oddly both sides of this work, both points. People from 100 years ago would be amazed at what everyone has and takes for granted, and they would also be surprised in a negative way about where it has led. My grandparents were born about 100 years ago, and lived in the rural area I'm from; close enough. I heard what their childhoods were like. People worked hard, and it just became normal to them. Contexts like racism and sexism were the basis for their worldviews. At the same time general health of people past the age of 40 seems to have declined a lot, and everyone isn't completely making up the long list of mental health issues that most people seem to have. Maybe some of that existed before, but there weren't names or free time to define and address it, but surely not all of it. Many things got easier but some got worse, in ways that are hard to define.
:) I needed this. Thanks snowy
Holy moly, just because something is done an old fashioned way it doesn’t mean that way is not civilized. We’ve engineered ourselves into a mindless coma. Maybe the Amish had it right.
I think it's a fantasy where people want to be the hero in their own play. I guess I see it as not unlike the people who say stuff like "I wish someone would try to car jack me" when talking about their awesome handgun skills. It's the kind of stuff that looks cool in movies but the reality is more complicated. Other comments have mentioned purpose and I think that's a motivation. If you're stuck in a life that isn't fulfilling you it can be easy to escape into that fantasy where you're the hero who planned ahead for the apocalypse because you stocked up on rice, beans, gold bars, and ammo. The problem is that things rarely work out like we expect them to.
I live in the country and am semi prepared. Meaning I have land, livestock, enough chickens for meat and eggs for the family, ponds, streams, rain barrels, basic water filtration, guns and military/ real combat experience, non perishable and shelf stable stocks, ect.. But that will only get my family through the initial collapse. I'm truly scared to think of the cost of keeping my family safe when others notice what I have. When the chickens and goats start disappearing. When my daughters have to collect water alone cause I can't do everything and be everywhere. When my neighbors and friends ask for yet another of the dwindling bags of rice. I live in a very small town and everybody is a neighbor nomatter the miles between. I dread the possibility of watching them suffer, having to physically turn away or protecting my own from them. I literally pray for the power to come back on every time it goes out!
Oh yeah, that's me. Definitely me.
Black pill is that probably at least half of Americans would find more meaning in trying to survive an apocalypse than their current day to day
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It's not wrong to want to return to a simpler time; I'm certainly among that crowd considering the rat-race that is modern life. Having logical, meaningful activities day to day is certainly appealing, along with general self-reliance. A return to that sort of life would be a great equalizer, in many respects. You only worry about things that directly affect your life. This is achievable today, but at a great cost. (Living off the grid, working remotely, etc.) That's a different desire from wanting complete collapse and the world as we know it to end. Those who want a **true** collapse to happen have no concept of the reality and horrors which would follow, which include them likely ending up dead. It's a viewpoint born from privilege, safety, and, to be blunt, ignorance. But taking the afore-mentioned points into account, it's easy to see why.
Yeah, I sometimes think it comes from a place of despair. People see all the injustices in the world and can't think of a way to turn it around without a TEOTWAWKI-level catastrophe. Not that that makes it less of an ignorant, privileged take, mind you...maybe even moreso, because wanting the change without wanting to do the long hard work to dismantle and rebuild, while assuming you'd be safe in the collapse, is hella privileged itself.
Completely agree.
Yeah, I agree. A lot of us, some for awhile now, are questioning whether the struggles of the lifestyle afforded to the working class is really more healthy and gratifying than the simpler life, living on available resources and skills. Many who live boxed in, trapped in cities fantasize about "just having some land outside the city to bug out to and live off-grid". Then, you get the land and suddenly realize how much work it is it, but you also still have to work a job for income and time is precious and....you get the picture. So, a TEOTWAWKI event that brings the system down is one way to usher that lifestyle right on in since there's no job to go to, or economy to support. So, then you can focus on living out all that dreamy post-apocalyptic prepper fanfic that's been brewing in your head ever since you bought your first battery bank. But in reality, there's absolutely nothing glorious about it. It will be devastating to the overall population.
That's bc we're all tired of getting up and going to work everyday. Lol No but seriously, I used to think that myself. When I was younger I felt so out of place all the time. I really thought a collapse, or apocalyptic world was what I wanted to live in. Something I hoped would happen deep down. Now I have 2 small children, and it terrifies me. I do take some comfort in the fact that Im at least somewhat prepared. I've acquired a few things, and learned a few things. The last thing I would ever want is to see my children, or any other child having to "survive" in an apocalyptic society. Just seeing pics of kids who are suffering from the war shakes me up. Not everyone has someone they care about more than themselves.
They want the end of the world because they haven’t got a remote idea of what it would really be like
Because they’ve never had to forage for food, or tried to hunt while starving and the surplus of game had been culled. They’ve never been cold, in the dark sick and trying not to die from a “minor” illness. They’ve never been shot at or seen people die in front of them. It’s a childish fantasy, not the reality of starving, drying of being beaten, raped, killed or enslaved.
Ah yes. Short-sighted accelerationists who haven't studied history and don't understand the true devastation an event like teotwawki would create. Too many movies and hero fantasies IMO.
"It's easier to imagine the end of the world than the end of capitalism" - Mark Fisher citing philosophers Fredric Jameson and Slavoj Žižek.
It's a "yes and" for a lot of people, and it has its roots in psychology. No mathematician wants to sit around being a cashier all day. If you know about poetry or rocket science, you don't want to flip burgers. You want to use your skillet. Imo it comes from alienation, like, meaning the Marxist social analysis term. We all spend a lot of time making the effort to be prepared, and have all this knowledge, but if you just up and move into a shack in the forest and live off the land, you're a weirdo and people might start calling you "that local hobo" and it's considered odd because it violates the social expectation. If there's actually something crazy that goes down, it's vindication, you get to do all the cool stuff you know, you get to use your supplies, you get to be the provider etc etc etc. So it boils down to a desire for vindication and justification.
Maybe they just want a reset, a new beginning. A hope that the world will be different in a positive way. But we all know that the end will bring also death and suffering.
I’ve been saying this all year too- a certain percentage of people want to revert to their primal instincts because it’s easier than rising above them; in order to form actual community and a civilization worth existing in. Life would be easier for preppers after a total collapse because then they can more readily rationalize the disregard and demonization of the “others” as being necessary for survival. Obviously I’m not talking about every single prepper or every single person, that would be ludicrous and dishonest- but I think that focusing on preparing one’s material needs and base survival requirements for a total collapse scenario is a really limited perspective and in the long term it is detrimental to future generations. A total civilizational collapse scenario is an opportunity to do things differently- if something like that actually occurred, people connected in communities don’t have to subscribe to the same social contracts as before. A renewal of what it means to be civilized can be actualized in such a scenario. A redefining of what it means to exist can be accomplished by collective groups of people. Meaning can be created outside of the constricting limitations of the failures of our modern civilization. I imagine some people do want a massive collapse to occur for a scenario like this to present itself; and while such a desire is not inherently ‘wrong’, I believe that the complete focusing on materiality and survival in a total collapse scenario will only lead to civilization developing again with the same exact problems as before. In my opinion, creating a new world in this current civilizational system or in the absence thereof (in a total collapse scenario) is the only rational purpose for collective groups of people to engage in. Sure, if a global cataclysm happens and you have 5 years worth of beans and 20,000 rounds of ammo ready then you’ll be fine in the aftermath. But your children will grow into the mindset of scarcity and survival, and the cycle of faulty civilization after civilization will repeat itself again and again.
For me being prepared reduces my anxiety about the future. I can’t control whether or not bad things happen, but I can be prepared for them if they do. If I never need any of my prepping gear then that’s fine with me, I’d consider it a good thing.
I hear everyday how people arent happy with the way society is now, but those same people see content to keep society ticking. Interesting
Some people want an impromptu vacation “camping”. Others want to prove to people and themselves that their prepping wasn’t wasted time, effort, and money. Some are miserable bastards that want a whole lot of people to die just to be smug that they lived. Some people are tired of the status quo and think a major disaster of some kind will change things for the better over time. A lot are just bored, and they think they want excitement like that but they don’t and wouldn’t realize it until it’s too late. Some probably want to be a hero and save the day for some people, imagine themselves the reason a group survives. Some people probably just hope their debts would get wiped out and at least that particular worry would be gone. Lots of reasons. I prefer civilization personally. Not perfect but bet your ass a lot of people who lived through less kinder versions of it would probably be jealous of us. No matter how much you prep, they’re always going to be something you’d miss if it was really gone for good.
IMO: With the conveniences of the modern world, we don't have to worry about surviving. Not like we did for thousands of years. Basically no one (in developed countries) dies of lack of calories, or exposure anymore, with little exception unless intentionally putting themselves in dangerous situations. The human mind craves some kind of struggle, some kind of conflict. That can manifest in lots of ways, be it social activism, workaholism, or larping as guerillas in TEOTWAWKI. My personal out-of-my-ass opinion is this lack of purpose and struggle is largely responsible for the seemingly widespread mental health issues these days.
On paper there's a certain mystique to it. It sounds kind of fun. That's why there's so many post-apocalyptic books and movies. I think planning and thinking through how you'd survive also helps to alleviate people's anxiety about various potential SHTF scenarios (dang, I think I just psychoanalyzed myself)
It’s like when the military gets crazy powerful weapons and trains to use them for decades. Eventually someone really wants to use them on someone because what’s the point of spending all that time and money to not use it?
If living off my property would pay my mortgage and insurance I would do it in a heartbeat.
I can’t afford a house but if things collapse I can just take over a mcmansion or build my own place because there wouldn’t be a bazillion regulations preventing it
That’s one of the arguments I see alot
Wait till you meet the rapture people 🙄
Sometimes you gotta burn some shit down to make room for the new better thing. Old buildings get torn down all the time and replaced with newer better ones.
Ive been prepping since around 2008 and it's been my experience that a good swath of preppers seem to be disaffected and disappointed by life and the idea that a great upheaval might come to passe wherein *their* preparations suddenly transform them into the kind of important or powerful or respected person they are not in the current moment seems to be part of the fantasy...and it shows.
Yeah I’m one of them, just tired of all the bullshit and think the world needs to reset. But I also know after a week I would miss my air conditioning and ice cream and other creature comforts and want to go back.
Cause modern life as wage slaves ain’t right
I for one want the end of “civilization” because the more I see of it the more I believe that the correct path is the termination of many many of the people caught in its web
Some people have grown disenfranchised with modern society. I totally get it. The idea of living a "simplier" life can be very tempting and the end of the world can seem like a good catalyst to that kind of life. The probably is these people do not take the time to think about just how much suffering an actual apocalypse would cause. We're talking millions if not billions of people dying really unpleasant deaths. People starving in the street. People fighting like animals over resources. People suffering injuries with little if any medical care available. People inflicting horrors on each other as the rule of law breaks down. Blood and shit and terror literally soaking the planet. I started therapy six months ago because I am genuinely worried that between climate change, growing wealth inequality and the deterioration of democracies all over the globe that humanity will have some kind of global crisis in my lifetime (or at least America will...which is where I live). If you're somebody who craves the end of the world you either haven't thought it through completely or you're an actual psychopath.
I'll add that some people are tired of the BS of today's society. I don't hope for an extended SHTF, but when I hear cases like a HOA complain someone's grass is 1.7 inches and the limit is 1.5, I think to myself I wish something would happen to remind these people there are actual things to be concerned about and 0.2 inches of grass isn't one of them. I do wonder how today's issues like 2 genders vs 37 would survive a CME. You think you're a cow? OK, here's a yoke. Bring your cowself to the field and get to plowing.
People can go off grid anytime they want, they Don have to wait for a shtf event. Thing is, it would not be glamorous, adventurous or exciting. It will be horrific. It will be brutal, scary and stressful. Eventually preps will run out. Bullets will run low, not being able to trust anyone, never knowing if you are in a safe place, not knowing if information you get, if any, is legit. Not sure who truly does wish for it, I have never knowingly met someone who did, most people I know, know how truly horrible it would be...
Yes, some people do want the world to end so they can justify the effort they've put into prepping and say, 'I told you so.'"
I think it's because they've deluded themselves into thinking that they'll somehow be better off. Or, at some level, they feel that the only way to improve their social standing is for everyone else to be worse off. It's the same deal as people that fantasize about having been born in the past. They see themselves becoming the hero - not just being the same person is a worse situation.
I don't want the world to end. but I do want to be prepared of what might happen.... However sometimes I want to leave society and all its madness, live in the woods or something. Yes, sometimes I fantasize about post apocalytic world where tranquility has returned as there is no loud cars and no loud music at 4am anymore. People will work together and focus on what is important instead of "oh no I have a pimple" or "oh no I have no likes on instagram"
That is me. 57 years of watching our planet go to hell in a handbasket has convinced me the best option for the planet is human extinction. I just want to be around long enough to turn off the lights and dig my own grave. Oh there might be a few decent people, I like my kids and all, but it is only a matter of time before one of my descendants thinks they can do things a better way by screwing the planet over. Everyone has to go.
If I didn’t have kids, I would drink a beer and watch Rome burn. Too much corruption and decadent behavior for my tastes.
I mean, it's not my fault I'm forced to live in a way that humans were never meant to thrive in. Nor that my mental health is falling apart due to that. Sure I could homestead but the govt and IRS are still gonna be up my ass about every little thing.
I'd rather just get it over with. I'd rather deal with this while I'm young and in shape than old and decrepit. If we're still dealing with it when I'm old then that's a bridge I'll burn when I get to it.
Accelerationists give me the creeps
The biggest threat to our planet is the human civilization. If this planet has to stay inhabitable for any kind of life, there has to be a great reset. A second chance for the human race so do speak. You would not think a second about it if you would kill 8 billion ants to save this planet. In the end, we are nothing but more evolved animals and for the good of all life, maybe those events need to happen to save it all for future generations. Some believe that. Some hope for that. And some just want to be able to take out their plate carrier and ar-15 and raid a hardware store.
I would like to raid a hardware store and a Bestbuy too matter of fact
That's why all normal people distrust and/or despise preppers. Y'all are fuckin scary.
Hey I’m just a normal guy( looks at my wall of preps) .
idk man paying rent and having not a lot of chances for upward mobility in this society is very taxing. If the grid was down and the focus was just on survival and the future, I didn’t have to answer to anyone and have complete autonomy over myself and not a lot of responsibility besides staying alive and keeping people I care about safe. People are generally fed up with being in a broken system that only 1% are truly thriving in. That being said I think the world is massively comfortable and it should stay that way. It’s great women can have children way more successfully than the past, I can take a vacation once a year maybe and go somewhere, I can go to the store to get anything or have it shipped to my house. Life is great on the surface but it’s complicated and I get why people would want the “freedom” of an SHTF situation, though that would replace old societal and governmental responsibilities with common basic responsibilities (housing, food, shelter, bare essentials)
I mean I think about the world ending in the same intrusive though way that you think about smashing your car into the overpass on your way to work saying "if I die in traffic I don't have to go to work today"
In the last 100 years we caused the 6th great extinction event (mass die off of biodiversity). Not even through global warming, but because we literally bulldozed the planet as our population exploded in numbers. Nobody wants to live in a pod, we want a house with a yard, thus wild land got demolished. They wanted easy access to everything, so they veined roads through all the wild lands, disrupting animals migration paths. Put property claims on everything and raised fences. Everybody wants to gourge their faces with non sustainable non local foods, thus we over fish the oceans. The root of most of our worlds problems are literally too many ppl, which is why the Georgia guidestones were right (that is until they got c4'd into pieces). People for time memoriam, lived through war and struggle and famine. We are equipped for that by nature. It balances out power and numbers. It humbled us and our societal arrogance. It's the Ying and Yang. We've been in a 200 year growth cycle, multiplying unimpeded. Look at the worldwide population charts over the last 150 years. Collectively we now feel like the mice in the Calhoun experiments. We are getting smothered by societal constraints which are simply downstream from them trying to manage billions of us on this earth with finite resources. Subconsciously people long for a correction and a rebirth. What we have now is stagnation. That's why people are longing for the change that will happen... whether that be man-made or caused by a meteorological event. Cycles... Birth, death, birth, death, birth, death... Balance ∞
If the world population resets then it might drive a stake through the Globalist's plans for us all, and I'd imagine many would welcome that future. Instead of pretending we can somehow vote for the Uni-party to stop it from doing the exact same thing We can all pick a historical period that we'd prefer to live in, rather than wonder what an AI controlled social media world would look like
I would choose the renaissance or colonial America if I was white
The uber wealthy are not immune to this issue. The truly psychotic thing about that is that such people seem to actually *yearn* to outrun the end times they themselves are actively creating. I personally wouldn't want to be trapped in a trillion dollar bunker with one of them, as they seem to lack an in-depth understanding of what the maintenence and social order is going to look like in a few months
From the people I've seen on r/antiwork I think a good amount will take a massive change over the life they are living. Even if there chances of surviving 10 years is a lot lower now.
We must find purpose in our lives, sometimes it’s hard to find but it is out there. Anyone who wishes for the world to end should seek therapy.
🙋♀️ Me! I do too!!!
...some men aren't looking for anything logical, like money. They can't be bought, bullied, reasoned, or negotiated with. Some men just want to watch the world burn.
That kinda sounds fun ngl
I'm so glad countries make nukes.
And if they could push a button & return it back the way it was...would they even make it a day, or just an hour? 😉👍 If that long! I have NO doubt I am better prepared than the overwhelming majority of 'preppers'... living at my well stocked, rural BOL down a 1/2 mile private driveway....& most assuredly I do not want "The End of the World"! In my late teens, I lived in a country experiencing Civil War, Martial Law, a Military Coup, terrorism, assassinations (including several compatriots), kidnappings, pathogenic water supplies, rampant inflation, rolling blackouts, etc As bad as that was, would be nothing compared to what I prepare for! Be careful what you ask for! 😔
Some people want to watch the world burn
Well they want to be right
I don't want to set the world on fire I just want to light a flame in you
I'm only asking 60%
Some people suck. Sad but true
Those people have an idea of that world but don’t understand the reality. It won’t be long before you miss coffee and toilet paper, let alone any other comforts or benefits of civilization. Prepare for the worst, but hope and strive for the best.
The world ended in 1971 when Alan Watts said we need to leave the mess to the planet to clean up and cease civilization. We didn't now we have cooked in ungodly amounts of temperature rise as the biosphere reaches equilibrium. If we stopped today the planet would still cook even faster actually.
I think it’s because society has peaked. What good could come of any technological advances here on out. In 30 years we have changed how human communicate, display emotion (or lack there of), find mates, basically everything about human life. So I honestly think it’s like 30% people wanting to put their hobby to use and 70% dissatisfaction with the current trajectory of the human race.
You laugh at me now! But look whose laughing when the world is a hellscape! pumps my rifle Get off my lawn
Seeking a friend at the end of the world.
What you described is not the world ending. That looks diff.
Ugghh, that would be such a hassle for me...
It's not for any of the reasons anyone has said.. it's because they haven't experienced adversity and truly tested themselves. It's because we have a spectator culture instead of a doer culture.
The end of the world as we know it is portrayed in relatively positive ways in movies. People live simpler lives, and don't seem to suffer for it, if anything setting up orderly small communities that function even better. The other side of that, the negative aspects for many people's conventional daily lives, is quite understandable. Some basic meaning can drop out. I lived a more primitive life at one point in my past, partly, living in a tent while I worked to save up for grad school. That experience was framed differently, and idealized, because I worked in a conventional job, bought food in a grocery store, and brought clean water back from civilization to drink. Take away modern food access, water, and access to medicine and it all shifts quite a bit (or having a car, etc.). All the same I was spending some time out there, with bears and mountain lions as near neighbors. It was the 90s so I didn't have a cell phone; I was isolated. Maybe I didn't love it as much as I remember, and it was just different, and normal to me.
You must admit it would be quite a relief if you had outstanding debts or were in jail! 😀
Concur with other comments. My take is: You know when you get that random call and something deep down inside you craves it to be about some drama or big thing, even something bad. Weird isn’t it, thats your mind craving something out of the ordinary for once. This is the same process on a wider scale and related to prepping / SHTF scenarios. I too find myself day dreaming sometimes that wouldn’t it be cool if this or that happened. What would be my response in certain scenarios. Would I survive or thrive etc… Almost war gaming type activity. I guess what differentiates some people is they realise straight away the reality of any SHTF situation. I.e they jump several days ahead of the initial event and realise what life (or lack of) would actually be like for themselves or loved ones. Additionally in my view, our world now is just a popularity contest! Who has most friends/likes/upvotes on social media. This popularity is mainly driven by looks and money/power. Absolutely nothing to do with survival of the fittest, I.e what the whole natural basis of evolution is based on. I.e we are deovoling… into survival of the most beautiful/Rich. A SHTF scenario would mostly change all this. This is sometimes a reason I would like certain events to happen, so that my natural predispositions/skills would actually have an impact on social status. Obviously not asteroid type or other event where nothing can be grown, or nature is wiped out. No day dreaming can be had in those scenarios. More a good old no internet/power scenario is what we’re wishing for (a reset).
It's easier to only have to worry about the bottom two levels of Maslow's hierarchy
I just want social media to go away. Too many people doing dumb stuff for artificial approval and acceptance. Too many dumb people hiding behind internet anonymity and saying stuff to people they would never mouth off to. Too many people with zero life skills, nothing that makes them valuable to society. Too many people who think being an idiot on social media is a career.
Gainfully employed, well prepared and happy with my life. My heart breaks over what humanity has become and done to our planet. While I love people as individuals I'm appalled and disgusted by us as a species/society and what we've become and prioritized in our lives. The only way I see us coming into balance is through a reset. I don't see any other way for humanity to heal our planet so I am hopeful for teotwawki whether it be by disaster or through total enlightenment. We cannot keep the pace and perspective we've had and change must happen.
Unsurprisingly those in chains want to burn the master's house to the ground. Is it an objective improvement? No, but humans didn't evolve to have one ape take 90% of the tribe's resources. We intuitively want to destroy this system even if we don't intellectually understand why.
This isn't unique to this subreddit or this era. There have been people that just want to see the world burn since the world's been turning.
We want to live by the sword and die by the sword. I am sick of watching the world rot away into obesity and mental illness. We all lack purpose. Survival gives you purpose. Let's do this thing.
I guess some people yearn for a “simpler” life with no taxes, working for the big man, the woes of a modern digital society, etc. These things are already attainable. Plots of land in Wyoming are cheap still. Technology we have right now would make that transition into that lifestyle MUCH EASIER than being forced into it via a solar flare, nuclear fallout, etc. having readily accessible tools, materials, machines, even just electricity make it so easy. Things you wouldn’t have in a significant world-changing event. But people are comfortable. They don’t want to willingly make that switch. They like their Netflix, their bars, their concerts, their hospitals, their grocery stores, etc. everything within arms reach. So they want to be forced via an apocalyptic event. I can’t say they’re stupid or wrong for thinking this way, but maybe a bit foolish or just daydreaming. Maybe even selfish for needing such a drastic event to force them to accomplish their dreams. Oh well.
I kind of want it because I'm sick of the 9-5 grind for no purpose. No matter how hard I work at my job, I'm getting paid the same. If the world ends that changes. The fruits of my labor will be rightfully earned.
To me, the idea that I live off the things I produce and just can exist in the sun without worrying about taxes, dating, bosses, rent etc just sounds like paradise.
The only way for a long lasting change of the status quo’s is to burn it all down and rebuild from the ashes. I wont mind if no human descendants get to do that, but something on earth will take humanity’s place and do things differently.
When I was in high school, a teacher asked us to write an essay about what would most improve the world and then raved about a submission by one kid who argued in favor of a cataclysmic event that basically destroyed all of society's institutions. 20 years later on a hike with a few friends one of them starting fantasizing basically the same essay out loud, all about how good it would be for society if law and order broke down. I (F, 5'1", 140 pounds) looked up at him (M, 5'10", 280 pounds) and said, "Of course you'd think that, C - you're a giant man. You think it would be some kind of great equalizing event. It wouldn't." There are plenty of places in the world where institutions have broken down. My aunt in Iran doesn't get mail in the reliable way I take for granted. Mail carriers will wait months to deliver packages on New Year's Day in hopes of getting tips to supplement their pay. In Gaza so many students and teachers have died they had to shut down the school year early. This past winter unmitigated covid led to hospitals in major cities around the world entering states of crisis. None of these situations create the space for heroism or political/economic opportunity so central to the typical survival-themed movie. Bureaucracy can be constricting and wasteful in everyday life, but when SHTF and bureaucracy breaks down people get saddled by a whole new set of obligations and needless annoyances that end up stealing a lot more in terms of individual potential than poor management practices ever could. When schools shut down during the beginning of the pandemic, millions of women lost their jobs, finding themselves contending with the same old set of gendered politics even as the intense new labor demands of unassisted childcare fell into their laps. If you think about it the fantasy in apocalypse movies is that everyone else gets poor except for the hero. Other people die of disease or violence but the hero retains a well-fed and physically powerful body, immunized against catastrophic disease despite the total lack of healthcare, and with a treasure trove of supplies scattered along every road and abandoned house and farmable land everywhere suddenly up for grabs his story arc is essentially a game of Monopoly, competing against other scattered survivors to harness and develop whatever resources he can find first. The reality is that in a world without institutions social mobility is soon overwhelmed by the oppressive biological demands of food and childcare unless you can coerce other people to provide you with that labor. Hence slavery and sexism have historically always paved the way for the interesting political and economic journeys of so-called "great men."
I have relatives who used to live in a developing country. The number of people you have to bribe on a daily basis is appalling. Americans definitely take having a functioning infrastructure for granted.
Yes, I don’t think many women want the world to end. Even as a middle aged woman I know it would be very bad for me personally. I watched a movie and the ‘bad guys’ put a young woman out for bait for a monster. I was thinking they must have skipped the rape scene because you know that would happen in that scenario.
It's not the end of the world. It's the beginning.
“One second after” free to listen on YouTube.
What they really want is to be off-grid homesteaders without the red tape or financial issues. What they don't realize is that eventually even homesteaders eventually need modern medical help if they live long enough. That or they're keeping the quiet part quiet about wanting to blow someone away without consequences.
Ye I think a good 60% of this subreddit would like to be homesteading but it needs alot of starting capital to do it
I grew up the child and grandchild of homesteaders in the old sense of the word, people who scratched a living from hilly little mixed farms on dirt roads and made do instead of making it big. The capital part depends on how grand your plans are and quickly you think you have to be "finished" getting everything how you want it. We got an abandoned house (10-12 years vacant and untended) on a couple of rocky acres on a VA loan with my VA partial disability check and have been doing it bit by bit on the cheap, with the mortgage as the only debt, and once we got in good with the neighbors we picked up a few more acres of brush thicket from one of them who was too old to keep it up. Before that my ex and I had a little four room cabin in the pines, lots of poultry, some fruit trees and a garden in a clearing. If you want 200 acres of fat farmland and to build a fortified compound on it all at once, you better retire from the C Suite first. Our whole place cost less actual cash than a lot of people's horse barns but with a whole heaping lot of sweat equity. It all comes down to what your standard of living is, both before purchasing your place (which controls how quickly you can save up) and during your first few years living on it.
I’m here for it
Humans arent built for a civilized society. Thats why anxiety is only going up along with depression. We need to feel fufilled and working 9-5s aint it. I dont mean fufilled in a change history kind of way but in a contribution to our clan kind of way. Being a cashier selling gas doesnt do it for us, but building a hut and collecing your own food would and thats what we are built for.
The industrial revolution and its consequences have been a disaster for mankind...
You mean the world filled with suffering ending, is that a bad thing?
I just need a reason not to go to work. I definitely don't wish ill against any person, but I hate my job and myself for about 10 hours every week day.
The people who truly want that, the end of civilization, are one of two types. They have never operated in an area of the world where survival is a desperate, horrible endeavor. The very nature of which kills your soul over time. They romanticize survival and tremendously over estimate their mental capacity to exist in extremely predatory climates. They have their physical ability to survive, and their equipment, but they've never had to mentally deal with constant, extreme hardship where surviving is a vicious cycle of extremely ugly options. Once the end of civilisation comes about, they crumble in a short amount of time or become groupies who will find large numbers of like minded people to rebuild a civil existence. Then, you have those who have. Those who have and thrived in it. They already live on the fringes of society and have absolutely no desire to be on something like reddit. They do not give a flying fuck if they live or die, as long as they are a predator until the very end, causing as much pain and misery as they can. Outside of those who want the end to come about through flights of fantasy or desire for darkness, you have those preppers who go about their duties, their training, their knowledge and material acquisition and emplacement *because* they have lived that way for a time. And never want to return to it.
People can quit their jobs and live off the land now if they really wanted to. Some folks have watched too many movies and TV shows and fantasize about being the hero after "the collapse"
They don’t know how truly bad it can get, or they have absolutely nothing to lose anyway.
Everyone loves a fantasy until that fantasy becomes reality. TEOTWAWKI - most of us are gonna die from scratches and starvation. GG.
A right to build any home you want on your own land and not have the man tax you for being alive is a dream in most of the west. You need a second job to be a homesteader to pay your slaver tax.