Thinking through the fall (Ran Prieur)

[Dogmudgeon]

A very depressing little blog page with some excellent observations on the possibility of social breakdown.

I expect the catastrophes to come in waves, a little one here, a bigger one there, teasing us and licking at our feet, until we're in them. The USA has more money, water, and good land than most places, so we won't be worst off, but we've been living so high that we might fall the hardest. Some time when you're on a busy street, in line at the post office, on the bus, look around. Get used to the idea that most of these people will not live a lot longer. Who among them would survive if the food stopped coming into the city for a month? A year? How many would survive as refugees, walking hundreds of miles in weeks? Who would lose the will to live before learning to eat rats and drink from puddles? In the worst epidemics 90% die and 10% live. Which group will that person be in? That one? You?

http://ranprieur.pitas.com/022102.html

I hope he's wrong. But if he isn't, this essay is going to be mandatory reading.

--bkl

[bemildred]

1. Nice piece, thanks for putting it up. nt

[phantom power]

2. The Manhattan Phone Book (Abridged)

John Varley once wrote a short story about the delusions we all entertain about being the one to survive an apocalypse. You can even read it here. (go ahead! It's very, very short.)

http://members.shaw.ca/varley/Pages/Manhattan.htm

[Boomer]

3. I've been playing that "game" for several years now

Every time I watch the neighborhood children at play, I wonder how many of them will make it to my age (50). As I walk through malls or drive through town, I wonder how many people have more than a week's worth of food in their house and how many of them are even aware of the dangers looming over us all, creeping closer every year.

I work in an office of well-paid, highly educated, computer-literate employees. Yet my occasional allusions to global warming or climate change don't connect. Every time we hold another baby shower I wonder if my co-workers have any idea of the kind of hell their children are likely to face within a few decades.

My partner and I have made modest emergency plans -- 6 months of stored food in the pantry and as much of a vegetable garden as our small back yard will accommodate. But we've already agreed that we're too old to fight for survival in a Mad Max world, and since we don't have children we can't really claim any overwhelming motivation to hang around if things get really grim within our lifetime.

When I'm feeling especially optimistic, I entertain notions of making it to age 70 or so before my corner of the world crumbles; most of the time, however, I just accept that I've had a good life and from now on every added year is a bonus.