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I mean, not to be morbid, it's hard for me to imagine doing anything but the "easy way out" (suicide of some form) if society does collapse in my lifetime. My

I mean, not to be morbid, it's hard for me to imagine doing anything but the "easy way out" (suicide of some form) if society does collapse in my lifetime. My thoughts are based on two points: (1) Much of the richness of my life comes from the comforts of modern society. In a world where all that is ripped away it's hard to imagine having a ton of will to go on. Family would maybe be enough, but I live hundreds of miles away, so it's unlikely I would ever be able to contact them. (2) Anything I can do to prepare tautologically increases my value to raiders/anyone able to use violence on me, and often increases my visibility. If I save and grow seeds, I will have a valuable cache of calories. If I stockpile weapons, I will have a valuable cache of weapons.

hotpotamus 3y ago
You'd think the billionaires building their survival bunkers in New Zealand might realize this as well and work a bit harder to prevent the apocalypse, but it doesn't seem to occur to them that at some point their money might not save them.
- tuatoru 3y ago
  Come the apocalypse, unless those billionaires can each go into the bush by themselves with just a knife, and come back with a dressed deer carcase, their security teams are likely to deem them dead weight and kick them out of the bunkers. (New Zealanders don't do "respect for authority"; they do "respect for demonstrated ability".)
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riidom 3y ago
Gain knowledge, not goods. This way you are the valuable good and people need you alive due to your knowledge.
falcolas 3y ago
It's funny, Hank Green expressed a very similar attitude at the question of "What would you do in the Zombie Apocalypse?" (which quietly is "What will you do during the collapse of modern society?). His answer was "I'm going to embrace my destiny and run towards the Zombies. There's no way I want to live in a world that's 80% Zombies and 20% Survivalists." Replace with 80% struggling-to-survive-poor and 20% sociopaths-with-weapons... and yeah. Pessimism is not the wrong answer IMO. EDIT: A pre-emptive statement: if you're a survivalist in the collapse of modern society, you have to be (or become) a sociopath. Caring too much about your peers will get you betrayed and killed once the easy supplies are gone.

hotpotamus 3y ago

You'd think the billionaires building their survival bunkers in New Zealand might realize this as well and work a bit harder to prevent the apocalypse, but it doesn't seem to occur to them that at some point their money might not save them.

tuatoru 3y ago
Come the apocalypse, unless those billionaires can each go into the bush by themselves with just a knife, and come back with a dressed deer carcase, their security teams are likely to deem them dead weight and kick them out of the bunkers. (New Zealanders don't do "respect for authority"; they do "respect for demonstrated ability".)

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riidom 3y ago

Gain knowledge, not goods. This way you are the valuable good and people need you alive due to your knowledge.

falcolas 3y ago

It's funny, Hank Green expressed a very similar attitude at the question of "What would you do in the Zombie Apocalypse?" (which quietly is "What will you do during the collapse of modern society?). His answer was "I'm going to embrace my destiny and run towards the Zombies. There's no way I want to live in a world that's 80% Zombies and 20% Survivalists." Replace with 80% struggling-to-survive-poor and 20% sociopaths-with-weapons... and yeah. Pessimism is not the wrong answer IMO. EDIT: A pre-emptive statement: if you're a survivalist in the collapse of modern society, you have to be (or become) a sociopath. Caring too much about your peers will get you betrayed and killed once the easy supplies are gone.