Looking forward to the Apocalypse?

Well, I think the 'apocalypse fantasy' is a grossly under-studied phenomenon. I think many people in one form or another, especially young men, fantasize of living in a world where they can be a super-hero, a la Mad Max or some other movie character.

I think it's a more basic desire to know that you are in control of your destiny, and everything you do actually matters and makes a difference. Which is rather lacking in most modern societies. There's a particular form of satisfaction in building and destroying things that nearly all men crave.
 
And besides, even if our economy or form of government collapse, it won't be the dark ages. Things will be all out of whack and suck for a while, but not like all the knowledge and tools we have as a society will disappear. We'll just have to find a different way to make things happen. People crave stability and safety. The illusion of it is what allows them to be ruled. I know if my neighborhood/town was out of power for a while, I'd go around and figure out a way to get power back. We've got a hydroelectric dam in the town, and I'm guessing there's enough electricians and engineers around to figure out a way to make our town it's own grid. I know there's enough tools and workers around. People band together and make things work. It starts at the family, then the neighborhood, then the town, all the way up to a nation. All of humanity is just getting by right now in a SHTF scenario. That's all this is.
 
Well the title of the thread was "Looking forward to the Apocalypse?" so I assumed we were talking about something a la "The Road" not minor civil unrest or slow financial collapse... rather a cataclysmic event like is portrayed in a lot of movies.

With regard to "All of humanity is getting by right now in a SHTF scenario" most of humanity is doing just that... BARELY getting by. The way we live in this country isn't sustainable globally. If you ever have done one of those how many Earths would be needed to sustain a population of everyone like you it's pretty eye opening. Also traveling to shit-hole countries is eye opening as well.

Mike
 
Well the title of the thread was "Looking forward to the Apocalypse?" so I assumed we were talking about something a la "The Road" not minor civil unrest or slow financial collapse... rather a cataclysmic event like is portrayed in a lot of movies.

With regard to "All of humanity is getting by right now in a SHTF scenario" most of humanity is doing just that... BARELY getting by. The way we live in this country isn't sustainable globally. If you ever have done one of those how many Earths would be needed to sustain a population of everyone like you it's pretty eye opening. Also traveling to shit-hole countries is eye opening as well.

Mike

I know what you're talking about and we've likely seen some of the same places. Baghdad is fairly modern, but there were some places in the boonies where the people's homes looked like something from hundreds of years ago.
 
I know what you're talking about and we've likely seen some of the same places. Baghdad is fairly modern, but there were some places in the boonies where the people's homes looked like something from hundreds of years ago.

You should see the disparity in Africa just between the cities and the suburbs, nevermind the countryside. And I've only been to west Africa. Well, I drove through Egypt on a boat. Not sure if that counts.
 
You should see the disparity in Africa just between the cities and the suburbs, nevermind the countryside. And I've only been to west Africa. Well, I drove through Egypt on a boat. Not sure if that counts.

I spend half of the summer of '85 in Egypt. Yeah, it's pretty primitive in some places.
 
I know what you're talking about and we've likely seen some of the same places. Baghdad is fairly modern, but there were some places in the boonies where the people's homes looked like something from hundreds of years ago.

Heck just drive a couple of miles inland on Maui, where the locals live, and you see shacks that are little more than huts with corrugated sheet metal roofs and walls. The economic disparity/subsistence living in Hawaii is breathtaking when you look at the multi-million dollar condos and resorts on the ocean versus the places where the locals who work there live.
 
No. I am not looking forward to Bad Times. But I am getting as ready as I can without getting self destructive.

And there a whole lot of types of people who are going to be really really effed ( compared to any of us who did some prep work for it ) - and I doubt I'll much pity for them.

I don't want to be a Mogadishu warload. I want to be what I am right now : as self reliant as possible and prepared to take care of my friends and family , as they are to protect me.

... well , if some one needs me to be warlord for a while ... maybe.
 
I didn't say it would be fun. I said it is inevitable.

Now. A hundred, a thousand or ten thousand years from now - sooner or later it WILL come crashing down, one way or another.

I agree. What I find really interesting at the moment is that there are so many different sources talking about how the path we are on cannot be sustained:

The tree/whale-huggers keep saying that the planet cannot sustain a) the current level of development, b) the current level of resource exhaustion, and c) the current level of population growth.

The economists say that we cannot sustain the current level of a) government spending, b) entitlement programs, and c) consumption if you factor US living standards into a China growth equation.

The government says all of the above, but completely lacks the willingness, or, I believe, the ability to really do anything about it without massive civil unrest.

So I think that your conclusion makes sense. The funny thing is how anybody who acknowledges this directly and tries to prepare for it is demonized, as if we're all supposed to ignore the facts that are right before our eyes.

Just by way of one example, I was reading something a CPU of weeks ago that was talking about how many experts beefed that the planet cannot sustain another thirty years of humans doing what we are doing, and particularly so given that China is bringing something like one new coal plant online every week. And they say that there doesn't seem to be a likelihood that any nations would be wiling to sacrifice their own wealth and consumption for the common good of others. But they don't draw conclusions with respect to what will happen in thirty years, how we should prepare for what they say is inevitable, etc.
 
Usmc1345, welcome to the forum, saw you just went green - congratulations ! The question isn't how many gangs there will be, but how many friends or compadre's or family or whatever you can trust / rely on when shit goes bad. And are they ready?
 
I think I have a decent, not great plan with a group of friends and family that will work out. But as said by others it is going to suck no matter how good you are. At only 30 My wife has a disease that is incurable and depends on medication. We have looked into stock pilling medication and it and it is near impossible. I do think ahead and have a plan but I am not looking forward to anything. I have two little ones to worry about so I don't have an option to not plan ahead.

- - - Updated - - -

And thanks for the welcome!! I love this place already.
 
At only 30 My wife has a disease that is incurable and depends on medication. We have looked into stock pilling medication and it and it is near impossible.

Yes, this is a real problem for anyone on daily medication. The current system effectively prevents storing more than a couple of months worth of mess, even if cost is not a factor. About the only way to do it is tell them you're gong to Africa for six months or something like that and hope your doctor will write the scrip. Even then, CVS or wherever may not fill it.

Too bad the pet store doesn't carry statins for fish.
 
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