End of the World Musings
As we approach the very darkest time of year, it is always a pleasant exercise to contemplate the various ways the world might end.
Last night, Kiki and I watched one of the most terrifying end-of-the-world movies that we've seen in a long, long time: Leave the World Behind. It's described as a "psychological thriller." It describes the plight of two families thrown together into one country house, trying to figure out what has happened to cut off all communications with the outside world, and what is going on. There's no phone service, no internet, an oil tanker crashes ashore, planes are plummeting from the sky, Teslas are driving themselves into a pile of rubble on an expressway outside of the usual day to day horror-scape that is New York City. Meanwhile, these folks are relatively untouched, but horrible things are starting to happen. A huge herd of deer stare at them. Flamingos land in their New York pool. A hideous high-pitched screaming sound breaks windows from time to time. One of the characters teeth start to fall out. Eventually, you get the idea that something really, really bad is happening. Very likely a war, confirmed when the characters look at NYC getting bombed. It's all very, very tense and you get the feeling that, should anything like this ever happen - it's left up in the air exactly what is happening in this case - the Russians, Iran, North Korea, China. You're never sure exactly. But the tactic - cutting off communications, sowing confusion, and then letting the unstable society take care of itself as people turn on each other like rats - is explained.
It's the sort of movie that really makes you want to review your preps, and quickly convinces you that you need to do more.
Much like the other Big Ones that changed my perspective and took away any sense that anyone really knows what is happening in the world and, frankly, any sense of final security, that things will somehow work out for the best in the end. This has been replaced by a profound certainty that it is not "going to be O.K." ever.
Trump being elected - a halfwit bloviating criminal liar dictator Wanna-Be - immediately filled me with the idea that it could definitely happen here exactly like it did in Germany in the 1930's. That despite our grandparents fighting a world war to stop fascism, we've got plenty of the bastards here at home. "Moms for Liberty" (obviously women who have no idea what that word means). Abortion bans inflicted by the Christian Taliban. In 2023. The list goes on...Cruel, insane bullies and liars in their hordes, fueled by the mob-mentality spewing from their smartphones every minute.
And then there was a pair of books, One Second After, and The Mandibles describing the aftermath of an electromagnetic pulse attack and a new depression. Those confirmed that all is not well.
Add to that the daily stories of climate collapse, which is definitely happening right now and is mostly likely going to take the worst-case scenario route, given that the governments of the world are a pack of incompetents and liars with exactly zero control over the fundamental cause: human greed. Put all of that together, and you have conditions that are ripe to breed a fledgling prepper.
And then the pandemic came. This was the final nail in the coffin of any sense of ultimate security. When you are in the middle of a global crisis - something that has never, ever happened before - there's a sense of being in times that will be written down (supposing anybody survives with the brains to write) someday in history books. If there's one thing I know for sure, it is that wherever events are taking place that make it into history books, those are the places I want to be farthest from. I want to live out my nice little life, and basically be left alone.
Enter Leave the World Behind. Ye gods. It goes right up there with Don't Look Up and those books above as one of the most frightening glimpses of a very possible future.
As I say, this is the sort of thing that leads a person to look at their preps. Do we have enough water? We probably have about a month, and then we have water filters. Do we have enough food? Well, we have about a year's worth - if we rationed it. We could supplement it with the garden, and we have an emergency stash of seeds. Have we got iodide pills for radiation? Yes, but I need to check the expiration dates. Extra prescriptions meds? Yes...but those run out rather quickly. Ideally, the end of the world will happen right after picking up a 90-day supply. But that's not that long. Warmth? Right now, yes. We could make it through the winter without the power grid. But we'd have to come up with another 4 cords before next winter. Not too likely we'd be able to get two dump trucks, cut and split, dropped on our front lawn. And there's always the threat of the violent, weak-minded people who need the threat of authority (either real [cops, governments] or imagined [the transcendental authority of their so-called gods]) to keep them in line.
Kiki brings up the lack of trust in the world we have now as a major issue. We saw a comedian recently who talked about "having company" and how that has changed, in our lifetimes, to a world where if you hear a knock at the door you immediately go to "threat." It's why we keep a baseball bat under our couch and a can of bear spray in the front closet.
Unfortunately, this isn't just paranoia. It's confirmed when you can't safely walk around, say, the University campus at night. Or even in broad daylight. Where a good friend's teenager was robbed of his cell phone and wallet while he was just walking home from school with a friend. Where if you leave a bicycle of any worth anywhere there's a pretty good chance you're going to come back to a broken U-lock.
Our lack of freedom can be measured by the size of our keychains.
There are grifters on every side. If it isn't the street criminals who will bash in the window of your car while it's parked near a hiking trail in what used to be a nice part of St Paul (this was last weekend. Fortunately, it was strangers, but it could just as easily have been my car), or a vandalized gas tank (my kid's, outside a Planned Parenthood), or the filth stealing catalytic converters, then it's the criminals in suits.
These are the ones who can really steal lives. Cue the Minnesota Department of Revenue, coming after my dad's estate (me) demanding that I produce a tax return that belonged to him from four years ago. Cue the filth at Ameriprise who would not give up the money in the estate - who sandbagged my brothers and me getting our money for five months with a combination of incompetence and incomprehensible forms.
Being under constant siege like this sucks the joy out of life. I'm not too demanding. I don't think that the "pursuit of happiness" is a good goal. I prefer the "pursuit of O.K." Today is O.K. That's all I ask for. I don't want to be attacked, afraid, abused in intelligence and life. I'd like to be able to go to a doctor without fear of being bankrupted. It would be nice if they knew what they were doing, and weren't beholden to some ugly company that makes money off of the sick.
In any case, it seems that the same conclusion keeps coming up. Worry about the things you can control and do what you can. Recycle. Get some solar panels. Garden. Try not to fly in planes. Get an economy car (even in a world of gas-guzzling behemoths). Try to eek out some time in nature before it all burns. Do not have children if you know what's good for them.
I do want any memorial of me to include the words, "I told them so." But I don't expect anyone to be around to read it.
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