You gotta wonder what's wrong with our society...

[mousme]

You have wonder what's wrong with our society when so many people envision a brutal apocalypse as the only solution to our troubles. After Armaggedon, people seem to believe, we're going to settle into some sort of agrarian utopia (after we shoot all the zombies starving looters/suburbanites, that is) and live happily ever after in a world without yuppies, SUVs, or water shortages.

Have things become so bleak that we can't envision things getting any better without most of the world dying off?

Comments

[mousme.livejournal.com]

But why do some view it as desirable, is my point? Also, why do they think it'll solve our problems in any tangible way?

In other news, if TSHTF, I'm very likely toast. Totally zombie fodder.

[bodhifox.livejournal.com]

Desireable? Because they're convinced they'll come out of it on top.

Best way to keep from being z/f is not trying to go it alone. Interdependence is key, whether you're in a city or the country, whether you're talking TEOTWAWKI, an economic downturn or civil war. That's why I put so much into the Tribe Building and connections. I'm pretty sure I could eke by on my own, but I've got Princelings.

[fearsclave.livejournal.com]

But why do some view it as desirable, is my point?

Because black humour is a coping mechanism? Both for actual life stresses and the gloomy prospect of a collapse?

[bodhifox.livejournal.com]

Because it would be hella convenient. Some days, I wish the holy rollers were right and the Rapture would come take them away. I'd have my pick of cars, at least, and I could hang out with the Buddhists.

[mousme.livejournal.com]

I dunno. Are there that many of the Righteous that the Rapture would actually solve our population crisis? :P

[bodhifox.livejournal.com]

Here in Jesusland it would, judging by the Come The Rapture This Car Will Be Unmanned type stickers.

I want this one:
http://www.northernsun.com/n/s/5830.html

[mousme.livejournal.com]

I hope so. I just see so many people who seem to seriously want it (present company excluded) and who aren't being tongue-in-cheek that it depresses me. :/

[fearsclave.livejournal.com]

Well, I think that we're both suffering from a bit of selection error here, travelling in the circles that we do (and if you're worried, you should take a list at some of the feeds I'm reading).

What's more depressing? The fact that almost everybody else is either blitheringly clueless or dismissive of All This.

[mousme.livejournal.com]

Actually, I have been reading quite a number of the same feeds. I'm getting quite fond of Crunchy Chicken, among others, and Casaubon Blog, and a bunch of others. :)

What's more depressing? The fact that almost everybody else is either blitheringly clueless or dismissive of All This.

Or equally as depressing is that there are very few who seem to be able to walk the middle path. Maybe if there were more of those, we wouldn't be in this pickle. :P

I've been on a new MacGyver kick lately (I got over the abomination that was the Season 5 premiere and started watching again), and everything we're talking about now was on that show fifteen to twenty years ago: conservation, pollution, peak oil (in a disguised version of itself). The fact that nothing has changed in twenty years is truly depressing.

[fearsclave.livejournal.com]

Sharon and Crunchy are a lot of fun, and Sharon provides a sane-ish counterpoint to Rawles. I've been following along with Sharon's Apocalypse Book Club thing; skipped Moon is a Harsh Mistress because my tolerance for Heinlein has diminished over the years, but Lucifer's Hammer? What fun; I wish that somebody would do a movie version of it in all its full-on seventies period glory... I mean, this thing was written when pocket calculators and digital watches were still high-tech. It'd be hilarious.

She's right, of course, that it's rather sexist and racist and not exactly well-written, but wow; Niven going all big-picture and sciency makes for fun reads, and you can see how it influenced the rightwing survivalist loons (or maybe vice versa). Or maybe it's just both Niven/Pournelle and the loons following the same line of reasoning to the same logical conclusions.

Crunchy? Well, I'm not quite sure that she gets it yet. We shall see.

So there's more to MacGyver than just a new Swiss Army knife-based stunt of the week? Wow. Who'da thunk :)?

You should probably do a post on that middle path notion of yours...

[mousme.livejournal.com]

Oh, dude, Moon is a Harsh Mistress is not only made of win, but has exactly the kind of characters you would relate to. I highly recommend it for you. Haven't read any other Heinlein, but thoroughly enjoyed that one. :D

Crunchy seems to have more immediate problems on her hands (husband has cancer, I believe), so I can understand that she might not "get it" yet. :)

[fearsclave.livejournal.com]

Heinlein characters that I'd relate to? Shoot me now, please :). I burned out on Heinlein a while back; he just plain annoys me now.

[ai731.livejournal.com]

Moon is a Harsh Mistress is *the* *only* Heinlein I've ever managed to read. I like it a lot and I've read it more than once. Every other Heinlein I've ever tried to read has made me want to throw it across the room. Hard.

[fearsclave.livejournal.com]

I used to like Heinlein. Then I stopped being an adolescent boy.