The banality of apocalypse
Mar. 10th, 2025 07:56 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
mousme With apologies to Hannah Arendt.
We were all sold a bill of goods by the apocalyptic and post-apocalyptic stories we were fed, I think. We were promised zombies, Mad Max-style races in the desert, roving bands of cannibals, tiny stalwart groups of humans scrabbling to survive in a harsh landscape made unrecognizable by the sudden and complete collapse of society as we know it. And then that scrappy little group of survivors gets to rebuild human civilization in a new world with a bright new future stretching ahead of them.
Of course, none of that is true of collapse. Collapse is long and slow and messy, and it mostly doesn't feel like collapse. I wonder if our current collapse feels similar to us as the collapse of previous empires did to the people living in those times, if they were constantly torn between worrying about the larger picture but also worrying about how to keep themselves and their families clothed and fed and sheltered.
No one told me that I'd have to pay rent during the end times, you know?
It's not all doom and gloom, of course. I am enjoying my job, even though it's maybe not at the top of the list of things I'd like to do with my time. I'm focusing more on my health this year so that I hopefully won't be super unhealthy when facing the collapse of some vital parts of society. I'm still planning a vegetable garden, and KK and I are steadily moving towards buying canadian products rather than US ones. It's a slow conversion (so many US products that we never even think about!).
I'm once again falling asleep over my keyboard, even though I was asleep by 9pm last night and got nearly 9 hours of sleep. It's honestly ridiculous how tired I am for no good reason. I'm working the early shift tomorrow, so I'd better get to bed and attempt more sleep. Here's hoping I will be less tired tomorrow. Only four more days until my sleep test, yay!
We were all sold a bill of goods by the apocalyptic and post-apocalyptic stories we were fed, I think. We were promised zombies, Mad Max-style races in the desert, roving bands of cannibals, tiny stalwart groups of humans scrabbling to survive in a harsh landscape made unrecognizable by the sudden and complete collapse of society as we know it. And then that scrappy little group of survivors gets to rebuild human civilization in a new world with a bright new future stretching ahead of them.
Of course, none of that is true of collapse. Collapse is long and slow and messy, and it mostly doesn't feel like collapse. I wonder if our current collapse feels similar to us as the collapse of previous empires did to the people living in those times, if they were constantly torn between worrying about the larger picture but also worrying about how to keep themselves and their families clothed and fed and sheltered.
No one told me that I'd have to pay rent during the end times, you know?
It's not all doom and gloom, of course. I am enjoying my job, even though it's maybe not at the top of the list of things I'd like to do with my time. I'm focusing more on my health this year so that I hopefully won't be super unhealthy when facing the collapse of some vital parts of society. I'm still planning a vegetable garden, and KK and I are steadily moving towards buying canadian products rather than US ones. It's a slow conversion (so many US products that we never even think about!).
I'm once again falling asleep over my keyboard, even though I was asleep by 9pm last night and got nearly 9 hours of sleep. It's honestly ridiculous how tired I am for no good reason. I'm working the early shift tomorrow, so I'd better get to bed and attempt more sleep. Here's hoping I will be less tired tomorrow. Only four more days until my sleep test, yay!
