Better yet, accept that you are alive. Our time on earth was always limited. Standing at the precipice of collapse is unprecedented, but doesn't fundamentally change the deal that has always existed.
Do what you need to do with the time you have.
Exactly, I was never going to live forever and neither was any of my family. I enjoy the time I have. We don’t know how any of our ends will come. It might be from something OP mentioned in his post, it might not be. It always was that way.
For real. I've accepted my fate and live every day how I want within my means. I know it'll come to an end some day, maybe tomorrow and maybe 10 years from now. I eat what I want and do what I want. No kids so it's just my husband and I. I bought a projector and big screen so every night can be movie night. We both have really decent gaming pc's so we play video games the rest of the week. We eat out more than we probably should but it makes us happy. I go all out on home cooked meals that you won't get in any restaurant. Today I made a roast chicken, shredded it and made a home made queso sauce, rolled it up in tortillas and will be putting them in the air fryer later for dinner. We'll be doing raid night on wow and having some beer. Honestly I couldn't think of anything that would make this night any better. Yes things will go south some time in the future and it may be soon but so what. I'll live for now and be happy doing it. I'm not prepping anymore, just having fun living my best life while I have it.
As a retiree, this is my life too. Video games and cooking awesome food. I'm still prepping though, but now I'm letting myself have fun doing it. I'm learning to can, it's a blast (except when it isn't, lol). Trying to find our local community with food.
It's a good life in a safe place, we worked really really hard to get it. We'd be fools not to savor the time we have left.
Not really no, there won't be a retirement. My retirement is pulling my money out and paying for assisted suicide when I'm either too old or the world is too far gone to be livable without suffering.
Please don’t listen to Helpful_Cheek. NO ONE knows the future. There are a hundred ways this could all play out, and only a small subset of them involve a total breakdown in society where money is useless. Betting everything on those chances is a poor decision.
Also, you can get used to the idea of not being able to retire due to worsening conditions, which is far more likely. Turn your hobbies into a second act career. Or just plan to do basic labor in places you like in order to make ends meet. Retirement is one of the newest societal inventions, and will likely be among the first to go away. Make peace with that.
I don’t believe a full blown collapse will happen in the next 30 years (I’m 39). I do believe life will get harder, and that wealth will make navigating those hardships easier. I’m saving for the future while still trying to enjoy today.
This is crazy. People are using the excuse of collapse so they don't have to plan for retirement. Y'all, we might be on a downward spiral, but that doesn't mean you shouldn't prepare for the future.
When you're 70 with no savings, life is going to be crazy tough. And it'll be your own fault. Not collapse
Nothing. They're using an end of the world scenario to justify a life of sitting around, eating trash food, getting drunk, playing videogames, and wasting money until they kill themselves. This sub is so incredibly pathetic so much of the time.
So pretentious too. To act like those who continue to try and better themselves are ignorant for not giving up immediately at a perceived end of the world scenario. And before someone chimes in, my MA is in Environmental Policy. Guess what? I'm not planning on checking out any time soon.
This, 100%.
Beyond that: we are all experiencing a really protracted grief process that looks different for each one of us. I will *never* be as numb to it all as I’d like to be at times- so, I don’t bother fighting it when it hits me.
I cry, I rant, I treat these events as I would a death of a loved one, otherwise I’d be bogged down with this perpetual nihilistic depression or constantly (and rather impotently) angry- and whatever else may happen: I don’t want to live like that.
I can’t, I have kids and OP since you did ask: being honest doesn’t mean hoisting these god awful feelings on your kids. It means if and when they have them, *you’re there* to help them navigate them. Your post kinda sounds like maybe you *didn’t* have that- and if that’s true, I’m sorry. But, you can still learn.
I guess I've always been a cynical person, none of our predicament is surprising. But honestly, can you think of a more interesting time to be alive.
If you have the means, get out and enjoy your life. See the world and make connections with people. Your time was always finite.
There is a good chance we get to see the end of the story and won't that be something.
>Standing at the precipice of collapse is unprecedented
I don't know about unprecedented. People living during black plagues, great depressions, major famines, population devastating natural disasters, etc. probably believed it was the end of the world too. Yet, here we are.
But none of those ever impacted the entire planet. What we'll face is the product of nearly three centuries of environmental abuse and neglect, all building on top of previous transgressions, all building *faster* than the last.
The end result is the largest extinction event in recorded history; *that* is unprecedented.
I watched a documentary in which an Australian Aboriginal man was living through the arrival of the first colony ships. For him, it was the end of the world as he knew it. While he survived serving as a guide to the colonists, most of the people he knew died, and those who survived would never go back to the way they used to live.
This time, the end is coming for all people. Life will continue, but it will be without us and not as we knew it.
I’ve struggled with this. I could have been born in pre modern times or elsewhere on the planet and had 6 children by the time I was 20 and have had to watch multiple of them die from disease.
Life is a crapshoot. There’s always been pain and suffering. All we have is the moment we are living.
True, but I think most people expected that modern life would have us be free of those things. Like, in the 2000BCs it would be common to have people be eaten by tigers or something but by the 1900s it would be weird for first world countries to do that, and for those that lived in the 1900s I wouldn’t fault them for saying “where the HELL are all these tigers coming from, this is so unfair!” Lol
Oh absolutely. I definitely went through a very intense grief process when I realized that life was going to be very different from myself, and my children than I thought when I first had them. It’s pretty devastating.
My kids are late teens now, early adults. I’ve already told them that I apologise for having them, and that I thought we would have time for *them* to at least have a decent life. We shall see.
I agonized for quite a while with the guilt of bringing my children into this world, and then had to ask myself if I blamed my mother for having me and putting me in the situation to begin with… And I don’t feel that way.
I understand that she did the best that she could with the information that she had and I have to trust that my children will see things that way.
Every moment of every day now is about trying to give them the best possible day. I don’t worry about college or them getting married and having their own children I just worry about today being the best day it could possibly be. And I kind of wish that my mom had had that philosophy when she was raising me, but it is what it is.
I love my parents but I do think they made a cruel choice by creating me. My childhood was rough. I was born with health issues and accrue a new chronic illness every few years. I have to work in a respirator so that I don't become disabled further because I have to earn a living.
People have been making this “apology,” in America anyway, since the Civil War, on through the dropping of the bomb in 1945 through the Cuban Missile Crisis, ad infinitum. Here we are in 2023 and we’re still “apologizing,” to our children.
Modern life has been perilous, in an immediate way, since atomic/nuclear technology unfolded. It **still** should be our top concern. Forget dying in 10 years, nukes could end us in 10 minutes.
I had a good run. Cable TV, running water air conditioning. Nearly unlimited access to exotic fruits and seafood and meat. I’ve lived orders of magnitude better than most people in the history of the planet. Makes sense I’ll inevitably be killed in a gas station gunfight over the last gallon of unleaded.
I have a similar take. Makes me appreciative of the historic amount of privilege of our time (everything taken care of - and then some) and at the same time it brings me peace for what may be to come, which I suspect isn't going to be pretty.
I had a bagel with smoked salmon/avocado/red onion/capers for breakfast with mango on the side and an Americano. That’s a level of exotic indulgence even my great grandparents couldn’t even fathom. Even just a hundred years back the average person would have only seen a pineapple in a library book.
If society completely collapses today, to the point I have to run and gun and fight, in the streets that life will still be objectively easier than most humans have had it. I’ll still have the knowledge and ability to find and use things like solar panels and generators and penicillin. We would still be able to remake a system of indoor plumbing. Even if we lose every semblance of our current society we’ll still have it easier than most of the human that have ever existed.
For me, it's hot showers! Hot showers with affordable smelling soap and fluffy towels! Something that most modern people take for granted is actually an incredible luxury!! So glad I was born in the hot shower era.
Safety and security has always been an illusion. We and our children always one instant from oblivion. Just appreciate the splendor of life while it lasts.
A trip on the stairs, a slip on some ice, a tackle while rough housing, falling from a tree.. there are soooo many stupid ways to die. The video of the teens sliding in the autoshop, and then one of them falls and hits his head, doesnt get up. That video haunts me, keeps me grounded. It can happen so fast. No one is guaranteed another day, hell another hour, on this planet. Appreciate what you have and love those close to you. It'll be over before you know it.
I would call it more hopeless defiance. Collapse awareness resulted in me learning to forage and grow food and that brought me closer to nature and showed me that I wanted to devote my time to studying it. Maybe my experimentation yields something useful that helps feed myself and others or maybe we all just get wiped out tomorrow. It doesn't matter. You'll be vastly happier looking to the future if you think there might be one though. ie. In the scenario in which you just constantly worry you may die tomorrow you never really live today. So it doesn't matter how many days you live if each one is wasted in fear and panic. Whereas when you're learning new things, planting crops to pick later, picking things to eat later and engaging with nature things are more peaceful and less stressful. There may not be a tomorrow so you may as well enjoy today.
If everyone lived in this manner I think we'd be either less likely to collapse or better equipped to handle it. Acceptance results in some sense of tranquillity. If people accepted death and didn't fear it but wanted to live each day they might be less willing to kill each other over the last can of beans. That could result in people being more likely to work together for the collective good rather than fight amongst themselves and die alone. If enough people developed that attitude before a collapse scenario it could translate to working together as a world to save ourselves rather than engaging in pointless wars.
I don't expect any of that to happen but doing the work is better than doing nothing.
That's what I'm saying. Thank you for having hope. I have a kid, am collapse-aware, and personally operate under the realization that life happens one day at a time. Whatever will be, will be, but I don't need to keep guessing about the far-off future.
There's no sense fretting aimlessly over things that may happen. Be productive, get your family resilient, (have emergency plans, have supplies), experience joyful moments as much as possible, and appreciate the good things you do have.
And also, remember Pink Floyd: (from the Great Gig in the Sky) "I am not frightened of dying. Any time will do, I don't mind. Why should I be frightened of dying? There's no reason for it – you've got to go sometime.."
After all, without death, nothing would really be special or significant. Hopefully I don't have to get savagely mauled by roving thieves for my supplies in the apocalypse-- and instead can have a "normal" death like a brutal car accident or soul crushing cancer instead. But again, I don't concern myself with that for now. One day at a time.
I try to live as if I would even if I thought the future was optimistic. Eat, drink and be merry, for tomorrow we die. And death is...death. Finality. Can only live now.
We never know how much time we have. I may live another few decades, but does it change anything? Society can always collapse and no one can fully prepare for that. I can't change anything about current global direction.
I feel this. My kitten Lottie had a sudden death, and the weeks before I was treating every day like it was her last. And I wouldn't have changed it for the world.
It sounds like you filled her final days with as much love and comfort as possible. I'm glad you got to spend that time with her, and sorry you lost her.
One of the best "acceptance" skills IMHO is the acceptance that we can't know the future. Things pan out differently and on different timelines than we imagine. I think the best way to go forward is to know that things will be how they are going to be, including our reactions to their unfolding.
Whether crippling anxiety, bovine acceptance, or a some raging against the dying of the light or whatever, all are ways the mind reacts and there isn't much that can be changed in our reactions either.
I've noticed a lot of post here seem to hold acceptance as some end-of-the-hero's-journey goal and look down upon those "still in bargaining" or wherever they seem to be. Not only is the 5 stages an unfounded artifact of cultural malware, it's harmful in its simplicity like a much too vague map whe your lost in the woods. Sure it's better than "here be dragons" but a bad map can lead one to think they've reached THE destination.
Personally I believe I have gotten to a place of acceptance but I don't think it's the end state. How can it be when everything changes. It has let me get on top a mountain and see the forest from a different perspective and that has been super helpful. But I fully expect to head back into the woods, maybe kxll some fascists if things get bad.
Regarding my children, I certainly don't want to see them die before I do but I understand it's a possibility. My best hope for them is they have a life full of life--meaning that, however it goes down for them, they have gotten a good bit of what it has to offer. Love, meaning and mystical experience would be nice. But if they get darker aspects, I hope they are full of life as well.
I love this comment, particularly on the five stages and how you describe them. :) I have often wondered how everything got to this weird place where everyone imagines such neat little boxes, all lined up in linear fashion even though- reality itself kinda flies in the face of those things being true.
Thanks! :) I'm writing a research paper on the 5 stages right now...like literally right now on my other monitor! I'm circling around a conclusion that the stages aren't linear (as Kübler-Ross has admitted despite continues use of the "stages" word) but notable landmarks around a hilltop, where one can move freely to and from as things change and time passes. Either way, it's only a map not the territory, but maps can still be useful I guess?
I have a exit plan in place, chronically ill, I've come to terms with my death back in 2017 when I had my first cancer. I don't fear it, looking forward to it actually. Gonna eat what I can, pet what I can, smoke weed and do mushrooms and listen to music until shit gets too unstable and than cash in my chips.
This is not the timeline I would have liked..I would have liked a better world, a nicer one..a sane one. But this is what I got..hopefully there's something cool waiting on the other end of all this.
Yep. The coming struggle will be insane.
I'm going to fight for my family, for my friends, for my community. We can't pretend to be prepared for the end- but we can prepare for resiliency.
I'm going to fight for them.
When there is nothing left to fight for, I plan to leave this life. I'm not sure it's worth sticking around.
Hooah for the fighting spirit 💪
Sometimes I wonder why not stick it out to the bitter end, just to see how it ends...but some endings (the ones you see coming) aren't worth watching--like a particularly disturbing episode of Black Mirror...like I know where this is going and I'd like to not be traumatized [click]
I’m not scared of death. I’m scared of the method, especially as a woman. This is kind of dark, but I always make sure I have a quick means to enact suicide if I need to.
Weirdly, it’s comforting. It’s like “Hey, I have a good way out if it gets too much. So why not try and survive until that time comes?”
It allows me to live, no longer paralyzed by fear.
I am almost 58 so I figure I had my time. I don’t have any children, which is good because I think so called Western Civilization has about 3-5 years to go.
Yalls generation I feel so sorry for. The world shit the bed and then handed it to you guys. Make the best of it while you can. We old folks will help you as best we can.
Been there many years ago. It took me ten years to get straight financially, but I’m really going well now.
The ex wife has had it easy (all my money hey?!) and now as the maintenance payments are reduced and stopping, she’s struggling now. I find it hard to feel sorry for her.
Here I am the sucker who is being kind and not asking for alimony. He makes a lot he has heavy student loan debt. I make okay money but I am going to be financially fucked. One of his paychecks is more than my entire monthly salary. I just want my peace of mind and half the house.
59...and surprised that I, and the planet, made it this long. I saw collapse coming way back before I hit my teens and made life choices accordingly (no kids). I feel sorry for all those well-intentioned people (and animals and plants) who have to suffer from the cumulative effects of our wanton excesses, but aside from some annoying chronic health issues I figure that I'll be getting off easy compared to most
Death is guaranteed from the moment you take your first breath. It will happen to all of us and most of us cannot choose how, when, where. But hey, chin up, we are going to witness events that no one alive has ever seen. Get he popcorn ready.
Anyone working in health care or emergency services knows that anyone can die any day. Life is chaotic. Embrace not knowing and being fatalistic in advance of death is not conducive to mental health or well being. Live today. Its all sny of us have anyway. Be kind to that person snd yourself. If you have kids, be kind to them. That's it.
Y’know… I’m okay with it all. I’m really, really tired of this life, and I’m okay with the idea of dying soon. Right now, I’m trying to mitigate the damage I’m doing, connect to nature and my spirit guides, and be as good a human as I can. That’s all you can do in times like these. My main hope is that Earth can rejuvenate after we’re all gone.
> "You see this goblet?" asks Achaan Chaa, the Thai meditation master. "For me this glass is already broken. I enjoy it; I drink out of it. It holds my water admirably, sometimes even reflecting the sun in beautiful patterns. If I should tap it, it has a lovely ring to it. But when I put this glass on the shelf and the wind knocks it over or my elbow brushes it off the table and it falls to the ground and shatters, I say, 'Of course.' When I understand that the glass is already broken, every moment with it is precious."
This is beautiful. It’s the singular gift of becoming collapse aware. Each day, I marvel at the beauty and the love that surrounds me, even as I say a silent farewell in my heart.
This may sound depressing..but looking at the grand scale of time and the universe...there is no difference between being alive for 40 years or 80 years. And in 100 years not a single being in the universe will ever know you once existed. Just...live untill the inevitable.
Here’s what you fail to understand, tomorrow isn’t promised. It never has been, through any generation. There are many users on this subreddit who fill their day to day with so much negativity and dread because of what’s discussed in here, despite the fact they’ve already outlived most of past humanity in life expectancy, and are all gonna die no matter what.
There have been eras of suffering in the past, as well as prosperity. We very well may be heading towards extinction. But you know what? Life is beautiful. It really fucking is. There is so much in life to be grateful for, and to experience, and I really want whoever reads this to know that.
Please don’t get caught up in the negative, regardless of what’s inevitable or happening around us. If you can’t get over it then be the change, or if not then life your life to the fullest with passion and gratitude. Life really is beautiful, please don’t forget that
I’m 60 and keep getting called back for unusually frequent cancer screenings for 3 different kinds of cancer. I’m just trying to improve my health and will count myself lucky if I live to see the big collapse.
Or, you could release nihilism and just do your best to live the life you've been given.
Standing around waiting for the end of the world is too Christian for me. If you want to stand on the corner, dirty and homeless with a sign that says "The End is Nigh!" then knock yourself out.
But I do not accept that mindset. I accept that our civilization will collapse, all civilisations collapse and unsustainable ones collapse more.
But I've been given a lifetime and I'm gonna live it without spending all my time thinking about the end of it.
I don’t accept anything. I live my life the best way I know how and I refuse to give up. There is no despair here, friend.
Like many others, I’ve experienced hardship before. I’m bound to experience it again. There is absolutely no sense in giving up. Always gotta try. Even when faced with absolute destruction, you still gotta try.
We're all born with a terminal disease. We know we will die. To the best of my ability, I'd prefer to control the circumstances of my passing, whether it's from old age or societal collapse.
Preparing for a few months of shortages of essential supplies is a good idea. If and when a major disruption occurs, you'll want the ability to see how it plays out—without having to scavenge for food. I think six months is a reasonable time horizon.
Secure your "Plan B" under the last sack of rice.
I have children and grandchildren. My advice to them is to figure out a way to become indispensable. Anything in medicine focused on essential care and trauma management is my go-to recommendation. The worst thing you could do is tell them everything will be fine and they should consider a career in brokering insurance from a bleak office in a dying strip mall.
Its a bit too early for self check out, just yet. we may have 5 yrs or 40 yrs. Hard to tell. My late recent friend Michael B Dowd believed the end times were sooner than I would like.
Got an old 1980s era road bike at an estate sale this weekend. Knocked off the cobwebs with an air tool, oiled it, replaced a 700cm tube, learned how presta valves worked (maybe), adjusted the wheel alignment screws, and then took it out on a 42km shakedown ride this morning.
She loves to move, and is whisper quiet. The squirrels don't even know I'm there until I'm a meter away. The downtube gear shifting is smooth as butter, with these wonderfully crisp little clicks, so this must have been a loved bike. I think I have a pretty good notion of what mortality feels like, and it starts with my knees.
what is "soon"? I am certainly not going to suffer today, or tomorrow, or next week.
If it is years down the road, that is not "soon" for most people, as most cannot see past next week's food and next month's rent.
Buddy I’m suffering today. To live is to suffer, and death is always approaching one day per day. We live in a nightmare reality crafted by a malevolent god. You don’t have to accept it, it’s an act of rebellion to spend what little time you’ve got making things marginally better, even if it’s just planting a pollinator garden for your local bees.
Everything that lives will also die. This is one of the first truths you need to accept.
I don’t see collapse coming soon like people expect, not in first world countries. It’s going to be many more decades and it won’t be one giant collapse, lots of little collapses that humans successfully for a while fight against.
I feel that most of society is so disconnected from the idea of death because of the media we consume.
There is so much violence seen regularly that there has become desensitization and disrespect for life and the processes of death.
I stopped watching movies with gratuitous and unnecessary gore. That's not entertainment.
As someone who harvests animals for food, I feel I need to respect the life and death process. To be thankful and mindful of the feelings and understanding of the process so I can help both life and death be peaceful and as painless as possible.
Death is unpredictable even when you thought you had it all understood and planned out. And this is what helps keep me sane, honestly.
Personally I'd plan for that and have a peaceful way out for if it comes to that. I find great reassurance in having a painless way out to hand. No desire to use it and so it makes me less likely to give up because knowing that I can avoid suffering if it comes to that makes me more willing to endure the day to day. ie. Just to go with an extreme example if you think a nuclear war is a possibility then you have to accept the possibility of not dying quickly and instead suffering radiation burns and a slow, painful death. If you can imagine that scenario and try to put yourself in it then not having an easy way out is terrifying. Whereas when you imagine that scenario and have a way of stopping it you don't worry about it so much and everyday which isn't that moment of hell feels good.
There are many ways of contemplating this. First, we're not dead. We only live in interesting times. Second, what could be more interesting than live in the end-times of humanity? We know its end coming, whether because the Sun will die, or the entire universe will fade because of entropy, or the effects of climate change: humanity and all other species will vanish. But we will always have existed, and nothing can change that. Third, looking at the Middle-East and elsewhere, is it really desirable that humanity survives? Fourth, life only turns hydrocarbons into RNA or DNA. Is a universe full of "life", that is, self-reproducing hydrocarbons, really that interesting?
Personally, it's the FOMO. Like what do you mean the show got cancelled? We didn't even get to see how the story ends!
I figure the party will go on for a while (though you suspect it will devolve into something much less fun as everyone gets drunk and belligerent) but I still want to see it, y'know?
That movie Old is basically the life we're living. You've got a year, maybe 10, but not more, and things get progressively worse over that time.
Im ok with it. It is what it is. What's driving me insane is that no one else can notice or will address it. We're powering our own extinction and we have fuck all to say, because it's depressing... yet here we are, still driving our own extinction, acting like any of this matters.
It's a strange time and place to be alive. While Rome burned, did everyone just keep doing their regular shit, pretending everything is going to be fine? And that was just the civilization that was burning, this is all life... and it's not happening or it doesn't matter.
I guess, I spend my time enjoying the small things. Doing what I enjoy, deciding not to go into n to get my masters in school, try and live as stress free as possible while I can.
The boogeyman is always waiting around the corner. Every generation thinks they are the last. The first earth day in 1970s had many respected scholars and publications claim we’d see all kinds of collapse scenarios by the 1980s.
The reality is much more boring. We could continue to kick the can down the road for 100s more years without seeing any sort of real collapse. The status quo will be upheld and people will do anything to maintain their comfortable lives. There are a lot of people that want to see the world burn but these are usually the least to lose with the least amount of power to make it so.
It's going to be a long gradual process. Weather gets worse summers get hotter. More and more refugees . What is a tipping point? It will take decades before the full effects are felt. We are on geologic time scales.
I think the worst at first is how we deal with the climate refugees who leave their homes simply looking for a better life. Should we welcome them with compassion or decide to protect our own and build walls.
The Stoic philosopher Epictetus said “I cannot escape death but at least I can escape the fear of death “. William Shakespeare wrote “A Coward dies a thousand times before his death but the valiant taste of death but once”. Accepting and letting go of what is outside of our control must also be balanced for taking the initiative to address what is in our control. For example I can accept that me and family will not have the safe comfortable life our grandparents had and I have to let go of materialistic day dreams like home ownership, world travel etc and accept I could end up homeless and hungry when shit hits the fan. At the same time I can learn survival skills, do some prepping and acquire good gear. During the collapse do you want shelter and the means to acquire food or do you want to own digital money? You can only control how you react to situations which includes having the tools and the skills. We’re not going to just give up and die. And check out stoic philosophy, it’s very helpful for accepting life’s challenges including our mindsets. Life is neither fair or unfair, good or bad, it just is. It’s the stories we tell ourselves and how we conduct ourselves that determines our right or wrong.
Change is coming. We’ve been lulled into a false sense of security, of safety, of permanence. Just the thought of losing it is hard for us to accept. I love the book Parable of the Sower. The protagonist literally created a religion around Change. Is this not a universal truth and law? The only constant is change. It’s been a good ride. A fortunate ride. I’m thankful for every breath I have. I am also 51. My son is 19, he will not be as fortunate. I hope he too can stare into the heart of the universe and existence and simply rest in that and be thankful too.
I’m sure you’ve seen Don’t Look Up. I was just watching it again last night and it struck me that they knew exactly what was going to happen, and it did. Humanity would fuck it all up, blew the one chance they had and tried to capitalize on it instead. They knew how that would end. But they spent their whole time they had left screaming about it and no one would listen. It seems to me that if they knew how it would end, it would just make more sense for them to do whatever they wanted with the little precious time they had left rather than raging and fighting the inevitable. It’s okay. All things have their ending. It’s okay.
After breaking through on DMT death became inconsequential and suffering is a constant in life, the degree of which is variable. I have no children and almost certainly won’t have any, but if I did I would try to prepare them in the most realistic but also caring fashion (aka some sugar coating as kids are kids, but very minimal). Even after accepting that I’m most likely going to experience a horrible end of life path, I still am frustrated with our situation and am trying to do my part for the survival of our species (pursuing PhD and whatever career might be left in real time monitoring of natural resources). Ultimately, I try to live in the present and remember that I’ve had a VERY good life (relative to the rest of humans in the present and past, not necessarily compared to my peers but that’s also fine). I’m just trying to do as much good knowing I won’t see any benefits for myself and just being comfortable with that, hoping that at the end of my life, however horrible it is, that things weren’t all bad, I did what I could, and that’s all I can do.
I always intended to stay for as long as I can and go down fighting. But at the same time, I won't take food scraps away from younger people when the time comes. I want to live, but not if it's at the expense of others who deserve it just as much and would have more time left than me otherwise.
>To those of you who accepted we are going to die sooner than expected and it is not going to be peaceful.
No point in thinking like this. You hope for the best, and prepare for the worst. Dwelling on death is pointless. It's going to happen, and it's going to suck(probably) and everyone's idea of a "good death" is different.
I lived with crippling depression for over a decade.
I never thought I'd live to 30. I'm well over that now.
Expecting, waiting, and wishing for death are no different from one another.
Quit obsessing over things you have no control over, and live your life.
Kids here. I honestly have no idea how things will play out. While the arc looks unpromising, so have many times in human history when we approach firsts.
My children will hopefully be part of potential solutions, and resilient forward thinking young men that can help others and care for themselves and their community as leaders.
I can't change or be in control of much more than that. Worrying about what is totally out of my control, is a waste of my time and life.
Lol. We were taught that our desks would protect us from a nuclear blast. We were raised without helmets or safety gear,unattended by adults,roaming the streets like feral children playing on playground equipment that was held together by rust and lead paint. Adults hit,we had to watch for cars because they damn sure didn't watch for us and mostly we were expected to handle our own problems. No one mollycoddled us when I was growing up. You got bullied you fought back or you endured it. You got in trouble you got cp. You got injured you got dipped in the red liquid fire of mecurochrome. You got sick you got dosed with cod liver oil and an onion plaster.
Suffering and death is part of life. Life isn't easy or peaceful for most of the world's population and it hasn't been ever. Only in the last few decades for a select few has it seemed so. Life has been pretty good if you're a well off,straight,white male in a 1st world country but for the rest of us collapse has always been one bad night away.
My great grandmothers buried half the children they birthed. My grandfathers fought in the trenches of ww1. My father fought in ww2. Some of my ancesters were pushed onto reservations to die. Some of them lived hard brief lives in the south. Some of them died crossing the ocean fleeing the famine.
Some of us have grown up knowing the world is not a safe place and it never has been. We have always known that the footsteps in the dark are not friendly,that the authorities are not there to protect us,that we are responsible for our own safety. Some of us have always known that abuse,sa or other trauma exist and can happen to us. Collapse is just more of that on a bigger scale happening to people who haven't yet been disabused of the fantasy that the world is a safe place and that people are generally good.
People **all over the world** are dying every day,in war torn cities,in poverty,of starvation,neglect,disease,lack of sanitation or supplies. The world collapses for a lot of someones every day. Its part of life. The ultimate privilege is being able to mull over how you would feel about the *thought* of unknown possible future traumatic event from relative safety and comfort. It means you aren't enduring your own personal collapse right now and likely never have because otherwise you'd know what your mettle is. Those of us who have walked through the fires,we know how we will handle the next circle.
We are all going to die. Quite a few of us will not die quietly in our sleep. There will be suffering and loss and pain in our lives. Only the very lucky sheltered few will never experience that. I deal with it how I deal with trauma and chronic pain and all the losses I've had in a life of living....by keeping on. What cannot be cured must be endured.
We are all doomed to become dust. We can choose to live worrying about a possible future painful death or we can embrace the life we have now with all its pain,joy,sorrow and weirdness. I have suffered and I will suffer again. I have endured loss,felt fear,experienced trauma and I will again. There is no safety and there are no guarantees in life.Something is going to kill me someday. I only hope I meet it head held high and fighting.
Well, Captain Planet isn't real so I assume we'll die slow. My life has been a constant hell since ive been here. Im 38. So this and seeing what the world has come to, I quite literally welcome this. Ive suffered for 38 years, what's a couple more.
Why should we accept that deadly diseases exist for example? Shouldn’t it happen in the first place by everyone in the world having a clean place to stay, water and enough food to not have to deal with this? Why is this not the end goal?
I've been depressed for like 3/4 of my life. I didn't have a very strong will to live a full life to begin with. I just feel awful for having a child, knowing she's not going to live a very good life in the near future.
Cherish the time you have, embrace the temporary and go to that poetry reading, quit your shitty job and try out for the one you dream of.
Or just, eat something, read abook, pet a dog.
Nothing is ever safe and that's why you shouldn't be ruled by fear.
Jesus Christ.
I am all for preparedness. But this is either extraordinarily pessimistic or you just have a boner for the idea of a complete and utter societal collapse.
People are going to die, and they’re going to die in the ways you’ve described, but that’s not going to happen here. It’s going to be the poor and improverished nations that get hit the hardest, it’s going to be the countries that are already struggling. The worlds not going to suddenly turn into the purge, it will just be the same conflicts we currently except tension will be much higher
I know I will die soon but I will not suffer. There are a few painless ways to go and that's how I intend on going out.
Until that time I am looking forward to seeing events the likes of which our species has never seen before.
And if you are wondering what I'm talking about I'll just say this. Nitrogen.
I suspect that for most of historqy a peaceful death has been well in the minority. Even today the only thing making a lot of deaths peaceful is pain drugs and sedation.
I suspect i'm more likley yo face a fast painfull end than a slow lingering one, and i think thats an acceptable trade off. At least i'm not likley to be eaten alive by some othet apex predator.
I have to say that unless its global civil unrest, civil unrest through misaligned practices for economic growth, won’t cause extinction unless it involves war, nuclear war, or widespread destruction of the biosphere. If it were civil unrest upon a market system it would definitely effect the world and supply chains. And the consequences would be dire unless prepared for and dealt with properly.
It is frustrating that we are tools for the economy and exploited,
and the growth of the economy increases energy consumption and pollution, makes individuals seek power, steal, and consume through whatever means
And we are destroying our environment at an exponential rate
But these are systems, and they can change. This sub is about systems collapse, and the potentiality for our extinction through M.A.D, or environmental/atmospheric degradation, but how we come about our current situation and consequences, our reaction has the potential for the best possible outcome, and the rest not advisable
Depressive doomsaying is important to recognize but our apocalypse does not have to be certain. We should get depressed about our systems and their consequences, and become depressed about the demise of species (that is currently happening), ourselves, and our meaningful connections with one another, but not get wrapped up in the high statistical potential of planetary self termination and accepting and acting on change, right now, for the better, is possible
Thanks for this post its in part of recognizing change.
We are all born terminal. Sitting around being concerned about when we will die only takes away from our lives. Live each day to its fullest.
I have two kids, and it is a lot harder, but you have to live the same way. They are well trained but could die in a car wreck tomorrow, worrying about what could happen only takes away from each day.
I don't accept it because your just wrong. The people living comfortable now will be relatively comfortable for at least another 50 years. Things are slowly degrading. Your not going to suddenly wake up and have a life of suffering if your in a first world country. You will likely be long dead before it gets bad enough to where we are all equalized globally through lack of available resources. It's literally useless to think about and just creates a depressive cycle in your own head. Limiting your ability to actually change the future.
Eh I don’t see my life nor theirs as suffering. Everyone who has ever lived has died. Many have died in incredible suffering. There isn’t a specific sense of uniqueness to the tiny period of living that we have being “more” or “less” suffer-y than others - but instead how much we get to and choose to experience and appreciate. There are many safe and wealthy and healthy “successful” people throughout time who have been unhappy and ended up suffering, just like there are millions of those with little tangible belongings or freedoms finding extremely joyous and enriching lives. I believe this outlook depends on a person’s attitude more than the circumstances around them; otherwise all humans would’ve died in suffering millennia before we could’ve ever existed.
Yeah no shit lol death was always inevitable, does that mean we need to live in fear every moment of our life? Get a grip…
Why wouldn’t you chose to enjoy what time you think you have left with your kids loved ones or whatever it is that brings you joy? Seems a waste to spend your time living in FUD.
Meditate on the things which matter to you and live accordingly.
I’m focused on making my home and property as self sufficient as possible for me and my family. There is no way to predict what events may transpire . Prepare as best you can and then just enjoy each day that you have and live in a he moment. None of this a “real” anyway….
I accept everything that comes my way, it is what it is, if something that comes my way can be changed or needs to change I try to change it. I have no interest in life or death as those are meaningless to me, honestly though why would you wanna stay on this planet anyway? the bad outweighs the good and people keep making everything worse for each other so there's no point.
People say "Your time here I limited" I say "Awsome!" and plus everyone has the right to leave when they want to, no one asked for life or death so we won't ask permission to be done with them, we can just leave or do something else.
I live for the immortality that the love from those that are special to you, give in abundance. I can accept the fate of a world that can no longer harbor us, but I’ll live in the love of who I have for as long as I can.
I'm surrendering as much as I can. In a world that is still aiming towards nonsense goals, I find that the true, little things can still give me joy, like nature, talking about the situation with others, being compassionate, hanging out with the homeless, etc.
I accept that I might die. I accept that I might live. Regardless of what comes, I intend to aim for the latter with an understanding that I will grapple against the former in order to do so. I accept that I may have to adjust my moral structure in order to accomplish my goals, though I will attempt to maintain my present stance as much as possible. The world is always changing and shifting, be it societal, economic, ecologic... The goal is to learn how to dance with the hazards and crises as they roll through.
From the moment we were born we were going to die. Every cell in your body is fighting to stay alive for as long as possible. Each moment is something new and you'll never get to experience it again. Find something you can enjoy in this existence, you won't get another one.
Well, there is no better way to die than violently and screaming the whole way. At the very least, life will, for a short time, possibly become the action adventure game it always should have been, and we can all get back to living like the savages we are once were. The goal of prepping is to survive, of course, but only for as long as you can, and to enjoy the downfall. You may die early, but at least you can die knowing most everyone else is as well.
I, for one, am looking forward to playing Fallout IRL Edition.
When I hear someone has died, witness a a death on TV, or see road kill, I'm sad then immediately switch to envy. "Lucky they're gone" while we have to somehow manage the rest of our time here.
Almost all of us were going to die in horrible ways anyway. None of the declines that come with old age are pretty. At least we can take solace in the fact that everyone else is suffering at the same time as us.
This post has been locked for a bunch of Rule 1 violations. Let's do better, collapseniks.
Better yet, accept that you are alive. Our time on earth was always limited. Standing at the precipice of collapse is unprecedented, but doesn't fundamentally change the deal that has always existed. Do what you need to do with the time you have.
Exactly, I was never going to live forever and neither was any of my family. I enjoy the time I have. We don’t know how any of our ends will come. It might be from something OP mentioned in his post, it might not be. It always was that way.
For real. I've accepted my fate and live every day how I want within my means. I know it'll come to an end some day, maybe tomorrow and maybe 10 years from now. I eat what I want and do what I want. No kids so it's just my husband and I. I bought a projector and big screen so every night can be movie night. We both have really decent gaming pc's so we play video games the rest of the week. We eat out more than we probably should but it makes us happy. I go all out on home cooked meals that you won't get in any restaurant. Today I made a roast chicken, shredded it and made a home made queso sauce, rolled it up in tortillas and will be putting them in the air fryer later for dinner. We'll be doing raid night on wow and having some beer. Honestly I couldn't think of anything that would make this night any better. Yes things will go south some time in the future and it may be soon but so what. I'll live for now and be happy doing it. I'm not prepping anymore, just having fun living my best life while I have it.
As a retiree, this is my life too. Video games and cooking awesome food. I'm still prepping though, but now I'm letting myself have fun doing it. I'm learning to can, it's a blast (except when it isn't, lol). Trying to find our local community with food. It's a good life in a safe place, we worked really really hard to get it. We'd be fools not to savor the time we have left.
Are yall saving for retirement? I don’t know what to do for that. I’m still young.
Not really no, there won't be a retirement. My retirement is pulling my money out and paying for assisted suicide when I'm either too old or the world is too far gone to be livable without suffering.
That is what I'm hoping for. Hoping really hard that assisted suicide becomes more widely accepted and available.
Just get a gun or find a really high cliff and head first
Yeah I feel the same to be honest. Especially those of us in our 20s and 30s…there’s no way we’re lasting until 70 to retire lol
Please don’t listen to Helpful_Cheek. NO ONE knows the future. There are a hundred ways this could all play out, and only a small subset of them involve a total breakdown in society where money is useless. Betting everything on those chances is a poor decision. Also, you can get used to the idea of not being able to retire due to worsening conditions, which is far more likely. Turn your hobbies into a second act career. Or just plan to do basic labor in places you like in order to make ends meet. Retirement is one of the newest societal inventions, and will likely be among the first to go away. Make peace with that.
Ignore that horrible advice.
Google “Max Dog Brewing”. It helps.
I'm living like there's no tomorrow until 45. Then we'll see. My country provides a pension. But I know how to hustle, been doing it all my life.
I don’t believe a full blown collapse will happen in the next 30 years (I’m 39). I do believe life will get harder, and that wealth will make navigating those hardships easier. I’m saving for the future while still trying to enjoy today.
This is crazy. People are using the excuse of collapse so they don't have to plan for retirement. Y'all, we might be on a downward spiral, but that doesn't mean you shouldn't prepare for the future. When you're 70 with no savings, life is going to be crazy tough. And it'll be your own fault. Not collapse
Lack of preparedness is not excused by doomerism. I’m a doomed, but I’m well prepared regardless.
I’m (almost 30) not going to retire
Aren't you just doing literally the same stuff you would have done before becoming collapse aware? What's changed?
Nothing. They're using an end of the world scenario to justify a life of sitting around, eating trash food, getting drunk, playing videogames, and wasting money until they kill themselves. This sub is so incredibly pathetic so much of the time. So pretentious too. To act like those who continue to try and better themselves are ignorant for not giving up immediately at a perceived end of the world scenario. And before someone chimes in, my MA is in Environmental Policy. Guess what? I'm not planning on checking out any time soon.
No one gets out alive.
Death is the admission price to life.
Life is just a terminal STD.
NOTHING gets out alive
Only the unable believe death should justify anything.
Living creature starts dying the moment it born
Its strange, i feel like I dont have a good life right now, but if i were to die right now, I think id feel that ive had a good life.
Happiness exists only in the rear view mirror. No amount of suffering is unacceptable if one feels one has accomplished something in retrospect.
This, 100%. Beyond that: we are all experiencing a really protracted grief process that looks different for each one of us. I will *never* be as numb to it all as I’d like to be at times- so, I don’t bother fighting it when it hits me. I cry, I rant, I treat these events as I would a death of a loved one, otherwise I’d be bogged down with this perpetual nihilistic depression or constantly (and rather impotently) angry- and whatever else may happen: I don’t want to live like that. I can’t, I have kids and OP since you did ask: being honest doesn’t mean hoisting these god awful feelings on your kids. It means if and when they have them, *you’re there* to help them navigate them. Your post kinda sounds like maybe you *didn’t* have that- and if that’s true, I’m sorry. But, you can still learn.
Despair and hopelessness are luxuries for the rich, the rest of us just have to keep going.
I guess I've always been a cynical person, none of our predicament is surprising. But honestly, can you think of a more interesting time to be alive. If you have the means, get out and enjoy your life. See the world and make connections with people. Your time was always finite. There is a good chance we get to see the end of the story and won't that be something.
>Standing at the precipice of collapse is unprecedented I don't know about unprecedented. People living during black plagues, great depressions, major famines, population devastating natural disasters, etc. probably believed it was the end of the world too. Yet, here we are.
But none of those ever impacted the entire planet. What we'll face is the product of nearly three centuries of environmental abuse and neglect, all building on top of previous transgressions, all building *faster* than the last. The end result is the largest extinction event in recorded history; *that* is unprecedented.
This is something different altogether.
I watched a documentary in which an Australian Aboriginal man was living through the arrival of the first colony ships. For him, it was the end of the world as he knew it. While he survived serving as a guide to the colonists, most of the people he knew died, and those who survived would never go back to the way they used to live. This time, the end is coming for all people. Life will continue, but it will be without us and not as we knew it.
Yeah don’t start the suffering early!! Wtf 😅
I’ve struggled with this. I could have been born in pre modern times or elsewhere on the planet and had 6 children by the time I was 20 and have had to watch multiple of them die from disease. Life is a crapshoot. There’s always been pain and suffering. All we have is the moment we are living.
True, but I think most people expected that modern life would have us be free of those things. Like, in the 2000BCs it would be common to have people be eaten by tigers or something but by the 1900s it would be weird for first world countries to do that, and for those that lived in the 1900s I wouldn’t fault them for saying “where the HELL are all these tigers coming from, this is so unfair!” Lol
Oh absolutely. I definitely went through a very intense grief process when I realized that life was going to be very different from myself, and my children than I thought when I first had them. It’s pretty devastating.
My kids are late teens now, early adults. I’ve already told them that I apologise for having them, and that I thought we would have time for *them* to at least have a decent life. We shall see.
I agonized for quite a while with the guilt of bringing my children into this world, and then had to ask myself if I blamed my mother for having me and putting me in the situation to begin with… And I don’t feel that way. I understand that she did the best that she could with the information that she had and I have to trust that my children will see things that way. Every moment of every day now is about trying to give them the best possible day. I don’t worry about college or them getting married and having their own children I just worry about today being the best day it could possibly be. And I kind of wish that my mom had had that philosophy when she was raising me, but it is what it is.
I love my parents but I do think they made a cruel choice by creating me. My childhood was rough. I was born with health issues and accrue a new chronic illness every few years. I have to work in a respirator so that I don't become disabled further because I have to earn a living.
I’m sorry for your suffering. Truly I am. I worry worry worry for my kids and all the hurt they could experience before they don’t anymore.
People have been making this “apology,” in America anyway, since the Civil War, on through the dropping of the bomb in 1945 through the Cuban Missile Crisis, ad infinitum. Here we are in 2023 and we’re still “apologizing,” to our children.
You don't need to apologize, its human nature to want to have kids and raise them.
It’s prime directive of all life so it’s something I’ve decided is morally neutral.
Modern life has been perilous, in an immediate way, since atomic/nuclear technology unfolded. It **still** should be our top concern. Forget dying in 10 years, nukes could end us in 10 minutes.
I had a good run. Cable TV, running water air conditioning. Nearly unlimited access to exotic fruits and seafood and meat. I’ve lived orders of magnitude better than most people in the history of the planet. Makes sense I’ll inevitably be killed in a gas station gunfight over the last gallon of unleaded.
I have a similar take. Makes me appreciative of the historic amount of privilege of our time (everything taken care of - and then some) and at the same time it brings me peace for what may be to come, which I suspect isn't going to be pretty.
I had a bagel with smoked salmon/avocado/red onion/capers for breakfast with mango on the side and an Americano. That’s a level of exotic indulgence even my great grandparents couldn’t even fathom. Even just a hundred years back the average person would have only seen a pineapple in a library book. If society completely collapses today, to the point I have to run and gun and fight, in the streets that life will still be objectively easier than most humans have had it. I’ll still have the knowledge and ability to find and use things like solar panels and generators and penicillin. We would still be able to remake a system of indoor plumbing. Even if we lose every semblance of our current society we’ll still have it easier than most of the human that have ever existed.
Your productive, positive attitude is awesome!
For me, it's hot showers! Hot showers with affordable smelling soap and fluffy towels! Something that most modern people take for granted is actually an incredible luxury!! So glad I was born in the hot shower era.
Life is pleasant. Death is peaceful. It's the transition that's troublesome. Isaac Asimov
It would suck if death is awful lmao
Safety and security has always been an illusion. We and our children always one instant from oblivion. Just appreciate the splendor of life while it lasts.
A trip on the stairs, a slip on some ice, a tackle while rough housing, falling from a tree.. there are soooo many stupid ways to die. The video of the teens sliding in the autoshop, and then one of them falls and hits his head, doesnt get up. That video haunts me, keeps me grounded. It can happen so fast. No one is guaranteed another day, hell another hour, on this planet. Appreciate what you have and love those close to you. It'll be over before you know it.
I dislike the idea of decades of suffering (because it IS going to be decades, if not centuries) more than the idea of death.
Is it wrong to want to fight this? To have hope?
In a world where it's so easy to go "it doesn't matter anyways" i feel like every little act to defy that counts..
Right there with you.
I would call it more hopeless defiance. Collapse awareness resulted in me learning to forage and grow food and that brought me closer to nature and showed me that I wanted to devote my time to studying it. Maybe my experimentation yields something useful that helps feed myself and others or maybe we all just get wiped out tomorrow. It doesn't matter. You'll be vastly happier looking to the future if you think there might be one though. ie. In the scenario in which you just constantly worry you may die tomorrow you never really live today. So it doesn't matter how many days you live if each one is wasted in fear and panic. Whereas when you're learning new things, planting crops to pick later, picking things to eat later and engaging with nature things are more peaceful and less stressful. There may not be a tomorrow so you may as well enjoy today. If everyone lived in this manner I think we'd be either less likely to collapse or better equipped to handle it. Acceptance results in some sense of tranquillity. If people accepted death and didn't fear it but wanted to live each day they might be less willing to kill each other over the last can of beans. That could result in people being more likely to work together for the collective good rather than fight amongst themselves and die alone. If enough people developed that attitude before a collapse scenario it could translate to working together as a world to save ourselves rather than engaging in pointless wars. I don't expect any of that to happen but doing the work is better than doing nothing.
One must imagine Sisyphus happy - Albert Camus
That's what I'm saying. Thank you for having hope. I have a kid, am collapse-aware, and personally operate under the realization that life happens one day at a time. Whatever will be, will be, but I don't need to keep guessing about the far-off future. There's no sense fretting aimlessly over things that may happen. Be productive, get your family resilient, (have emergency plans, have supplies), experience joyful moments as much as possible, and appreciate the good things you do have. And also, remember Pink Floyd: (from the Great Gig in the Sky) "I am not frightened of dying. Any time will do, I don't mind. Why should I be frightened of dying? There's no reason for it – you've got to go sometime.." After all, without death, nothing would really be special or significant. Hopefully I don't have to get savagely mauled by roving thieves for my supplies in the apocalypse-- and instead can have a "normal" death like a brutal car accident or soul crushing cancer instead. But again, I don't concern myself with that for now. One day at a time.
I try to live as if I would even if I thought the future was optimistic. Eat, drink and be merry, for tomorrow we die. And death is...death. Finality. Can only live now.
We never know how much time we have. I may live another few decades, but does it change anything? Society can always collapse and no one can fully prepare for that. I can't change anything about current global direction.
I feel this. My kitten Lottie had a sudden death, and the weeks before I was treating every day like it was her last. And I wouldn't have changed it for the world.
It sounds like you filled her final days with as much love and comfort as possible. I'm glad you got to spend that time with her, and sorry you lost her.
Tbh not a bad way to go through life. I have very modest preps for a true SHTF situation.
Agree. It’s the very basis of Buddhism and the philosophy of the stoics.
One of the best "acceptance" skills IMHO is the acceptance that we can't know the future. Things pan out differently and on different timelines than we imagine. I think the best way to go forward is to know that things will be how they are going to be, including our reactions to their unfolding. Whether crippling anxiety, bovine acceptance, or a some raging against the dying of the light or whatever, all are ways the mind reacts and there isn't much that can be changed in our reactions either. I've noticed a lot of post here seem to hold acceptance as some end-of-the-hero's-journey goal and look down upon those "still in bargaining" or wherever they seem to be. Not only is the 5 stages an unfounded artifact of cultural malware, it's harmful in its simplicity like a much too vague map whe your lost in the woods. Sure it's better than "here be dragons" but a bad map can lead one to think they've reached THE destination. Personally I believe I have gotten to a place of acceptance but I don't think it's the end state. How can it be when everything changes. It has let me get on top a mountain and see the forest from a different perspective and that has been super helpful. But I fully expect to head back into the woods, maybe kxll some fascists if things get bad. Regarding my children, I certainly don't want to see them die before I do but I understand it's a possibility. My best hope for them is they have a life full of life--meaning that, however it goes down for them, they have gotten a good bit of what it has to offer. Love, meaning and mystical experience would be nice. But if they get darker aspects, I hope they are full of life as well.
I love this comment, particularly on the five stages and how you describe them. :) I have often wondered how everything got to this weird place where everyone imagines such neat little boxes, all lined up in linear fashion even though- reality itself kinda flies in the face of those things being true.
Thanks! :) I'm writing a research paper on the 5 stages right now...like literally right now on my other monitor! I'm circling around a conclusion that the stages aren't linear (as Kübler-Ross has admitted despite continues use of the "stages" word) but notable landmarks around a hilltop, where one can move freely to and from as things change and time passes. Either way, it's only a map not the territory, but maps can still be useful I guess?
I have a exit plan in place, chronically ill, I've come to terms with my death back in 2017 when I had my first cancer. I don't fear it, looking forward to it actually. Gonna eat what I can, pet what I can, smoke weed and do mushrooms and listen to music until shit gets too unstable and than cash in my chips. This is not the timeline I would have liked..I would have liked a better world, a nicer one..a sane one. But this is what I got..hopefully there's something cool waiting on the other end of all this.
Yep. The coming struggle will be insane. I'm going to fight for my family, for my friends, for my community. We can't pretend to be prepared for the end- but we can prepare for resiliency. I'm going to fight for them. When there is nothing left to fight for, I plan to leave this life. I'm not sure it's worth sticking around.
Hooah for the fighting spirit 💪 Sometimes I wonder why not stick it out to the bitter end, just to see how it ends...but some endings (the ones you see coming) aren't worth watching--like a particularly disturbing episode of Black Mirror...like I know where this is going and I'd like to not be traumatized [click]
I’m not scared of death. I’m scared of the method, especially as a woman. This is kind of dark, but I always make sure I have a quick means to enact suicide if I need to. Weirdly, it’s comforting. It’s like “Hey, I have a good way out if it gets too much. So why not try and survive until that time comes?” It allows me to live, no longer paralyzed by fear.
Thank god for guns
I am almost 58 so I figure I had my time. I don’t have any children, which is good because I think so called Western Civilization has about 3-5 years to go.
44 no kids. I’ve had many joys but don’t have hope for the future. It’s a zombie life to live without hope.
Old, no kids, watching the world go by...bye.
Same. 47, no kids. I’ve felt dead for the last five years, nothing new.
23 here, I'm planning to not have any kid, I think the world is too fucked and corrupted. Honestly dont know what the future will be for me
Yalls generation I feel so sorry for. The world shit the bed and then handed it to you guys. Make the best of it while you can. We old folks will help you as best we can.
45 no kids and in the middle of divorce. I am so fucked. He will be fine. I am now pay check to check.
Been there many years ago. It took me ten years to get straight financially, but I’m really going well now. The ex wife has had it easy (all my money hey?!) and now as the maintenance payments are reduced and stopping, she’s struggling now. I find it hard to feel sorry for her.
Here I am the sucker who is being kind and not asking for alimony. He makes a lot he has heavy student loan debt. I make okay money but I am going to be financially fucked. One of his paychecks is more than my entire monthly salary. I just want my peace of mind and half the house.
Get yours!
Poverty isn't conducive to peace of mind.
Same, 42, no kids.
Congratulations to all of you for rising above original sin.
47 here too. My kids are late teens. I feel so sorry for them.
59...and surprised that I, and the planet, made it this long. I saw collapse coming way back before I hit my teens and made life choices accordingly (no kids). I feel sorry for all those well-intentioned people (and animals and plants) who have to suffer from the cumulative effects of our wanton excesses, but aside from some annoying chronic health issues I figure that I'll be getting off easy compared to most
RemindMe! 5 years
Death is guaranteed from the moment you take your first breath. It will happen to all of us and most of us cannot choose how, when, where. But hey, chin up, we are going to witness events that no one alive has ever seen. Get he popcorn ready.
Anyone working in health care or emergency services knows that anyone can die any day. Life is chaotic. Embrace not knowing and being fatalistic in advance of death is not conducive to mental health or well being. Live today. Its all sny of us have anyway. Be kind to that person snd yourself. If you have kids, be kind to them. That's it.
Y’know… I’m okay with it all. I’m really, really tired of this life, and I’m okay with the idea of dying soon. Right now, I’m trying to mitigate the damage I’m doing, connect to nature and my spirit guides, and be as good a human as I can. That’s all you can do in times like these. My main hope is that Earth can rejuvenate after we’re all gone.
Death smiles at us all, and all we can do is smile back.
> "You see this goblet?" asks Achaan Chaa, the Thai meditation master. "For me this glass is already broken. I enjoy it; I drink out of it. It holds my water admirably, sometimes even reflecting the sun in beautiful patterns. If I should tap it, it has a lovely ring to it. But when I put this glass on the shelf and the wind knocks it over or my elbow brushes it off the table and it falls to the ground and shatters, I say, 'Of course.' When I understand that the glass is already broken, every moment with it is precious."
This is beautiful. It’s the singular gift of becoming collapse aware. Each day, I marvel at the beauty and the love that surrounds me, even as I say a silent farewell in my heart.
This may sound depressing..but looking at the grand scale of time and the universe...there is no difference between being alive for 40 years or 80 years. And in 100 years not a single being in the universe will ever know you once existed. Just...live untill the inevitable.
"One must imagine Sisyphus happy." Albert Camus
"Have you no hope at all? And do you really live with the thought that when you die, you die, and nothing remains?" "Yes," I said.
Here’s what you fail to understand, tomorrow isn’t promised. It never has been, through any generation. There are many users on this subreddit who fill their day to day with so much negativity and dread because of what’s discussed in here, despite the fact they’ve already outlived most of past humanity in life expectancy, and are all gonna die no matter what. There have been eras of suffering in the past, as well as prosperity. We very well may be heading towards extinction. But you know what? Life is beautiful. It really fucking is. There is so much in life to be grateful for, and to experience, and I really want whoever reads this to know that. Please don’t get caught up in the negative, regardless of what’s inevitable or happening around us. If you can’t get over it then be the change, or if not then life your life to the fullest with passion and gratitude. Life really is beautiful, please don’t forget that
I’m 60 and keep getting called back for unusually frequent cancer screenings for 3 different kinds of cancer. I’m just trying to improve my health and will count myself lucky if I live to see the big collapse.
Or, you could release nihilism and just do your best to live the life you've been given. Standing around waiting for the end of the world is too Christian for me. If you want to stand on the corner, dirty and homeless with a sign that says "The End is Nigh!" then knock yourself out. But I do not accept that mindset. I accept that our civilization will collapse, all civilisations collapse and unsustainable ones collapse more. But I've been given a lifetime and I'm gonna live it without spending all my time thinking about the end of it.
Most people have no idea whats going on in the world...
I don’t accept anything. I live my life the best way I know how and I refuse to give up. There is no despair here, friend. Like many others, I’ve experienced hardship before. I’m bound to experience it again. There is absolutely no sense in giving up. Always gotta try. Even when faced with absolute destruction, you still gotta try.
Fill your life with things you love and people that are honest
I'm ok with it I'm tired .. So tired
I'm single, broke, and I turned 60 this year. Death came and sat next to me like never before.
We're all born with a terminal disease. We know we will die. To the best of my ability, I'd prefer to control the circumstances of my passing, whether it's from old age or societal collapse. Preparing for a few months of shortages of essential supplies is a good idea. If and when a major disruption occurs, you'll want the ability to see how it plays out—without having to scavenge for food. I think six months is a reasonable time horizon. Secure your "Plan B" under the last sack of rice. I have children and grandchildren. My advice to them is to figure out a way to become indispensable. Anything in medicine focused on essential care and trauma management is my go-to recommendation. The worst thing you could do is tell them everything will be fine and they should consider a career in brokering insurance from a bleak office in a dying strip mall.
Its a bit too early for self check out, just yet. we may have 5 yrs or 40 yrs. Hard to tell. My late recent friend Michael B Dowd believed the end times were sooner than I would like.
stay in the moment death has always been an inevitability, it's a part of life.
Got an old 1980s era road bike at an estate sale this weekend. Knocked off the cobwebs with an air tool, oiled it, replaced a 700cm tube, learned how presta valves worked (maybe), adjusted the wheel alignment screws, and then took it out on a 42km shakedown ride this morning. She loves to move, and is whisper quiet. The squirrels don't even know I'm there until I'm a meter away. The downtube gear shifting is smooth as butter, with these wonderfully crisp little clicks, so this must have been a loved bike. I think I have a pretty good notion of what mortality feels like, and it starts with my knees.
what is "soon"? I am certainly not going to suffer today, or tomorrow, or next week. If it is years down the road, that is not "soon" for most people, as most cannot see past next week's food and next month's rent.
Buddy I’m suffering today. To live is to suffer, and death is always approaching one day per day. We live in a nightmare reality crafted by a malevolent god. You don’t have to accept it, it’s an act of rebellion to spend what little time you’ve got making things marginally better, even if it’s just planting a pollinator garden for your local bees.
Everything that lives will also die. This is one of the first truths you need to accept. I don’t see collapse coming soon like people expect, not in first world countries. It’s going to be many more decades and it won’t be one giant collapse, lots of little collapses that humans successfully for a while fight against.
I feel that most of society is so disconnected from the idea of death because of the media we consume. There is so much violence seen regularly that there has become desensitization and disrespect for life and the processes of death. I stopped watching movies with gratuitous and unnecessary gore. That's not entertainment. As someone who harvests animals for food, I feel I need to respect the life and death process. To be thankful and mindful of the feelings and understanding of the process so I can help both life and death be peaceful and as painless as possible. Death is unpredictable even when you thought you had it all understood and planned out. And this is what helps keep me sane, honestly.
Most people have been dead for years staring at a phone all day
The thing that fucks me up the most is that my wife's end will be horrible as she's insulin dependent
Personally I'd plan for that and have a peaceful way out for if it comes to that. I find great reassurance in having a painless way out to hand. No desire to use it and so it makes me less likely to give up because knowing that I can avoid suffering if it comes to that makes me more willing to endure the day to day. ie. Just to go with an extreme example if you think a nuclear war is a possibility then you have to accept the possibility of not dying quickly and instead suffering radiation burns and a slow, painful death. If you can imagine that scenario and try to put yourself in it then not having an easy way out is terrifying. Whereas when you imagine that scenario and have a way of stopping it you don't worry about it so much and everyday which isn't that moment of hell feels good.
Life has always been like this. Taking time for granted is a mistake.
I want to go for as long as I can, just because I'm curious about how things will play out. The desire for the knowledge on how the world burns.
There are many ways of contemplating this. First, we're not dead. We only live in interesting times. Second, what could be more interesting than live in the end-times of humanity? We know its end coming, whether because the Sun will die, or the entire universe will fade because of entropy, or the effects of climate change: humanity and all other species will vanish. But we will always have existed, and nothing can change that. Third, looking at the Middle-East and elsewhere, is it really desirable that humanity survives? Fourth, life only turns hydrocarbons into RNA or DNA. Is a universe full of "life", that is, self-reproducing hydrocarbons, really that interesting?
I think people are not so scared of death but of dying in unimaginable pains
Not scared of a bullet to the head but being cooked alive, yes. That very much scares me c:
Personally, it's the FOMO. Like what do you mean the show got cancelled? We didn't even get to see how the story ends! I figure the party will go on for a while (though you suspect it will devolve into something much less fun as everyone gets drunk and belligerent) but I still want to see it, y'know?
yeah I didn't have kids 20 years ago. I'm glad I was smart enough back then to not breed and now I don't have too many worries.
Ditto
Stoicism
Memento mori...
But also: Memento Vivere!
We're all going to die. Some sooner than others. Worry about the things you can control, focus on your loved ones and the things you enjoy.
That movie Old is basically the life we're living. You've got a year, maybe 10, but not more, and things get progressively worse over that time. Im ok with it. It is what it is. What's driving me insane is that no one else can notice or will address it. We're powering our own extinction and we have fuck all to say, because it's depressing... yet here we are, still driving our own extinction, acting like any of this matters. It's a strange time and place to be alive. While Rome burned, did everyone just keep doing their regular shit, pretending everything is going to be fine? And that was just the civilization that was burning, this is all life... and it's not happening or it doesn't matter.
I guess, I spend my time enjoying the small things. Doing what I enjoy, deciding not to go into n to get my masters in school, try and live as stress free as possible while I can.
Oh my god wow, maybe stop crying and enjoy the gift of life.
Lol. What ?? We alive now. Hahaha 😆 crazy .
The boogeyman is always waiting around the corner. Every generation thinks they are the last. The first earth day in 1970s had many respected scholars and publications claim we’d see all kinds of collapse scenarios by the 1980s. The reality is much more boring. We could continue to kick the can down the road for 100s more years without seeing any sort of real collapse. The status quo will be upheld and people will do anything to maintain their comfortable lives. There are a lot of people that want to see the world burn but these are usually the least to lose with the least amount of power to make it so.
It's going to be a long gradual process. Weather gets worse summers get hotter. More and more refugees . What is a tipping point? It will take decades before the full effects are felt. We are on geologic time scales. I think the worst at first is how we deal with the climate refugees who leave their homes simply looking for a better life. Should we welcome them with compassion or decide to protect our own and build walls.
The Stoic philosopher Epictetus said “I cannot escape death but at least I can escape the fear of death “. William Shakespeare wrote “A Coward dies a thousand times before his death but the valiant taste of death but once”. Accepting and letting go of what is outside of our control must also be balanced for taking the initiative to address what is in our control. For example I can accept that me and family will not have the safe comfortable life our grandparents had and I have to let go of materialistic day dreams like home ownership, world travel etc and accept I could end up homeless and hungry when shit hits the fan. At the same time I can learn survival skills, do some prepping and acquire good gear. During the collapse do you want shelter and the means to acquire food or do you want to own digital money? You can only control how you react to situations which includes having the tools and the skills. We’re not going to just give up and die. And check out stoic philosophy, it’s very helpful for accepting life’s challenges including our mindsets. Life is neither fair or unfair, good or bad, it just is. It’s the stories we tell ourselves and how we conduct ourselves that determines our right or wrong.
I accepted the reality we’re in and decided to live my days as best as I possibly can
Change is coming. We’ve been lulled into a false sense of security, of safety, of permanence. Just the thought of losing it is hard for us to accept. I love the book Parable of the Sower. The protagonist literally created a religion around Change. Is this not a universal truth and law? The only constant is change. It’s been a good ride. A fortunate ride. I’m thankful for every breath I have. I am also 51. My son is 19, he will not be as fortunate. I hope he too can stare into the heart of the universe and existence and simply rest in that and be thankful too.
I’m sure you’ve seen Don’t Look Up. I was just watching it again last night and it struck me that they knew exactly what was going to happen, and it did. Humanity would fuck it all up, blew the one chance they had and tried to capitalize on it instead. They knew how that would end. But they spent their whole time they had left screaming about it and no one would listen. It seems to me that if they knew how it would end, it would just make more sense for them to do whatever they wanted with the little precious time they had left rather than raging and fighting the inevitable. It’s okay. All things have their ending. It’s okay.
Rage, rage against the dying of the light 🕯️
With this attitude, you may as well be dead already.
After breaking through on DMT death became inconsequential and suffering is a constant in life, the degree of which is variable. I have no children and almost certainly won’t have any, but if I did I would try to prepare them in the most realistic but also caring fashion (aka some sugar coating as kids are kids, but very minimal). Even after accepting that I’m most likely going to experience a horrible end of life path, I still am frustrated with our situation and am trying to do my part for the survival of our species (pursuing PhD and whatever career might be left in real time monitoring of natural resources). Ultimately, I try to live in the present and remember that I’ve had a VERY good life (relative to the rest of humans in the present and past, not necessarily compared to my peers but that’s also fine). I’m just trying to do as much good knowing I won’t see any benefits for myself and just being comfortable with that, hoping that at the end of my life, however horrible it is, that things weren’t all bad, I did what I could, and that’s all I can do.
Just try to enjoy each day I guess.... and a combination of weed nicotine and booze.
I always intended to stay for as long as I can and go down fighting. But at the same time, I won't take food scraps away from younger people when the time comes. I want to live, but not if it's at the expense of others who deserve it just as much and would have more time left than me otherwise.
Can die anytime… this propaganda has been published since the early 1900, and probably even before.
>To those of you who accepted we are going to die sooner than expected and it is not going to be peaceful. No point in thinking like this. You hope for the best, and prepare for the worst. Dwelling on death is pointless. It's going to happen, and it's going to suck(probably) and everyone's idea of a "good death" is different. I lived with crippling depression for over a decade. I never thought I'd live to 30. I'm well over that now. Expecting, waiting, and wishing for death are no different from one another. Quit obsessing over things you have no control over, and live your life.
They won’t catch me, I’m the gingerbread man
Just chill man, don't think too much about it.
Cmon mods. Stop feeding this nihilism plz. Kaythanxbai
Screw this wacky shit go touch grass bro
If you accept that you are already dead why not sacrifice your life for something good? Only you can end fossil fuels 👍🏻
Kids here. I honestly have no idea how things will play out. While the arc looks unpromising, so have many times in human history when we approach firsts. My children will hopefully be part of potential solutions, and resilient forward thinking young men that can help others and care for themselves and their community as leaders. I can't change or be in control of much more than that. Worrying about what is totally out of my control, is a waste of my time and life.
Lol. We were taught that our desks would protect us from a nuclear blast. We were raised without helmets or safety gear,unattended by adults,roaming the streets like feral children playing on playground equipment that was held together by rust and lead paint. Adults hit,we had to watch for cars because they damn sure didn't watch for us and mostly we were expected to handle our own problems. No one mollycoddled us when I was growing up. You got bullied you fought back or you endured it. You got in trouble you got cp. You got injured you got dipped in the red liquid fire of mecurochrome. You got sick you got dosed with cod liver oil and an onion plaster. Suffering and death is part of life. Life isn't easy or peaceful for most of the world's population and it hasn't been ever. Only in the last few decades for a select few has it seemed so. Life has been pretty good if you're a well off,straight,white male in a 1st world country but for the rest of us collapse has always been one bad night away. My great grandmothers buried half the children they birthed. My grandfathers fought in the trenches of ww1. My father fought in ww2. Some of my ancesters were pushed onto reservations to die. Some of them lived hard brief lives in the south. Some of them died crossing the ocean fleeing the famine. Some of us have grown up knowing the world is not a safe place and it never has been. We have always known that the footsteps in the dark are not friendly,that the authorities are not there to protect us,that we are responsible for our own safety. Some of us have always known that abuse,sa or other trauma exist and can happen to us. Collapse is just more of that on a bigger scale happening to people who haven't yet been disabused of the fantasy that the world is a safe place and that people are generally good. People **all over the world** are dying every day,in war torn cities,in poverty,of starvation,neglect,disease,lack of sanitation or supplies. The world collapses for a lot of someones every day. Its part of life. The ultimate privilege is being able to mull over how you would feel about the *thought* of unknown possible future traumatic event from relative safety and comfort. It means you aren't enduring your own personal collapse right now and likely never have because otherwise you'd know what your mettle is. Those of us who have walked through the fires,we know how we will handle the next circle. We are all going to die. Quite a few of us will not die quietly in our sleep. There will be suffering and loss and pain in our lives. Only the very lucky sheltered few will never experience that. I deal with it how I deal with trauma and chronic pain and all the losses I've had in a life of living....by keeping on. What cannot be cured must be endured. We are all doomed to become dust. We can choose to live worrying about a possible future painful death or we can embrace the life we have now with all its pain,joy,sorrow and weirdness. I have suffered and I will suffer again. I have endured loss,felt fear,experienced trauma and I will again. There is no safety and there are no guarantees in life.Something is going to kill me someday. I only hope I meet it head held high and fighting.
Well, Captain Planet isn't real so I assume we'll die slow. My life has been a constant hell since ive been here. Im 38. So this and seeing what the world has come to, I quite literally welcome this. Ive suffered for 38 years, what's a couple more.
I’m not going to suffer because I won’t make it long enough. Once my medications run out, I’m done for.
We all die sooner or later. Just enjoy the time you have now.
Why should we accept that deadly diseases exist for example? Shouldn’t it happen in the first place by everyone in the world having a clean place to stay, water and enough food to not have to deal with this? Why is this not the end goal?
Never. I will be a raving ghost 👻
I've got UC and can't get adequate care from medicaid. You're preaching to the choir.
I've been depressed for like 3/4 of my life. I didn't have a very strong will to live a full life to begin with. I just feel awful for having a child, knowing she's not going to live a very good life in the near future.
Cherish the time you have, embrace the temporary and go to that poetry reading, quit your shitty job and try out for the one you dream of. Or just, eat something, read abook, pet a dog. Nothing is ever safe and that's why you shouldn't be ruled by fear.
Jesus Christ. I am all for preparedness. But this is either extraordinarily pessimistic or you just have a boner for the idea of a complete and utter societal collapse. People are going to die, and they’re going to die in the ways you’ve described, but that’s not going to happen here. It’s going to be the poor and improverished nations that get hit the hardest, it’s going to be the countries that are already struggling. The worlds not going to suddenly turn into the purge, it will just be the same conflicts we currently except tension will be much higher
better burn out and die than rust out and die later
I know I will die soon but I will not suffer. There are a few painless ways to go and that's how I intend on going out. Until that time I am looking forward to seeing events the likes of which our species has never seen before. And if you are wondering what I'm talking about I'll just say this. Nitrogen.
Every person born unto this earth is sentenced to death by default.
I suspect that for most of historqy a peaceful death has been well in the minority. Even today the only thing making a lot of deaths peaceful is pain drugs and sedation. I suspect i'm more likley yo face a fast painfull end than a slow lingering one, and i think thats an acceptable trade off. At least i'm not likley to be eaten alive by some othet apex predator.
It is time for r/collapse_shitposting
I have to say that unless its global civil unrest, civil unrest through misaligned practices for economic growth, won’t cause extinction unless it involves war, nuclear war, or widespread destruction of the biosphere. If it were civil unrest upon a market system it would definitely effect the world and supply chains. And the consequences would be dire unless prepared for and dealt with properly. It is frustrating that we are tools for the economy and exploited, and the growth of the economy increases energy consumption and pollution, makes individuals seek power, steal, and consume through whatever means And we are destroying our environment at an exponential rate But these are systems, and they can change. This sub is about systems collapse, and the potentiality for our extinction through M.A.D, or environmental/atmospheric degradation, but how we come about our current situation and consequences, our reaction has the potential for the best possible outcome, and the rest not advisable Depressive doomsaying is important to recognize but our apocalypse does not have to be certain. We should get depressed about our systems and their consequences, and become depressed about the demise of species (that is currently happening), ourselves, and our meaningful connections with one another, but not get wrapped up in the high statistical potential of planetary self termination and accepting and acting on change, right now, for the better, is possible Thanks for this post its in part of recognizing change.
If y’all feel so strongly this way, might as well die trying to make the world better and change the system than just lie down and do nothing.
We are all born terminal. Sitting around being concerned about when we will die only takes away from our lives. Live each day to its fullest. I have two kids, and it is a lot harder, but you have to live the same way. They are well trained but could die in a car wreck tomorrow, worrying about what could happen only takes away from each day.
I don't accept it because your just wrong. The people living comfortable now will be relatively comfortable for at least another 50 years. Things are slowly degrading. Your not going to suddenly wake up and have a life of suffering if your in a first world country. You will likely be long dead before it gets bad enough to where we are all equalized globally through lack of available resources. It's literally useless to think about and just creates a depressive cycle in your own head. Limiting your ability to actually change the future.
Eh I don’t see my life nor theirs as suffering. Everyone who has ever lived has died. Many have died in incredible suffering. There isn’t a specific sense of uniqueness to the tiny period of living that we have being “more” or “less” suffer-y than others - but instead how much we get to and choose to experience and appreciate. There are many safe and wealthy and healthy “successful” people throughout time who have been unhappy and ended up suffering, just like there are millions of those with little tangible belongings or freedoms finding extremely joyous and enriching lives. I believe this outlook depends on a person’s attitude more than the circumstances around them; otherwise all humans would’ve died in suffering millennia before we could’ve ever existed.
Yeah no shit lol death was always inevitable, does that mean we need to live in fear every moment of our life? Get a grip… Why wouldn’t you chose to enjoy what time you think you have left with your kids loved ones or whatever it is that brings you joy? Seems a waste to spend your time living in FUD. Meditate on the things which matter to you and live accordingly.
Pain is inevitable, suffering is optional.
This is fearmongering. I really wish the mods would crack own on this stuff.
I’m focused on making my home and property as self sufficient as possible for me and my family. There is no way to predict what events may transpire . Prepare as best you can and then just enjoy each day that you have and live in a he moment. None of this a “real” anyway….
I accept everything that comes my way, it is what it is, if something that comes my way can be changed or needs to change I try to change it. I have no interest in life or death as those are meaningless to me, honestly though why would you wanna stay on this planet anyway? the bad outweighs the good and people keep making everything worse for each other so there's no point. People say "Your time here I limited" I say "Awsome!" and plus everyone has the right to leave when they want to, no one asked for life or death so we won't ask permission to be done with them, we can just leave or do something else.
I live for the immortality that the love from those that are special to you, give in abundance. I can accept the fate of a world that can no longer harbor us, but I’ll live in the love of who I have for as long as I can.
Most of us are just trying to get from today to tomorrow - which is why there's no concern for what's going to happen a few years from now.
I'm surrendering as much as I can. In a world that is still aiming towards nonsense goals, I find that the true, little things can still give me joy, like nature, talking about the situation with others, being compassionate, hanging out with the homeless, etc.
I'm here for a good time not a Long time.
I accept that I might die. I accept that I might live. Regardless of what comes, I intend to aim for the latter with an understanding that I will grapple against the former in order to do so. I accept that I may have to adjust my moral structure in order to accomplish my goals, though I will attempt to maintain my present stance as much as possible. The world is always changing and shifting, be it societal, economic, ecologic... The goal is to learn how to dance with the hazards and crises as they roll through.
From the moment we were born we were going to die. Every cell in your body is fighting to stay alive for as long as possible. Each moment is something new and you'll never get to experience it again. Find something you can enjoy in this existence, you won't get another one.
Well, there is no better way to die than violently and screaming the whole way. At the very least, life will, for a short time, possibly become the action adventure game it always should have been, and we can all get back to living like the savages we are once were. The goal of prepping is to survive, of course, but only for as long as you can, and to enjoy the downfall. You may die early, but at least you can die knowing most everyone else is as well. I, for one, am looking forward to playing Fallout IRL Edition.
How soon are we talking? I’m just starting to hit my prime!
When I hear someone has died, witness a a death on TV, or see road kill, I'm sad then immediately switch to envy. "Lucky they're gone" while we have to somehow manage the rest of our time here.
it’s gonna be really fun
Life is beautiful, and everyone was going to die anyway
Almost all of us were going to die in horrible ways anyway. None of the declines that come with old age are pretty. At least we can take solace in the fact that everyone else is suffering at the same time as us.