This is just a follow-up to yesterday's argument against the common survivalist mentality. One of the linchpins of the eat-thy-neighbor survivalist ethos is the idea that societal collapse is inevitable because our society is deceptively civil. The phrase you often hear is that it would not take much of a disruption (peak oil, war, pandemic, etc...) for the thin veneer of civilization (which under normal circumstances holds things together) to give way to howling mobs and general barbarity.
It is true that, in the immortal words of Bob Marley, "a hungry man is an angry man," and desperate people will often commit unthinkable acts during times of crisis. But these acts occur not because the elements of civilization are not present, they occur because people with the means and disposition to commit violence are themselves not civil. Civilization has nothing to do with infrastructure, architecture or political power, rather it arises through the regularity of civil (as opposed to barbaric or malevolent) transactions between people, often within a certain locality. It is carried in our hearts and minds and manifests through mutual attitudes of trust and benevolence. But, for survivalists, civilization merely is an impediment to their fantasies of heroism (or merely consequence). The intense individualism of some of these folks is not now, and certainly not in times of crisis, conducive to civil social intercourse. If we are lucky these people will crawl into their bunkers and leave the rest of us in peace to get by together, to repair our communities and to safeguard our collective livelihoods.
If the global financial crisis manifests itself in the most dire possible terms, we will need heroes, that is, people willing to work together for the betterment of all. As we have seen in Iraq, social disintegration can indeed lead to the rise of tribalisms and the rule of the most savage and well armed elements of society.
It doesn't have to be that way. For example, post-war Japan could have easily become the third world country we tried to bomb it into, but the people worked together to recreate communities, companies and neighborhood associations, and in 30 years they became the world's second largest economy. I don't know if, in 30 years, we will be able to say the same about Iraq. It really is up to us, to how we respond during these critical times.
So, adopt a survivalist today. Get him out of his bunker, take him for a walk around town and cancel his subscription to "guns and ammo" or "soldier of fortune." Introduce him to people and teach him that, even in troubled times, together we can create sustainable communities and a durable future.
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