How to Prepare Now for the Complete End of the World

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/03/05/style/rewilding-stone-age-bushcraft.html

by laurex • 6 years ago

27 28 6 years ago

mikestew2• 6 years ago

There was an old ax they used instead. Its head periodically flung off, each time narrowly missing someone.

Perhaps before someone gets killed or maimed, we can learn how to hammer a wedge into an axe handle.

It’s a mentality that I have difficulty grasping. That doesn’t make it bad, I just fail to “get it” (and I spend plenty of time in the woods). For example, the angst of not having a cell connection: that tells me this isn’t aimed at me. But it also says some folks have a need for such programs.

dpcan• 6 years ago

People only have a need for these things because they don't know any other way to live. You can't fault someone for not being raised or inspired to try living in the woods (or wherever). Plus, it's completely okay to rely on modern technology and luxuries. That's why we invented them.

The axe was probably a modern technology and convenience at one time too. Some elder or survivalist of the time was definitely irritated that a young person was using an axe when their sharp stone and biceps did the trick for years.

mikestew2• 6 years ago

You can't fault someone for not being raised or inspired to try living in the woods (or wherever).

Stating that I have difficulty grasping a mental model would, to me, imply that if I can't grasp it I can't fault it, either. Pretty sure I hammered that point home in my comment. Regardless, if you can't go a weekend without a cell connection without undue stress, head to Methow, WA with my blessing. But do me a favor: first thing you do when you get unpacked, drive a little wedge or two in that axe handle before you use it. The wedges are probably still Scotch-taped to the axe handle, and could literally save someone's life.

lambdasquirrel• 6 years ago

Something tells me that if the end of the world comes, this sort of article will be a moot point. The Earth just can’t handle that many subsistence farmers and hunter/gatherer types. So most of us won’t make it.

Besides that, this is a strangely American fixation. You never seem to hear about doomsday sort of things in the same vein from Europe’s news outlets. China’s culture has endured the collapse of centralized authority many times over (most recently in the 19th and 20th centuries). Western Europe eventually came back from the collapse of the Roman Empire. If things really fell apart in North America, you can bet that the EU and China would figure out a deal to maintain some semblance of stability near the coasts, for the sake of protecting economic interests.

kiba• 6 years ago

How about we just learn skill for its own sake and hobby?

You never seem to hear about doomsday sort of things in the same vein from Europe’s news outlets.

American sure have a strange fixation on doomsday prepping for their own family, but not on a societal level. Prepping on a societal level will likely stave off collapse of society as we know it as opposed to living through a post-apocalypse.

Like, we could use a little bit of prepping for a pandemic that we're currently undergoing through instead of being unprepared every time, like investing much more in learning how to make and test vaccines quickly or keeping more masks on hand.

spectramax2• 6 years ago

You never seem to hear about doomsday sort of things in the same vein from Europe’s news outlets.

https://www.dw.com/en/doomsday-clock-suggests-the-end-is-clo...

Is it me or I see, sometimes regular thrashing of America - which is good if its valid - but I feel like there is some sort of deep bias by Europeans that everything is rosy up in the EU and everything America does is substandard. May be you didn't mean that but I want to mention this bias as part of the HN community as a whole.

The pattern largely is: X seems to be an American issue. We never do X in Europe. It comes off as a prejudice filled opinion - I've met many europeans that come off extremely rude against Americans. Tribalism makes people less pleasant and unproductive in making arguments. We should stop doing this and talk about the issue at hand.

neuro_image3• 6 years ago

Objectively, America is a young culture - often considered adolescent, as compared to European cultures that have existed for many centuries.

This youthful exuberance has its benefits but it also has more than its share of idealism, naïveté and general lack of big picture considerations.

The survivalist movement is a great example of this.

secstate• 6 years ago

Define "came back from the collapse of the Roman Empire".

We only have a few thousand years of recorded human history as a benchmark, but the "Dark Ages" weren't as dark as people think they were. They simply lacked large central authorities with state-sponsored violence used to maintain control.

I would put forward that the biggest hurdle most humans have to get over, and this goes really for most modern societies, is putting preservation before perseverance.

I don't intend to come off as a nihilist, but I suppose there are also very few new thoughts under the sun. The status quo is an illusion in our minds, and to even begin to place any one part of human history in an objective rank of better or worse misses the trajectory of life as we understand it. Evolution does not promise better, it promises continued existence.

Climate change is a human problem, not an Earth problem. Civilization collapse is a me and you problem, not a human problem. To the extent that we put the burden of preservation on ourselves we risk missing the point of perseverance that all life around us demonstrates every day. The unique gift humans give to that equation, which no one can yet explain why we have this gift, is to bring both logic and compassion to our continued existence. Let's remember to keep logic and compassion in balance and live our lives as though we were not going to live forever.

jariel4• 6 years ago

North Americans have often lived on 'the frontier' between civilization and the harsh conditions of the natural world. And FYI said conditions are generally harsher in North America than they are in Europe where distances are shorter, the weather is more temperate etc..

Also, many North Americans descend from farmers who actually owned their land, developing very much a communitarian/entrepreneurial attitude.

Also, during the cold war there was a real threat of collapse.

This attitude exists to this day.

While we make fun of these people like this, I don't see it as a bad thing.

Reasonable precautions are good, but also, having a small number of people take 'extreme' precaution is possibly a good healthy as well.

spectramax2• 6 years ago

Totally, same with Australia - they've got so much uninhabitable land and a tremendous wild life refuge - thus, we don't say "Austrlians have systemic problem with survivalist mentality". I found the GP comment glib, unthoughtful and somewhat bigoted and condescending.

kristianc2• 6 years ago

North Americans have often lived on 'the frontier' between civilization and the harsh conditions of the natural world. And FYI said conditions are generally harsher in North America than they are in Europe where distances are shorter, the weather is more temperate etc..

Eh? The USA is right in the middle of the world’s most temperate climate zone, some distances are vast but there are vast tracts of very habitable and fertile land. It has non predatory neighbours at both north and south, and fish on its east and west. In the aftermath of WWII, Iowa was producing 90% of the world’s corn.

Throughout its history, the United States has had a level of geographic security unparalleled by any other country in the world. It has never once faced a serious threat to its existence. The US has a geographic endowment like no other. How can you possibly call it living on the frontier?

foob• 6 years ago

I think this is a great explanation. The US has a much more recent history of frontiermanship and homesteading than Europe does, and that continues to permeate our culture in many ways. When I was a kid, books like My Side of the Mountain and Island of the Blue Dolphins were required reading. Apocalyptic television shows like Jericho, Lost, The 100, The Last Man, and Revolution are still very popular. The echoes of the 1800s live on in books, television shows, and movies.

plessthanpt05• 6 years ago

If it were (literally) "the complete end of the world", I don't think you'd need to prepare -- I mean, I know this is just semantics, but the end would be just that.

And I get that's not what the article is actually saying, but the title is very clickbaity.

stallmanite2• 6 years ago

The same thought crossed my mind. I want to know how to survive the big rip.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Big_Rip

chillacy2• 6 years ago

The third book of the Three Body Problem is pretty amazing to read if you like sci-fi which goes to the heat death of the universe.

jdkee• 6 years ago

It is from the NYT “Style” section which should tell you all you need to know about its contents.

How to Prepare Now for the Complete End of the World

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