Notes From An Apocalypse
A Personal Journey To The The End of The World
By Mark O’Connell
The Cold War last from the 1940s-1980s. Nuclear Fallout Shelters were built during this time. The threat of global nuclear war was serious and create a fear of a looming apocalypse. Doomsday Preppers came out of this time.
They often talk about SHTF or Shit Hits The Fan. They create bug out bags and bug out boxes. Mark O’Connell was curious, so he read DIY Survival Hacks! Survival Guide For Beginners and How To Survive A Disaster By Using Easy Household DIY Tricks. Also How To Survive The End Of The World As We Know It. James Wesley and Rawls were two Preppers from the US Army. They often abbreviate it TEOTWAWKI for The End of the World As We Know It. Some of them fly the Don’t Tread On Me flags with the rattlesnake on it.
Preppers believe there will be an economic crash, an electric grid crash, war or disease that will collapse civilization. These Preppers don’t trust cities. They prefer living in the country, away from the chaos. On page 30 he says, “Prepping is rooted I n apprehension of an all consuming decadence. Society has become excessively reliant on systems of distribution and control whose vary vastness and complexity renders them hopelessly vulnerable.” They believe that the wars will be between Sheep Dog Gangs and Urban Gangs. Some believe it will be between Blacks and Whites.
Mark O’Connell checks by NuManna’s website, which is full of survival gear. There are luxury bunkers in South Dakota for sale. Robert Vicino specializes in this type of Real Estate. You too can buy one for 1.7 Million Dollars! A good book to read on this subject is One Nation Underground: The Fallout Shelter in American Culture by Kenneth D Rose.
The other part of the story revolves around Right-Wing conspiracy theories. Some of the theories attached to the apocalypse include: the Earth having a tendency to shift on its axis abruptly. This shift will cause major earthquakes and tidal waves. Some believe in a rogue planet called Niburu that is on course to crash into the earth. Others focus on the idea of everything converging into One World Government. Then there are those who believe the Democratic Party has been taken over by Jews who seek to exploit the gullible minorities.
During the apocalypse people believe that there will be raping, pillaging and even cannibalism. The word apocalypse means unveiling. Some people take this to mean that the apocalypse will be a time to embrace a universal truth. The veneer of civilization will fall away and people will see what is really underneath. This will be a time that will shed light on the haves and have-nots. It will highlight the struggle between the rich and the poor in its extremes. This will be a time where it will be the survival of the fittest.
New Zealand has become a place of interest. It will be the refuge of billionaires during the collapse. They plan hold up in their Hampton-like neighborhood of mansions. German-American Peter Thiel, co-founder of PayPal, is part of this big movement. He believes in The Sovereign Individual. Also read The New Zealand Project by Max Harris New Zealand not far enough away? Why not focus on a new colony on Mars. People are already signing up to be apart of it even though the technology to get there is still in development.
There is a certain fascination with the death and decay of our world. A prime example is the Chernobyl Exclusion Tour. “It was astonishing to behold how quickly we humans become irrelevant to the business of nature.” O’Connell mentions Czeslaw Milosz’s Poem “A Song On The End of the World.”
In conclusion, the future is a source of fear not because we know what will happen, but because we know so little and have so little control over what happens. The best advice is to expect the unexpected.
carilynn27 