Over the weekend while darning socks, I watched Blood and Gold on Netflix. The plot, set in May 1945, involves an escape plot, a revenge plot, and a "Get the Treasure" plot. It was far more entertaining than I had anticipated, although I do not know that I would heartily recommend it.
The fact that is the end of the War and the Americans are just beyond the horizon is a subtle pressure underlying the movie, that things need to be "done" by the time the Americans arrive.
Which then, of course, brought me to another thought entirely: What, I wonder, is if like to live in societies that are facing the end of existence?
Netflix's All Quiet On The Western Front asks this question as well (as does the book); The Last Days of Hitler is the same question at a higher level. But the question is relevant beyond ending of wars through German points of view. The same could be said of Edo Japan in 1866 or Royalist France in 1788 or Britain in 408 A.D. or Byzantium in some point during the 1440's or 1450's or even the Eastern Block circa 1988: the time between the clarity that the construct one is living in is not going to continue but before it actually fails.
On a personal level of course, I would have to imagine there is a lot of confusion and unrest. Does one flee? Does one stay in place? When the dust settles, will things be better or worse? - and this is not an irrelevant question: one of the sayings just prior to the conquest of Constantinople was "Better the Sultan's turban than the Pope's Miter" (e.g., better to live under Turkish rule than merge with Catholicism and given the history of the previous 250 years, not hard to understand), and surely those that have lived under any authoritarian society where they were victimized (National Socialism, Communism) cannot see anything much worse than what has happened before.
And surely there is a consideration of the past actions of one's life. In some cases, plans that were years or decades in the making are about to be turned into dust ascending in the wind. All that planning, all that scheming, all those years and years of work - gone in an short period of time.
Add to that the reality that for many, staying where they are is likely a bad idea and so one sees people fleeing hither and yon. Refugees moving away from advancing armies, refugees being turned back or away by people who themselves are effectively in the same situation.
What is like to see all of this coming, to realize it is happening, and yet to feel powerless to either change the outcome or to have a clear path toward safety?
I would imagine that one is also thinking about the "after" of the event: What will happen to me? What will the new society be like? Will I be a criminal? Will I have things taken away - or looted? What will it all look like - especially if I was an individual that had a stake in the society now passing away?
All of this compressed into months or even weeks, even as things continue to slide apart.
When, I wonder, does it become clear that all of this is happening and all of this needs to be thought of? For some of course, it will not be until the deluge is upon them, until the barricades have fallen and the crowds are in the street and things are being torn down. For others, it will be months or even years before the event; even for some it will be before the last feather comes to rest on the pile, tumbling the whole thing down.
In a way, perhaps, it is like the death sentence that we all invariably carry within us the moment we are born: we know we will die, we just do not know when or the circumstances. Within that knowledge, we try to make the best life we can for ourselves, knowing that there is only so much we can control and doing our best.
Plan for the best and prepare for the worst, as the saying goes.
Buy cheap and stack deep, two is one and one is none come to mind also.
ReplyDeleteNylon12 that certainly works - but for the people that lived in the oncoming path of the Soviets in Eastern Europe, that likely only got them to the end of the War, not through it (to be fair, I suspect similar things may have happened on the Western Front as well, though we like to believe otherwise).
DeletePortable wealth? It can help, but as the saying goes you cannot eat gold and we keep finding hoards of coins that hidden "for a little bit" until the raiders left, and it might in fact make you more of a target if you are discovered.
There are no easy answers, I suspect.
I expected this starting in '08. I tried to prepare as best I could. Being a squirrel chaser didn't help, I lacked focus. But I do have new skills and old tools to, hopefully, make me an asset.
ReplyDeleteThe Crust Buster stirred up all the poop in the pool about three years ago... I found that accepting the inevitable quickly was the way to go. You will never know which way the splash will go, but if you are already accepting of it, you can move quickly to avoid most of the mess. Holding everything lightly, trust that God will take you into and through the stuff of life. And remember, no one gets out alive. Live as best you know how, keep short accounts, and be ready to meet the Maker.
We can control what we can control STxAR, and can only plan (often imperfectly) for what we cannot. For the rest, as it goes, pray and prepare - after all, we are indeed not getting out of this alive.
Delete"When, I wonder, does it become clear that all of this is happening and all of this needs to be thought of?"
ReplyDeleteNow would be a good time, though what good does it do when you try to point out the obvious and are told you're a tin-hatter? For the likes of us, "now" was years ago...
Doves... Groundfeeding, stupid doves... Did you ever watch a cat sneaking up on feeding doves? The cat will creep up on them while they blissfully feed. Once in a while one of the doves will look up but will not see the cat that's only a few feet away. It'll then go back to eating, only to be eaten itself a short time later... That's where a good chunk of our population is at right now... The key word in all of this is "stupid..."
Pete - The standard answer (I am sure) is similar to planting a tree: The best time to do it was 20 years ago. The next best time to do it is today.
DeleteNormality bias is a hard thing to overcome, be it in doves or in human populations.
Because of elder women with health, mobility issues, we won't be going anywhere. I'll likely die of disease, starvation or in a pile of brass.
ReplyDeleteI'm as ready as I can be on this side. I'm totally ready for the "other" side. Always maintain yer sense humor, even if it's lame.
TM - The reality is that is often something that is not thought of, at least in my experience especially in "apocalyptic fiction". Many times people cannot go for reason that have nothing to do with readiness or awareness, but rather than ability. How many people over history have been trapped behind "enemy lines" simply because they could not go?
DeleteSometimes a lame sense of humor is all we have.
The Organic Prepper ran a series about five years ago by Jose Martinez (Jose from Venezuela). Perhaps you've read it? He and his family lived in Venezuela at the time of its collapse and in his blog series, he describes what he experienced and observed. It's extremely interesting.
ReplyDeleteI think perhaps the hardest thing would be to recognize what's actually going on in real time. We tend to think that things are just a bump and will surely right themselves. Plus we have the media and financial experts constantly reassuring us that everything will be alright in the long-run.
Used to be that people could flee to the US. But to where can we flee when the bottom falls out here?
Leigh - I do remember reading some of those essays by Jose. They were revelatory, both in what he faced and how he had to adapt (at one point being effectively a refugee, if I recall correctly).
DeleteHistorically at least, very few people seem to recognize what is actually going on around them at the time. It is not helped by the fact that we have a lot of experts - be they policy makers, government officials, bureaucrats, financial experts, media types, etc. - that are invested in the system appearing to be fine, even if it is not.
In terms of fleeing, there really is no place left to go. Yes, I suppose one could relocate to some places, but is anywhere really different than anywhere else substantially at this point? And given where we may be on the time/space continuum, could one even meaningfully relocate and re-establish?
I never thought about this too much until the recent pandemic when things fell apart pretty quickly and in significant ways that are still echoing through our economy. Now with that experience under my knowledge belt, I'm pretty sure that there won't be much time to ponder such things if something worse comes about. It will just happen.
ReplyDeleteHonestly, this sort of thing is quickly not becoming a problem for me. I have lived 5 decades and had a good run. While I hope to live several more decades, if my run gets cut short by something like a failing country, it wouldn't be considered a tragedy. These things are more important for my kids and their generation, who, assuming they survive the initial collapse, will have many decades of having to deal with the new world they find themselves in.
Ed, it was rather shocking how quickly things fell apart during The Plague and how long they took to come back (if they have at all). You are right that likely if something similar happens again, the cycle time will be far less.
DeleteOn the the one hand similar to you, I have more "in the rearview mirror" than "through the windshield" to look at. On the other hand, having read enough of what life can look like in failing societies, it looks like something worth avoiding if I can.