Idealizing Collapse

One thing I’ve noticed in the recent months from those within the anticiv milieu is the all-too-often obsession with idealizing scenarios in which civilization undergoes collapse in some way or another. Yet, not just merely collapse. A collapse that somehow works in favor of the idealizer. One in which they come out unscathed; oftentimes with their children, family, friends, and sense of dignity in tact. And ironically enough, it seems to come from those who attempt at a nihilistic / pessimist tone of thought… at least, that’s what they portray.

Now, you would think those who have developed such negative philosophies and attitudes would still remain seated at the thought of collapse. In the sense that it may NOT be what they want or expect. Yet from primitivists going to foraging classes to existentialists meme’ing the shit out of existence and the hindrances of civilization with an obvious hope for collapse, it is relatively obvious that many anticivs have deep seeded optimism residing within.

I’m not entirely knocking optimism. Although overt optimism is a trait I find rather pathetic, unrealistic, and annoying, as it’s never helped me personally, internet strangers’ optimistic attitudes (unrealized or not) do not affect my day-to-day living. Rather, I simply want to point out something I’ve noticed. Maybe it’ll make some people realize that perhaps they are being a bit too fantastical about their dreams and hopes for a social collapse. Shit, I love to day dream. I love to escape ‘reality’ and enjoy myself some good fuck-off imagining but at the end of the day, I recognize these as only dreams and desires, and not something that I genuinely think will happen…. much less something that I would ‘prepare’ for.

I cannot truly say what in the goddamn fuck is going on with civilization currently. To some, we’ve reached peak oil. We see deserts, storms, crop failure, disease, war, blah blah. All the things man has brought to himself, which is great. But whether man will prevail or not, I’ve no clue. And really, it doesn’t matter what I think. I do believe, however, that not one currently existing anticiv is going to live in a stateless world. Or one in which they can scavenge old wal-marts for old condoms to stop over-population or live out the story of Far Cry Primal.

Of course we also have the brand of anti-civilization’ers who think that because they withdraw or avoid society in some way, or perhaps engage in some small form of eco-tage, that they are contributing to collapse. I think this generally comes from the Green side of anti-civ. Too much Edward Abbey, I suppose. Some individuals think that because they piss off some farmers or city slickers, among a planet filled with billions of people, that they are ‘helping’ in the long haul. Quick, special shout out to the agorists who think that selling dimebags or avoiding taxed labor is going to collapse governments.

What’s funny is that all the anticivs I’ve spoken to are from first world countries with first world comforts. If we don’t even occasionally live within danger, how can we dare think or project how we would survive some un-clear ‘collapse of civilization’? I sincerely doubt anyone reading this is actually militant enough to survive any sort of lawless existence. Not one in which they can steal from grocery stores, but one in which no laws or mores are going to regulate the desires of true outlaws or those who’ve been repressed by society. Shit, it’s the preppers and right-winged nut job supremacists who are actually equipped for this shit, while most of us spend our time glued to technology and the thoughts of other men. Are you ready to steal from other families if you are starving? Are you capable of farming and protecting these farms? Are you capable of killing another man and being mentally stable after that, if necessary? Are you actually built for a life without the limitations of social constructs, laws, and policing? Are you really about that shit? Or are you just throwin’ down memes, hoping for the best? Or maybe collapse will simply be without conflict in which everyone can dance around the maypole.

I want it to be clear that I’m not policing anyone’s thoughts. Keep on day dreaming. Keep on thinking you will survive the streets like a non-bourgeois Will Smith from I Am Legend. It merely seems to me a waste of time. Not only a waste of time, but rather a philosophy entirely entertained by hopeful thoughts and armchair valor with no actual integrity to back it. I’ll shoot the shit about collapse and make up scenarios. I love to dream about the supposedly unfathomable, but I feel its important to keep my dreams and desires somewhat realistic. Otherwise, I end up being a warrior against society whose form of war is in memes and dissing authority on the sly.

Not yours truly,

That Feller