I was reading Life After the Oil Crash last night, a breathtaking compilation of every depressing news story of the last few years. It is chilling and convincing; reducing all of humanity’s arrogant belief in progress to ashes. Anyone who has read John Gray or Jared Diamond will understand that civilizations crumble despite their best delusions, but to see it spelt out is actually quite nauseating.
However, on balance, I would prefer to live an impoverished life than no life at all so at the back of my mind I am already making plans for what to do when everything collapses. I make a mental note to do things like archery classes (bullets will be difficult to find after TEOTWAWKI) and medical training (what would you use for antibiotics?). I ponder buying portable solar panels and wonder if being in the Cubs is enough training to survive in the wild.
I am reminded of Dylan Evans who spent several months setting up and running a settlement, called Utopia, posited on the idea that civilization would be destroyed by resource wars and economic crises. Indeed, the premise that he used as a basis now looks remarkably prescient.
When the predictions of the sceptics came true, and the economy started creaking, there was no announcement on the evening news, no billboards proclaiming economic collapse. It was much more banal than that. The first signs of impending doom were no more spectacular than inflation and unemployment. It was the price of energy that began to shoot up first. Electricity and gas got more and more expensive, and an ever larger slice of the household budget went on cooking and heating, leaving less for cable TV, fancy clothes and holidays abroad – all of which came increasingly to be seen as luxuries. Petrol doubled in price too, a hard blow to a nation that had become accustomed to driving long distances to work and shopping in out of town superstores. Since the food in those superstores was also transported long distances, often by lorry, the rising price of fuel also pushed up the price of food. Everyone began to feel a lot poorer.
Unfortunately, Utopia became something of a dystopia (according to the now-defunct Yahoo Group), with leadership struggles and the realisation that Evans couldn’t dictate to the rest of the group how they were going to live (there was something of a kerfuffle when the group, against Evans’ wishes, went to the local pub). Of course, all utopias turn into dystopias which is why we have to put up with civil society, but the idea that people would gain a lot from losing the baubles of civilization is a very attractive one. Every time you buy something you are weighing yourself down. In Cormac McCarthy’s The Road, the protagonist and his son carry all their possessions in a supermarket trolley. Could you do that? Where would you put your golf clubs?