“Was not their mistake once more bred of the life of slavery that they had been living?—a life which was always looking upon everything, except mankind, animate and inanimate—‘nature,’ as people used to call it—as one thing, and mankind as another, it was natural to people thinking in this way, that they should try to make ‘nature’ their slave, since they thought ‘nature’ was something outside them” — William Morris


Saturday, December 22, 2012

Atavism and Prepperism

This piece on preppers is interesting, and I've seen the National Geographic show a few times.

I remember being on retreat in Crestone next door to some preppers who started talking quite "innocently" (at least innocently enough) to their lodger about how to shoot a bear. 30 minutes later it was what part of the black man's head to aim for when the looters come from the big city after civilization collapses...

I have a theory. Prepping is only consciously oriented to an apocalyptic future. In reality, it is an atavistic reaction to a world that has already ended (Anthropocene, hyperobjects--and let's not forget, America ceasing to be a frontier pioneer white settlers against everyone else in a circle). It's a reaction to an apocalypse that has already occurred.

Discuss.

1 comment:

Unknown said...

Yes! Also like the childhood game of "what I would do if I were in a car accident/ being tortured for information/ lost my eyesight...etc. We all want superpowers. It's funny though because a co-worker of mine is so country that he feels ready without prepping. I'm thinking I should tell him everything I know