In the end, what matters most?

Benj96

Let's get a little "existential crisis" for a moment and play a thought game. Considering 2022 is about to come to a close. Let's suppose 2023 will not arrive, at least not in any sense recognisable to us now.

Suppose hypothetically that tomorrow is the ultimate tipping point, societies bubble is about to burst, global collapse, humanity is about to be thrown into disarray and mayhem. Its every man, woman and child for themselves. Armageddon. Total volatility of the system. Anarchy.

My question is, if you had to bring 10 items with you into this new dire state of affairs. What would they be? Let's not focus so much on what type of downfall is occurring (nuclear war, climatic catastrophe, solar flare, meteor, insurrection, some religious rapture etc) and more on a generalised, simple case where laws and regulation have failed, supply chains are falling apart and money has inflated to a state of valuelessness. Looters abound, panic is rife, people are desperate, there are no governments any longer, and one is faced with mere survival.

What objects/supplies (maximum 10) would you hoard/loot or gather before the end comes? And finally where would you go? Or rather not go? Would you try to survive at all or take a more last ditch hedonistic approach?

In essence, philosophically, what would mean the most to you in these tough times? And what do you think people in general would value?

We can critque eachothers selection of items for their pragmatism or use when they have been written. Or discuss the sentimentalities and what importance that might have. The commentors free to explain why they chose what they did.

TheMadMan

↪Benj96

I'm assuming there is no electricity/power.

1. High quality bow - Long range
2. Katana - Close range
3. Antibiotics - as much as possible
4. High quality backpack
5. High quality cooking canner - I don't think I can make one
6. Bicycle - Faster travels
7. Good Axe - There will be a lot of chopping
8. Grain seeds - As much as possible
9. Thermal clothes
10. The Bible - in case I need to start a fire (hehehe jk)
You said chose items/supplies but I would pick a fast strong dog.

I would move to an inhabited valley with 4 seasons, preferably soft winter.

Vera Mont

Stay here; it's the least weather-vulnerable area I know of within reach. We get the odd tornado and blizzard, but no big floods or fires. The neighbourhood is neither dense enough nor rich enough to attract looters, and it's rural enough for local people to understand the importance of co-operation.
Also, we have already disaster-proofed our home as much as our income allows: wood heat, well and septic, solar power, greenhouse - can't think of a safer place to go.
- First aid supplies, including analgesics.
(The pharmacy won't give out extra prescription meds, so we'll have to wean off.)
- Add to pantry of staples: more canned goods, rice, coffee, tea, powdered milk.
- Soap - both hygiene and cleaning products
- Inventory and add to supply of candles and matches.
- Cat kibble in farm-size bags; short rations until they get back in the habit of hunting.
- Extra set of solar batteries and converter.
- Power packs for tools
- Cans of gasoline and stabilizer
- A roll of heavy plastic sheeting.
- More kinds of heirloom seed.

NOS4A2

↪Benj96

Full disclosure: I would welcome such a collapse.

1) guns and ammunition. When the monopoly on violence collapses it is in one’s best interest to see that it never arises again. These tools alone serve to quell most of the adverse effects of such a collapse.

2) partners. Human enterprise will continue without government and regulations, as it always has.

BC

↪Benj96

At my age, anything longer than short-term survival has been foreclosed.

I could manage a slow exit (weeks, months) or I could arrange a faster one during the early days of disorder. For a pleasant departure, I'd want Haydn, Handel, and Mozart; a nice tranquilizer; a little Moody Blues the Doors, and a couple of others. A playful dog would be nice for company and amusement.

A nice sandwich, a beer, a comfortable couch, and a little time. Then sic transit gloria mundi. Exit stage left.

For those intending to hang on: Don't count on it. We flourish because we have a dense fabric of cooperative society. Rip that up and we will soon be back to "nasty, brutish, and short".

Vera Mont

For those intending to hang on: Don't count on it. — Bitter Crank

I rather think some will. Humans are stubborn. I think there will be roving gangs pillaging the remains of civilization, but also a number of small communities, well isolated and fortunately located, that survive and renew the human endeavour. It will take a very long time, given the devastation they will inherit, and it will be a hard, primitive life. They may even find the caches of knowledge and seeds our last generation stored up for them - unless the others destroy those, too. Whether the next civilization grows on the same pattern as this one, or evolves sustainable organizations, I don't know.

0 thru 9

I’d take 10 magic lamps with a powerful genie inside each! Muhahahaha!
(sorry, i just watched Aladdin with Robin Williams). :monkey:

BC

↪Vera Mont

Sci-fi doomsday stories almost always have a surviving remnant. One that did focus on the remnant was A Canticle for Liebowitz--a great novel. A nuclear war, a 2000 year slog back to full recovery, and then another nuclear war. In On The Beach, another excellent novel, there is a nuclear war and the end is The End, no survivors.

How the global warming doomsday will work out is unclear.

One thing, though: Civilization requires a minimum to survive--literacy for instance. Once literacy is lost, it may not be recovered. A couple of generations of illiteracy, and writing / reading has to be invented again. Technical knowledge may be lost among the survivors. If I survived as part of a remnant, I could not reinvent antibiotics or antipsychotic drugs. I could not tell you how to identify blood types. I can not shoe a horse, let alone train it to carry me around or pull a plow; I can not diagnose a sick milk cow or a sick pig. I do not know how to turn raw wool into cloth (I get the basic idea, but that's not the same as knowing how to do it). My ignorance goes on and on,

In Earth Abides, a third great story (written in 1949!) some sort of virus wipes out 99.99% of the earth's population. A healthy tiny remnant survives, but in two generations literacy is lost. The younger survivors could see no reason to learn to read. Their reality had become hunter-gatherer.

Vera Mont

A nuclear war, a 2000 year slog back to full recovery, and then another nuclear war. — Bitter Crank

I'm considering possible scenarios minus the nuclear war. Hoping the political and economic systems will implode before they explode.

Civilization must not be recovered! If it is, our descendants are doomed to repeat the cycle.
I wrote one such novel myself, where they did save technology, but it's only a fanciful pipedream.

180 Proof

↪Bitter Crank

:clap:

↪Benj96

Given the suddenness of the scenario, I'd prefer to hold up in my apartment listening (mostly) to jazz with enough bottled water, canned food stuffs, batteries & enough opium to spend the rest of my days – some weeks or more – chasing the dragon off the cliff into oblivion. :death: :flower:

Vera Mont

enough opium to spend the rest of my days — 180 Proof

PM me the supplier's name.

jgill

Truly a depressing thread. :shade:

Hanover

I would bring one universe the way it was 100 years before this Armageddon and live there.

Oh, and a backpack big enough to carry it.

And a girl to flirt with. I don't want to know what will happen with that. It's more fun to find out.

But I guess there might have been the girl and the backpack in the universe already. I'm not sure exactly.

Benj96

But I guess there might have been the girl and the backpack in the universe already. I'm not sure exactly. — Hanover

Haha clever :P

Benj96

I rather think some will. Humans are stubborn. I think there will be roving gangs pillaging the remains of civilization, but also a number of small communities, well isolated and fortunately located, that survive and renew the human endeavour. It will take a very long time, given the devastation they will inherit, and it will be a hard, primitive life. They may even find the caches of knowledge and seeds our last generation stored up for them - unless the others destroy those, too. Whether the next civilization grows on the same pattern as this one, or evolves sustainable organizations, I don't know.
4d — Vera Mont

It's interesting to consider that militias and gangs might destroy books and sources of knowledge like civil engineering, construction, medicine etc to ensure they maintain the upper hand against these isolated communes.

It seems knowledge only prospers/ is stable in a society because in a war torn no-man's-land run by gangs of pillagers and plunderers, weaponry is trump and civilisation (law and order/ cooperation) is a threat to the status quo.

Benj96

Bicycle - Faster travels — TheMadMan

I feel given the likely rough terrain and scattered debris, you'd puncture a tire pretty fast. Not sure if a bicycle is durable enough mode of transport but it could definitely do you a week or so of hard wear. Maybe more of you're lucky.

Grain seeds - As much as possible — TheMadMan

Good idea. For me depends on the time of year as farmland would have a lot of grain in the fields. You could just grab a few stalks and preserve the seeds maybe?

You said chose items/supplies but I would pick a fast strong dog — TheMadMan

A dog would be good for sure. Well trained one.

Vera Mont

Moor pony instead of bicycle - it climbs better (you'll need elevation) and can feed itself.

Benj96

Moor pony instead of bicycle - it climbs better (you'll need elevation) and can feed itself. — Vera Mont

Yeah true. Much more sustainable. Not as many people would be willing to try and steal it also (if they have a fear of animals or don't know how to ride).

Vera Mont

Not as many people would be willing to try and steal it also — Benj96

OTOH, more people would try to eat your pony than your bicycle. But then, more people would try to eat and the dog, as well. It's going to be rough out there. That's why I'm not going; my idea of roughage is whole grain cereal.

TheMadMan

I feel given the likely rough terrain and scattered debris, you'd puncture a tire pretty fast. — Benj96

Fair. I'll get a horse then.

In the end, what matters most?

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