I have no-lj-meme policy, but there is a Buffy quote meme going around, and so now I feel that I need to acknowledge it, somehow, without actually participating. Because if I break my no-meme policy now, suddenly it means that every time I see a new meme I will have to consider, “what about this one? will I participate in this one?”
So, anyway, Buffy the Vampire Slayer. You all know how much I love it. (Don’t you?)
Other things recently going around the LJ group mind: the fact that the Hadron Super-collider did not end the world, but the meltdown of various financial institutions might.
I don’t know about that. I know that if things get as bad as they were during the Great Depression, that would really suck. But we survived it. And, actually, the Great Depression was less dire than The Black Death, which half of Europe did not survive, but humanity as a whole, and even European civilization, did survive.
Things could get as bad as the American Smallpox Epidemic, which Pox Americana proposes was severe enough to destroy, or nearly destroy, most of the civilizations of North America. (And military conquest did the rest.)
Or, there’s the Great Irish Famine, which emptied out that country to such an extent that even today its population is not up to pre-famine levels. (Incidentally, did you know that the only financial aid North America sent to Ireland was from the Choctaw Nation, still suffering from the Trail of Tears?)
Um, where was I going with this?
Oh, yeah. Sometimes I think that it is good to remember that things can get to be as bad as the Great Depression. But it is also good to remember that we survived it. Human history did not grind to a screeching halt. Past evidence suggests that things can get extremely dire (the human race was nearly wiped out by drought 70,000 years ago) but we tend to survive. Because we have so far.
Anyway, even though I think complete societal collapse is unlikely at this time I already have my post-apocalyptic role picked out: I am going to re-establish the world coffee trade. Because I do not live in a region that grows coffee.
An interesting difference between the Great Depression and now is that according to the history books, nobody saw the Great Depression coming. The stock market crashed, and the next day everything was different. In theory, today the world may be more complex but we’re more informed.
Of course the upcoming crisis isn’t going to crash civilisation as we know it. The Cult of Cthulhu will always intervene and stabilise thing so when their Elder Gods return, everyone will know that it is, always was and always shall be they who will wipe out civilisation as we know it in their infinite and horrific glory, not some overfed mortals who screwed about with the mere trading of papers ;-)
And you know, even if the human race bites it, the earth itself will be just fine.