Imagine you didn’t have your iphone no more and all electronic equipment stopped operating after some cataclysmic disaster ( Maybe spillage from a colossal nuclear tank arsenal , will leave you to imagine the worst case scenario).
This means no internet, mechanised farming is no more and therefore we have to forage for food in the wild. The money system has crashed and you cannot borrow a dollar from a neighbour because they are in the same condition as you.
There’s chaos in the streets, killing and pillaging. Fighting over food specks and there’s scarcity of clean water and the air is of course unbearably rancid. Imagine that for a minute. Your warm bed and house with amenities gone. No more corporations or systems to regulate and galvanise the world and reduce you to a 9 to 5 work horse, a gear in the machine we call the economy.
Would you still be depressed and suicidal if all this happened?? Well, human tenacity would be pushed to the limits and some would yield but I think that many mental yokes would be broken in grim circumstances like these. An event like this would leave an autonomous populace in its wake. People will have to fend for themselves in order to survive.
I am inclined to believe that suicide is our key to autonomy in this artificial environment we live in. We want to be free. This environment perpetuates alienation from who we truly are, the nature. Nature is random and unpredictable and we have created systems to subdue this randomness. The cost of suppressing the nature is having to deal with debilitating diseases like cancer etc, mental problems like depression, purposelessness, low self esteem and what have you. We are in a hamster cage, we are fighting to get out. So, in the event that this disaster swept our planet clean, what would it be like for you??
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I very much agree with this: “The cost of suppressing the nature is having to deal with debilitating diseases like cancer etc, mental problems like depression, purposelessness, low self esteem and what have you.” I don’t think most people realise how bad most modern styles of living are to people’s mental or physical health. I’m not so sure about suicide mainly being a key to autonomy (in general). I don’t think chaos would do much good for people’s mental health, but I think a more natural way of living would improve it immensely. As for me, given some time I think it could make me feel better mentally, although given my physical problems being out in the wild would be a lot more painful. I’m not sure if it would be enough to drag me out of depression. It might – more time in nature, more of a purpose and less time with your own mind. Those parts sound good. The chaos and killing not so much.
It’s a given, there’d be a lot of deaths because modern life is supported by tech. True, living next to nature alleviates things like depression. Primitive tribes are a great example …
As an adult child of an alcoholic I would thrive in a crisis situation. As a hedonist I will do anything I could to avoid that.
Autonomy via suicide is a subject that has been studied a few times. Here’s a fun fact: terminally ill people live longer, on average, in places where assisted suicide is legal.
jadedkeizy, how are you today?
Oh SeeSmith, I am not complaining. The meds are making me numb and emotionless. Hows that chip implant in your earlobe treating you? Does the NSA spy on you through it?
Dude! My GF gave me a moonstone stud which blocks the chip’s receptors. I like it even though it looks like a glass eye from a taxidemied blind squirrel. I’m sure the NSA will get around to doing something about it but right now they are more worried about the extraterrestrial potato Trix keeps in her closet that guides her in writing alien therapeutic poetry.
Don’t sweat the numbness right now. Let the meds calm the stormy seas, so to speak. I just know you are going to come back and be extra sparkling after a bit. Right now you are laying a solid foundation that you will be able to build positive thoughts and good dreams on. I want you to be in top mental condition when the Feds take me to a darkweb interrogation site and I need you to spring me!
That’s so nice. I’m thinking of it. Nice post..
I would fight to survive. I think it’s cause I want to die on my terms not because some other person is hungry and wants to take my food etc. Yes, I’d definitely fight to survive. Odd isn’t it.
Funny, I’d feel a bit lost. Maybe if it happened a few years back, when I didn’t really have any tech devices, I would’ve been a little better off.. But now, tech runs my life.. Sad, huh? But then I’d be forced to learn how to truly fend for myself…
Yeah, it’s hard man. Our lives are literally plugged in these devices. Detachment means death.
I would have been all up for this if it wasn’t for my physical condition, not sure i could survive it without some of the meds, but at least i’d give it a try. Somehow the “challenge” of having to deal with lack of technology and food would give me somewhat of a reason to try to go on (to fend for a family member).
Completely agree with the detachment means death comment. Back when i had a pretty big episode i deleted everything related to social media, no email, got rid of my phone, etc. Basically i became a barely reachable person (those who knew were i live could find me tho, i did have some acquaintances and some friends). 6 months in (i did lurk on sp on that time) i had 0 friends, no one tried to reach me at all, and it was like my previous life just never happened.