There's a recent piece on the New Yorker website about the super rich doomsday/collapse preppers. These people fear the break down of society and invest large sums of money into these plans with the hope of insulating themselves from the chaos. Some put more money into these plans than many people will earn in their lifetimes. I'm curious as to what your thoughts are about the super rich hatching escape plans vs creating solutions to avoid it. link to the article http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2017/01/30/doomsday-prep-for-the-super-rich
It is hard not to think that in these bizarre ways, even the richest, those who benefit from a capitalism in decline, a capitalism that undermines living standards and hopes for the future for most people, grasp somewhere that society is spinning our of control in dangerous ways. However unconsciously, they too sense the disintegration of social ties, social cohesion. Their reaction is not critical social analysis (they have no background, training or inclination to go that way). It is instead this sort of fantastical self-protection. Where poor and middle income folks sensing social collapse buy a gun; these folks do these things. It is another symptom of wild, angry, reactive behavior (like Brexit, or endless movies about tidal waves, earthquakes and other mega-disasters, like electing Trump, and so on). Social decay, when in advanced stages, displays all sorts of extreme symptoms.
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