Interesting Times: The Long Emergency is Beginning

[liveonearth]

In LA so many people have lost their homes that they are setting up tent cities and living in mobile homes. They have nowhere to go. This is just the beginning. Imagine the large populations of America's cities without food, jobs, homes or hope, but with diseases and guns. Here it comes. And as my classmate Conan pointed out, it's the BBC reporting on it: you won't find mention of this in the US media. They're trying to keep it mum.

Comments

[hausfrauatu.livejournal.com]

Like in "Snow Crash", by Neal Stephenson.

People wandering around in motorhomes...crap.

Why I am NOT moving to an urban area. Or an arid area.

Hmmmmmmm...may have to buy a gun with the tax refund. Crap. I don't like to have them, but EVERYONE ELSE here has one. I don't want to get picked on if push comes to shove.

I am VERY nice to my neighbors.

Can I admit to feeling like an ass after Y2K?

[liveonearth.livejournal.com]

Why did you feel like an ass after Y2K? Did you think it was going to begin then? I think it was beginning, just veiled. People who are sensitive to such things have been sensing the decay for decades.

[kellamaste.livejournal.com]

This sort of thing happened during The Great Depression as well.

[liveonearth.livejournal.com]

The depression this planet will see as oil is depleted will blow the "great" depression right out of the water. Speaking of Transformation....

[kellamaste.livejournal.com]

This is true.

2012 here we come!

[neptunia67.livejournal.com]

I have such mixed feelings about this. I mean, I understand that this is indicitave of a much, much larger problem... but I have no sympathy for the people who have gotten themselves into this situation. It is a perfect example of our American greed, to want bigger houses, newer cars, more STUFF, and to bury ourselves under a mountain of debt to get those things.

Do you forecast these tent cities to continue to grow, taking everybody in? Or do you picture more of a ghetto-type situation in each city, plagued by violence? It seems like the BBC found the most dire situation they could (I felt that the story was sensationalized the same way our news is... something that started in the UK a few years ago)... so am not sure how to react.

I dunno. I am going to send this clip to my sociology teacher and get her reaction.

I look forward to being able to converse about this stuff in person this summer!

[liveonearth.livejournal.com]

You are absolutely right, that the people who landed in these tent cities did so as a result of their own unwillingness to take responsibility. Which seems to be a hallmark of Americanism these days. But it doesn't lessen the impact of having people crapping in holes and begging on street corners in our cities. Living in the city here I see a more depressed and desperate aspect of humanity than I ever saw in Flag.

And I see the real fragility of my own situation. I could end up there too. And not because I was lazy. I have worked hard. It would be because I was ignorant, uninformed, and foolhardy. I still may pay a high price for my reckless youth. And I can't say yet if I would trade it. All my years of running around the rivers and mountains were joyous, yes, but staring down the barrel of so many dire potential futures I cannot help but to wish that I had known better sooner. Hindsight is a poor apology for lack of foresight.

[neptunia67.livejournal.com]

But it doesn't lessen the impact of having people crapping in holes and begging on street corners in our cities

I completely agree. And that is where I struggle with my feelings about these people and their situations.

The worst homelessness I have ever seen was in London. There is a lot of it... but then again there are 12 million people there so I guess it is to be expected.

I don't know if you could or would end up like that. You have a pretty fair idea of how to take care of yourself. I think the first thing you would do would be to get out into a remote area with some like-minded people and SURVIVE. I know that is what I would do.

[liveonearth.livejournal.com]

I don't know what to predict with regard to the tent cities. I would expect our "authorities" to try to break them up, but if enough people end up homeless there may be little they can do to stop it. I certainly do expect violence. Lazy people with guns are more likely to try to steal what they need than to plant a garden.

[neptunia67.livejournal.com]

Yep, and most of those city folk wouldn't know where to start if they had to survive. I expect, if things get as bad as you predict, that a lot of people will die simply because they have no survival skills.

[liveonearth.livejournal.com]

I think you have reached the crux of it. In a couple of short generations we have gone from being farmers, fishermen and hunters to being service personnel, administrators, programmers and such. You are one of the few who still knows how to butcher a pig. I hope to be one of the few who still knows how to heal using herbs. Those who have useful skills and position themselves to be of service will survive. Those who persist in believing that the system will save them are doomed. IMO.

[marijkab.livejournal.com]

I think the real estate agents and money lending institutions are as much to blame- if not more- for their greed for getting those greedy Americans into those homes they couldn't afford. I mostly feel sorry for the homeowners, having just bought a house myself, I can imagine just how horrible it would be to lose it and everything in it, and to move into a mobile home or tent. When I look at everything that's happening in our country lately, all I can think of is Ayn Rand's book The Fountainhead. It really does come down to survival of the fittest.
By the by, and off the subject, did you know that the penny will no longer be made, as it costs too much to make them for what they're worth these days?