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

[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.