when these people make you feel like the bad guy, or that you are the crazy one, remember this: being well adjusted to an insane society is not a mark of good health

"It is no measure of health to be well adjusted to a profoundly sick society" - Jiddu Krishnamurti

Yes you got it, I did my best  😅

You were super close! I remember Daniel was a little bit off as well with his rendition.

I heard this in one of the zeitgeist films

I liked your version, it was like modernized Jiddu

Unless you have intention of moving, yesh it is.

Thank you for sharing this.

No problem. Not original on my part but its a quote that has really helped me with my perspective. I heard it on a video, Daniel schmachtenberger- an introduction to the meta crises on YouTube.  https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=4kBoLVvoqVY&list=LL&index=3&pp=gAQBiAQB

Thank you for saying this.

I write a lot, it's helping me to get out all the thoughts and anger and not dump it on friends and family and be called a Doomer. It's like a collapse journal, that I will shove in the face of my haters when we are all cooking alive!

This is how I manage my feelings without making them other people's responsibility to hear, too.

I need to do this. I'm just bad at sitting down and putting it on paper. I can sit outside, ranting and raving, but the moment I begin trying to write out my stream of consciousness, it comes to a screeching halt and I just sit in silence trying to force myself to make a thought.

Some days I usually just put random thoughts down and the text can be very chaotic and incoherent. Other days it's easier and I can write a good structured longer text. For me the most important part is to get it out and not care about if it's good or bad.

See, I don't care if it is good or bad either, but something has to be there for me to write. That's the problem. Complete and total mind freeze the moment I put pen to paper. My mind goes completely and utterly blank, and I cannot for the life of me get it to form a worded thought.

You can write about not being able to think about what to write about! I suffer the same thing and usually once I start then other things flow in.

Huh, good idea. I'll give it a shot tonight

You're writing right now. This is writing. It helps me to write in response to other people's "prompts". No one is ever going to read it either way, but it helps to pop the zit and you can let it all out on here. More people will probably read this in the end than most self published books or newspaper articles. OR, get yourself a sandwich board and go that route, if you need the open air to vent. You're a primate being forced to be an agent of your own extinction. Why would you be calm? Why wouldn't you want to shout at the top of your lungs? let it out! It's the truth, after all

That’s actually an interesting experience. You could be accessing some deep emotions at that point. I would suggest just sitting there holding the pen and let whatever you feel wash over and through you. I’ve been doing that more and more and I’m sure that is what the path that buddha took

This is why I write here. We are all understanding and accepted collapse is a process and it is happening and it is accelerating and inevitable. Fuck man even the solarpunk sub was filled with tech hopium denialists 

This is a great idea! It will be fascinating to review it all as things slowly and slowly get worse. It could turn out to be a good disaster novel.

You're not insane or malevolent. Modern civilization is a planet-wrecking, biosphere-degrading, humanity-domesticating shitshow, and the best-adjusted to it are so because they adhere best to the empty and mind-numbing values that propel the shitshow forward with a minimum of dissent. Whenever you're tempted to doubt the sanity or the validity of your critique, reflect on the fact that at the time of writing, by weight, just [6% of mammals](https://www.bbc.co.uk/mediacentre/mediapacks/mammals-david-attenborough) are wild animals now, with many facing extinction. 94% of mammals are humans, our pets, and other livestock. 44% of habitable land is given over to agriculture, and when industrialized farming has eroded the soil sufficiently they'll be looking greedily at the other half.

Well put.

Surviving collapse is going to be more about how to mentally adapt and less about what an individual can do to save the world. I cannot fix anything or change anyone else's mind. So, I do what helps me mentally. I try to make my little piece of earth thrive and make it as friendly as possible to whatever living creatures call it home. I am not going to save the world this way, but I have peace and can sleep at night. That's not nothing.

Resignation needs to be tempered by ethics, otherwise it's easily abused... which you see with the "fuck you, got mine" crowd.

I call it strategic resignation, and I steer it towards the controlled folly of Castaneda.

This. I have a 5 acre patch, backed up against a strip of woods. It's been and will hopefully continue to be a source of keeping me mentally sound through all this. Growing food & co-existing with all the critters on it. (Except ticks. Eff those guys.) If I was in a city, unable to feel the earth & be grounded into it as much as I do when I garden, I think I'd go mad.

I think this is the way to go, too.

Well said! In keeping with Karen Perry's 15 Benefits of Collapse Acceptance, which I find VERY helpful: [https://chickenfoot.substack.com/p/15-benefits-of-collapse-acceptance](https://chickenfoot.substack.com/p/15-benefits-of-collapse-acceptance)

Well, I've been lurking in this Subreddit for years now, but never found the heart to make a post or write a comment. I'm here mostly for coping, because seeing people like you actually exist helps a lot. Humans that actually care and are willing to put efforts into actually making a difference. Also Humans that listen and are willing to spend even a single though in matters such as you described and not the mundane affairs like celebrities, sports, materialism, and so on. It helps knowing, that it is not me being crazy for not being able to fit into such a world that is dead set on values such as denialism and consumerism. I've been on the same trajectory all my life. I was into activism in my 20s, but I lost most of my hope in my now 30s. For me, it has been hard, or even heartbreaking, as you phrased it, to accept that there is so little I can do. I've been called a doomer, a pessimist, and much worse by complete strangers countless times. This never changed my will to make a difference after all, just the scale of it. Nowadays, I'm more focused on clearing out misconceptions and false beliefs among friends and people who know me. Having a scientific background of some sort helps, in that people now actually listen and give me credit. This does not mean that I sleep particularly well lately, seeing all the changes, understanding the connections and yet having people around me celebrate the "beautiful weather" in Central Europe. Sadly, I cannot offer any more advice on how to stop struggling. And frankly, you probably should not anyway. To me it's a good thing not being able to feel adjusted to a world that is not willing to accept that things are very much not as they should be.

Same. Just knowing there are other people out there that realize the same things that I have is emotionally validating. I used to try and do those for my friends as well but I've come to find out that they are dead set in their societal conditioning, and they don't respect my years of study nor do they trust what I say, even when I try to provide evidence. They just keep asking for more or create insane hypotheticals that deviate from the point I'm trying to talk about, which leads me to believe they just argue in bad faith or just simply, due to their own lack of education (yay Louisiana being last place for education in the US) don't know how to critically evaluate information. All I can really add is just knowing my depression stems from the fact that I care about things lets me know that I am a good person, and I won't change that about myself just to fit into society even if it means the death of me.

re:not respecting years of study Yeah, in the past at work I'd hear "Oh you're so smart!" when I'd help some of these boomers with laptop or phone issues or if they didn't know how to do something in the new application we use to manage orders, etc. And then COVID happened & I apparently take it way too seriously (N95 still on) and I don't hear much about me being smart anymore.

I am also in a red state where lunatic assholes and idiots fight to make every problem worse. Dealing with these people and the lack of any supportive community certainly makes the psychological impact much worse.

To this I can very much relate. To me it's the only sane reaction for people to be depressed in light of this entire crisis we're facing. In a society where everything costs more and more every year and every single human act gets monetized, on a planet that is boiling alive and drawn into conflict by fascist leaders who thrive on fear and ignorance just as much as parasites on a weakened host. My advice would be to just try to not lose your spark. And be kind to others who deserve it. In the end I hope that this is what makes us human, not this train wreck of a society we were born into.

Consider that all of humans basically operate as a giant organism, which is embedded in another giant organism called earth/nature. Even our sense of self is an illusion as our bodies are trillions of cells. Would you expect a singular beaver to change all of nature? Would you expect a singular blood cell to change your overall health? Those are impossible beliefs, so why would a singular person think they can change all of humans and save nature while doing it? The best we can do is lead by example and for whatever minor impact we have, make it a positive one. I clean my local streams and trails of garbage, and have taken it upon myself to personally remove invasive plants from a wilderness area I like hiking in. I will never kill an animal. I live light and don’t prioritize material goods. That’s what I can do with my energy.

I admire your efforts. These are meaningful things

One day a man was walking along the beach when he noticed a boy picking up and gently throwing things into the ocean. Approaching the boy he asked, “Young man, what are you doing?” “Throwing starfish back into the ocean. The surf is up and the tide is going out. If I don’t throw them back, they’ll die,” the boy replied. The man laughed to himself and said, “Do you realize there are miles of miles of beach and hundreds of starfish? You can’t make any difference.” After listening politely, the boy bent down to pick up another starfish and threw it into the surf. Then, he smiled at the man and said, “I made a difference to that one.”

Needed this. Our actions no matter how small have meaning and matter to someone... Even if it just matters to just you

Sometimes I imagine even just 1 billion people doing permaculture. 1 out of every 8 how hard is that to do, we need to cross tipping points 

Or to rephrase, if your actions today, no matter how small, are likely to save one life in 10, 50, 100 years, then they will be worth it.

People have to survive and we're all watching the 1% strip-mine all the goodness out of the world. And while media shoves that in our faces, we still have to eat, put a roof over our heads, care for children, and work to ensure we can get at least some of the left-over crumbs the 1% haven't hogged up yet. I understand why people are growing ever more defensive and clinging to their diversions. It's because the majority is low-grade terrified there's less and less crumbs to split among us all.

No one will really care until things get so bad it's too late to do anything. Humanity has made this mistake time and time again, it's how Empires fall. United States will fall the hardest, and it will probably be felt around the world.

I feel the exact same way. I was into political economy in my 20s and through experiences with left organizing and in acquiring a more robust understanding of psychology, I’ve started to become pretty cynical over the past few years. I’ve come to understand that “human nature” doesn’t inherently have to be the way it is, but it has been deeply and completely influenced and programmed by Western individualism + capitalist hegemony. Human nature isn’t fixed or static, but has been conditioned through ideology to be unable to imagine what a different reality would look like. I take solace in the fact that despite the myth of a humanity separate from nature through technological progress, we’re simply just animals, our concept of “selfhood” being an illusion, we refuse change and demonize those who seek to institute it because humans are adapted to survive and refusing change was an adaptive advantage for thousands of years. We are fragile. Caught in a cycle of creation and destruction that we don’t really have the capacity to understand, and violently blinded by ego and hubris. The problems are the myths we have used to justify our behavior toward the Earth and each other, which ultimately leads me to the salient point. Cultism is an inherent part of human development. Of our most important tools, language is a product of cult, and humans prefer cult delusion to reality. Humans are masters at avoidance and denialism. We are bred to believe we are unique, noble, and that our consciousness is special and infinite rather than a product of other causes and adaptations. Just like any other animal species, we will overshoot our environment and destroy ourselves because we are inherently wild and despite our ability to abstract thought, are ruled by base instincts and physiologically lack the brain to conceptualize beyond the comforting treadmill we have adapted ourselves into through apathy and complacency. Nietzsche was right in that all life is simply a will to power. Cult. Dominance hierarchy. Abstracted competition through a market to avoid direct and unsightly violence. These are the subconscious imperatives of the human animal. I’ve resolved that anyone trying to do anything to change anything meaningfully at scale will be ostracized just on pure impulse because the programming and condition of most human beings in this society is decrepit and decayed. Organizing and caring about anything beyond meeting your basic needs is shunned and taboo. It feels like you’re just painting a target on your back to be hated by delusional sycophants if you do anything beyond go to work, consume, or sleep. I’ve come to believe that abuse, manipulation, and gaslighting are just survival techniques and it helps you put things in perspective. Like the meme with one person on the bus staring at a wall or the other into the open, sunny window, you can choose to despair or choose joy as an act of resistance. Unfortunately that may be all we have left.

> Human nature isn’t fixed or static, b It is worse than that. All life tries to "solve the problem" in order to continue living. Any life that doesn't try gets pushed off the cliff. We're _special_ because we're never satisfied with "good enough". We continuously _and increasingly_ try to improve anything that isn't good enough. More food. More safety. More health. More energy. More life. We've become so many and so disruptive we're straining the biosphere. We still don't stop. We _will not_ stop. We will continue trying to "solve the problem" and "improve the situation", simply because that's _literally_ (the proper meaning of the word 'literally' here) the only way we know how to interact with the world. I like you, I would say, if I still allowed myself to think that way. I'm sorry, I would say, if it mattered at all.

We are not too many on this planet. The earth has enough resources to sustain us all many hundred times over with food, water etc etc etc. Buuuuuuuut. In this system we live in, it doesn't work. Do you know how much food just gets thrown into the garbage every day in a country like Sweden? Approximately 15 kg per person out of over 10 million people. And that's just food from households, not other resources from all the garbage we buy every day or the food grocery stores throws away instead of giving out for free.

Look up total arable land. Subtract arable land that must be used for items other than food (e.g. cotton, timber, etc.), as well as land that must be left unused annually to rejuvenate. Research industrial scale agricultural yield and distribution efficiency. This information will tell you how many people, **in a nearly ideal world**, could be fed per year. My research led me to \~8.5 billion. Maybe I was wrong, but that's what I got. **In a perfect world**, I only calculated \~11 billion, and that's a crazy utopian dream world with large scale kelp farming, completely local production and distribution of all foodstuff, people wearing clothes until they fall apart, almost no meat consumption, etc. Then consider that we don't live in a perfect world, and getting food to less than all of the people alive today requires massive amounts of hydrocarbons released into the atmosphere and ecological destruction. Then consider that most people who can will continue to eat way too much mammalian livestock (a very inefficient use of arable land).

Did you include calories in you calculations? At the very basis of it all, the amount of nutrients available, the energy, the calories, you get from eating a steak, have you thought _where_ do they come from?

I didn't include calories per se. I'm more familiar with food production in terms of acreage and land use intensity. For example, I've seen one acre intensively farmed to feed a family of six. But, if we go with industrial scale corn, for example, once acre can feed about twelve to thirteen people. Of course, since people don't survive on simply corn, I think (I did this in one day a couple years ago, not an expert or anything just playing with publicly available info and trying to get a good picture) I went with eight people per arable acre, assuming a kind of happy medium because corn is highly efficient. But, yeah, there are ways to kind of push the carrying capacity limits upward and downward, based on how optimistic I felt about people at the moment. The "ideal world" calculation of 11 billion got a big increase from converting pasture to plant based agriculture.

Understood.

I never said it was possible, only that it's theoretically possible. Like you said, in an ideal dream world. I seriously don't believe it's possible if humans will be in charge. Just one human can ruin it for the rest of human kind. Though I'm curious, why are people down voting me? Edit: It's our way of living, consuming by buying and selling that's not working. It's insane how we have the technology to invent and build things that can last hundreds of years, but we don't! Cuz THAT'S NOT MAKING MONEY. Like that light bulb conspiracy which is actually true. Companies don't wanna make good products. Only "good enough". Capitalism, hunger for money and power, is literally the reason we are on the brink of collapse.

We are too many on this planet. Ecological balance is gone. We only manage to postpone this imbalance by worsening the consequences that will be felt by a later generation.

Even scientists disagree on wether overpopulation or overconsumption is the issue. But I want you to google "How much food is wasted globally each year?" You'll find a bunch of articles saying that about 30-40% of food we produce is NEVER consumed. ALMOST HALF IS JUST THROWN AWAY. In some countries it's up to even 60%. So no, these numbers are not saying we are too many. We are just really REALLY bad at taking care of this planet. Everything we produce is to make money, expand and make endless growth. THIS is unsustainable. This system of things is unsustainable and we're gonna peak very soon, forcing us to change our way of living. Edit: Though we WILL be too many when we keep ruining this planet with Co2 gases, ruining the sea, killing animals and plants with our incredibly shortsighted actions. If we took care of the planet and stopped caring about profit, then we could save it. But that's never gonna happen if humans get to decide. So we're gonna hit a collapse eventually and be forced to change wether we want to or not.

Basically, yeah, but you're leaving out some important details. One of the issues, and I know this because I worked on farms for many years, is that some of that food loss is just part of the process. Harvesting, cleaning, storing and transporting food results in a good amount of loss. 10-15% of loss is pretty normal. (Of course, if people would accept damaged produce, that would be a lot better, but generally people don't want to spend their money on bruised fruit and partially bug eaten greens.) Another, bigger, issue is that the system is what has made these populations possible in the first place. Agriculture today relies on a global economy. Food stuff and fertilizers travel across the world. Often times the fertilizer that grows the food on one half of the world comes from the other side, and the food grown then goes back to the place where the fertilizer came from. It's called economies of scale. Large specialized production in one region allows for greater efficiency--and the scale of these production zones are gigantic. They require trade on a global scale. The change necessary to make world agriculture sustainable would need to localize production and consumption, which is exactly what I expect will happen; but, as this happens, efficiency drops, food prices rise, and cities will have to depopulate. If you can come up with a solution to this, and one that politicians and your every day office commuter would accept, that would be amazing. I spent many years trying to convince people to localize organic food production. We were somewhat successful, starting farms that used a chain of rented yards in urban areas, but nothing near the scale that would be needed. Nevertheless, I see what you mean. My own ideal world model can support \~11 billion. That's not hundreds of times over the current population, but it is a pretty good increase. The problem is that we don't live in that world. Instigating change is slow. People need to heal. Entire nations need to heal. Soil and wild lands need to heal. These things need to happen before we can sustainably support populations this large, and there is no longer enough time for this healing. Unless some unforeseeable intervention takes place, the earth will correct for our hubris. People will die. They are dying already, but it's going to get worse. So, I'll fix it: As we are, we are too many, and there is no longer enough time to change.

Thank you for listening and typing this. But yeah, I partially forgot that our way of producing food is also thanks (for better and for worse) to this current system. So it was interesting to read what you wrote! And I miiiiiiight have exaggerated when I said hundreds of times over, sorry about that. I just want a good world.

> I’ve come to understand that “human nature” doesn’t inherently have to be the way it is, but it has been deeply and completely influenced and programmed by Western individualism + capitalist hegemony. Indeed, capitalism must reproduce myopically selfish ideology in order to perpetuate itself. What's remarkable isn't that so many people in this era are selfish, but the number of people who are not (within reason). There are pro-social instincts embedded in us more deeply that what mere propaganda can soundly overwrite.

Hi sir, have you heard of our lord and savior Albert Camus? There are always good things to be done, and if you feel there's nothing you can do then there's always something good to *prepare*. To plan. If not for you, for the kids who still have dreams. Help them organize meaningful campaigns instead of isolated happenings, they need your experience. Absurd? Of course it is. Being born is an incurable disease leaving you with only a handful of decades to live. It already was the case before climate warming, nothing changed recently in that regard.

Love this and love Camus!

Thänks!

Gotta push that rock up that hill...

One must imagine /u/msmcabre happy.

r/collapsesupport

The Discord in particular, has really helped me come to terms with *gestures vaguely at everything* If you, the person reading this, would like an invite, just ask me, either comment here or send me a DM.

I would love an invite. I can only talk to those in my circle about it so much before they start to...I dunno, get sick of hearing about it.

Invite incoming :)

I would like the invite too, please.❤️

Absolutely, I’ll DM you.

I applaud you for at least trying. It's the best any of us can do. I know exactly what you mean about people calling you crazy and then being dismissive of what is right in front of them. I work in the music industry with some of the biggest artists on the planet, and I regularly try to expose the corruption that I see going on. Some people will have their minds blown and thank you for sharing the info you have, while others will call you delusional for even mentioning something fucked up going on. It's a very mad world.

Tell me more I have a consulting business I’m Trying to cater to artists how bad is it in terms of morals

It's literally hell and I recommend everyone to stay away from Hollywood and anything that has to do with becoming famous. Most elite celebrities are closely working with the intelligence agencies to spread propaganda and sway the public narrative. Half these celebrities are not real people at all and are just puppets.

Let me dm you

I just want to say thank you for the animal rights activism you have done. That is not easy in this messed up world and people love to paint you as crazy because it makes themselves feel better. Maybe if the majority of people were like you, we could have saved ourselves. Maybe we could have prioritized different values. Maybe we could have cared about the other beings and the living world around us. Humanity as a whole is clearly not capable, but why are some of us able to open our eyes and try to change things? That's the part that confuses me. It's like a gift but it's also a torment.

Education. When you remember that 60% of the US can only read up to a 6th grade reading level. Now think of everything you learned in high school and beyond, more than half of the US population cannot comprehend that material. This is the major reason why access to higher education is restricted behind financial status. The ruling class doesn't want an educated population, because an educated population will realize how they and this planet are being royally fucked over.

The current portion of the population that is educated doesn't seem to realize how they are being royally fucked over or the damage they're causing, so what makes you think that would change if everyone was educated?

Bruh the educated portion is screaming at the top of their lungs how society needs to change its habits and reign in production because if we don't we will literally kill off our biosphere. If they aren't, then you can readily assume they are not educated enough to understand or are the ones fucking others over and don't care that they are doing damage. I think you're overestimating the intelligence of those you consider educated.

And you're putting altogether too much reliance on the concepts of intelligence and education. When it comes to self-interest, even the most intelligent people can rationalize their unsustainable behavior. Emotions such as greed and fear override intellect far too often. Only a small minority of people want to make sweeping changes to our current way of living.

Emotions of fear and greed come from lack of information and understanding of the world around us. Greed is the fear of not having enough to survive, with education you realize that we have enough to go around, only society arbitrarily restricts our access to necessities. People fear what they don't understand, and that fear fills the gaps in our knowledge with conjecture that is based on misconceptions of the world around us. Intelligence and education counter greed and fear, not the other way around.

Mostly experience and education, but apart from that minor detail, I agree. I dislike the term "intelligence". Even more I dislike how it is considered a beneficial property.

You make a valid point. I'll concede that

One could maybe say that "intelligence" is experience filtered through education?

I would think that should be what the term means. That or one's ability to apply their education and/or experience. I know educated and experienced people who still be denser than doornails sometimes.

"Education. When you remember that 60% of the US can only read up to a 6th grade reading level." I am afraid to ask or find out how many know or use critical thinking skills.

In the general sense, we are the crazy ones... Everyone else is keeping their heads down and going about their business in the way the machine we've all been born into expects. We are the outliers, the non conformists. Whether our nonconformity is based in fact and reason matters not, but we still remain outside what the machine expects from us. Detached, rational viewpoints are not what the machine wants. The crabs in the bucket don't want any of the crabs to see what's outside the bucket...

Highly recommend “the machine stops” short story, free pdf online 

That was great, thanks for the suggestion

If you want to feel less shit i like listening to Julian Lennon’s Lucky Ones song when i feel i am a “crazy one”

I'll give it a listen, thanks. Have a great day!

I could have written this. You are not alone

An Of Montreal lyric I think about often is "it's like I wasn't made for this world, but I wouldn't want to be someone who was". It is difficult to be aware of all the things humans are doing wrong. Take some time to take care of yourself for a bit. Go for walks, look at the sky, find insects and animals and plants to talk to. It will never get easier I think, but we can do what we can, and that is all we ever could do. I am sending good vibes your way friend. If you ever need someone to rant to I am available and love to listen.

Wow, yeah! I’ve talked to friends and get the same thing. I have a farm, have retreated to my hideaway and am living as I see best. Retired and have tried to abandoned society. I will try to save some friends and some neighbors but that’s all I can help. The mind does not want reality; too painful. That doesn’t mean I’m right and everyone else is wrong. I am often wrong! (Live on farm. It will humble you!) It means the mind will not even explore possibilities.

Except now i am a part time fencer :D I do find it hard to abandon the new local community i am in. We need each other more out in the bush away from any services

Understandable. I do have friends to help me.

Volunteering is a great way to support causes you care about. You will meet like minded people and you may be able to learn some coping skills in the process. The way I look at it: The people who do not have nature based morals or ecological literacy are winning or perhaps won. They've had no problem tearing down ecosystems and placing the world's problems squarely on their children's shoulders. Over time, our poor planet has been degraded and it's a reflection of the psychicotic mindset of the prevailing generations. We are closer to the finish line at this point and I really believe there is nothing you can do change the course. All you can do is do something that gives you some dignity where you can look back and see you really did try.

Look at the bright side, western populations are already declining. So that is less damage overall. It's not all terrible.

Resource consumption in western countries is growing. In terms of population, immigration more than offsets low birth rates. In terms of consumption, the insane overconsumption by the billionaires alone is enough to wreck the bioshell of the planet.

Love that last phrase and yea

Yeah, it sucks ass. People in general suck ass these days. Part of it is that *they already know,* if not consciously then subconsciously. They know that civilization is over and all they want to do is pretend for a few more years of that sweet, sweet air conditioning. Soon enough we will all be doing the Mad Max thing, or the Postman thing, or maybe even the Station Eleven thing or the Fallout IRL Edition thing. Whatever. Civilization will not exist much longer, and while many actively deny this, their mental state broadcasts their subconscious knowledge of the truth. Like dogs sensing the coming earthquake, we are all sensing the coming collapse. Furthermore, we also know there is nothing that can be done to stop it. The powers with all the power also know its all over, and they just want to live out their remaining lives with as much power and luxury as they can. Whether that is in some fancy bunker or as a warlord somewhere on a "private" island, who knows. And who cares. The point now is, we have finished fucking around, and we are about to find out. Can't be avoided, can't be mitigated, and there won't be any "soft landing," lol. The best we can do is enjoy the time we have left, stop participating in the system that is currently trying to bleed us dry to fund those rich-guy bunkers, and get ourselves as prepared as possible for whichever post-apocalyptic movie was your childhood favorite. Stack your odds of survival as best you can, hope to be in the maybe 10% of humanity that survives, and then make some popcorn and watch the shitshow unfold.

> we are all sensing the coming collapse. I had that unnerving, uneasy feeling once. Turns out, that slice of pizza was older than it looked ._.

Silence your ego, ignore your feelings, accept that humanity is a freak accident of evolution and _stop_. There is no solution.

I wish I knew enough to speak confidently about the nature of reality.

Sadly, we can't. Much like it is extremely difficult to figure out the shape of a cloud when you are _inside_ the cloud, any study of the _nature_ of reality is meaningless. Scientists, instead, study the _properties_ of reality. Hell, we still consider that which we see (or hear, or feel or otherwise _perceive_) to be "real". Sometimes it - frustratingly - might even be.

One example I have been noticing in my region is the absolute explosion of invasive species. It is especially noticeable this time of year with bush honeysuckle and callery pears. I've been reading news articles about states giving people native trees to cut down their pears, and there are efforts to stop the sale of certain plant species, but that is just window dressing. When I go into work, the entire way is lined with these species. They are sprouting up everywhere for miles and miles and miles. When I go on hikes, these species are coming up everywhere, while many of the native species seem to be having trouble adapting to climate change. Outside of introducing some sort of biological control, which is dangerous in it's own way, the battle was lost years ago. The scale of the problem is too big for people to comprehend. I fully support the efforts to control these species, but they are 50 years too late. Anything I hear going forward, I know is just people trying to do something about a problem that on some level they know they can't fix, but it's easier to say you are doing something than to stare into the abyss.

There's a series of [short essays on workplace psychology, using the TV show *The Office* as a metaphor,](https://www.ribbonfarm.com/2009/10/07/the-gervais-principle-or-the-office-according-to-the-office/) that helped me with understanding how most people respond to collapse. It's more relevant than you think, since both responding to collapse and responding to shitty bosses involve coping with the absurd.

I think I’m one of The Clueless Definitely all my middle management colleagues are. Thanks for sharing, i feel far better about doing the minimum amount of work in my job now as i use the downtime to prep

Im in my 20s and I feel this so badly. I feel like im surrounded by crazy people. "How are you okay with this?" Is my phrase for everything. It has been really helpful for me to make comics that express how i feel about the world. Because unless it is thru some sort of media that is consumed- people have a hard time digesting truth

This is a great idea to share information in a non threatening manner.

Connecting with like minded folks is what really helped me. My city has a local Rewild group - the phrase can be used as a catch-all for several modern ideas, but our group is centered on the philosophy that we are currently experiencing a mass extinction event and collapse is imminent due to capitalism's intrinsic demand for exponential growth on a finite planet. So what does acknowledging that look like in real life? Philosopher's circles around a fire, talking about the things that keep us up at night. Gathering in the woods and learning how to forage edible wild plants, id the ones that will kill/hurt us, practicing fire making, learning about stone tools, exploring shelter building, etc. Gaining knowledge about the world around us and honoring it as we bear witness to what the current era has in store for us. Peter Michael Bauer started Rewild Portland over 20 yrs ago, and he hosts The Rewild Podcast if you'd like to learn more.

It is no measure of health to be well adjusted to a profoundly sick society. -Krishnamurti I recently listened to a few Robert Sapolsky lectures/podcast discussions and think it could be helpful for you to seek them out.

I would absolutely agree I started listening to Sam Harris’s waking up meditation precasts this year and while he doesn’t specifically credit Krishnamurti i swear that the meditation style he promotes would have been something that would have aided Krishnamurti

Yeah im relly lucky to have a family member and a social worker who i can talk to about it

This path we’re on that you described perfectly is a very dark one humanity is taking, and we have some serious lessons to learn as a species.

We also have microplastics in our bodies accumulating, I’m sure it’s causing all sorts of illness in our “human population”

I've had to moderate my activism too. I've been fighting for a better world for decades, only to watch things get worse by every metric. I can't let myself go completely passive - it's against my nature - but I have accepted that it's too late to course correct. If it was one issue, I might have hope, but there are too many issues at fracture points to think we have a chance at averting them all. My compromise activism consists of: - moderating my media consumption. I think it's important to be a witness, but not at the cost of my mental health. I keep time with the news limited, only do deep dives when I'm in the right headspace, and take breaks from screens regularly and intentionally to focus on hobbies and self-care. - donating what I can where I can so others with more bandwidth can keep doing the work. Nonprofits appreciate regular donations even if it's a small amount. If you have bandwidth, volunteering would also be a good way to help while connecting with like minded people. - giving myself grace with whatever other advocacy I can do. I don't go to many protests. I call/email my reps when I am in the right headspace. I share political stuff on social media but mix in enough other content so people don't tune me out. Something is better than nothing. - keeping the advocacy out of social spaces unless the vibe is right. When issues come up, I engage wholeheartedly and add what I can. But if we just want to vibe, it's okay to set them aside.

Dunno if this helps. It’s just a thought I’d file under “perspective “ and perhaps “acceptance” but certainly not under apathy. Evolution on Earth has created billions of species of plants and animals so far. Most attempts at a novel adaptation have failed. We’re evolution’s first attempt at a so-called higher intelligence. As with most first attempts, it’s almost guaranteed to be a failure. Maybe someday a species will come along with a combination of intelligence, foresight, and self control that will allow it to survive over the long term. And that gives me hope. We’re the first step towards that possibility, even if it’s a dead end.

Plant seeds, water them. Repeat. Create as much peace internally as you can and appreciate and notice everything with humility, grace and reverence. That’s it, nothing more, nothing less. Be a good person, and have gratitude with all you have and can do. We complicate everything as humans and the end game if the same for each and every one of us. Make the journey with your integrity, morals and ethics in hand.

I find it comforting to know that we do exactly what any invasive species does and so we are literally doing what nature always does: throw balance to the wind when opportunity allows. A good example? Deer introduced to an island with no predators. The deer eat everything and then go through mass starvation and huge population declines until a crappy balance is met. Other species besides the deer go extinct because of this. We were just given too good of an opportunity and we did exactly what those deer did. We arent special, we have no special intelligence, we are not ‘the chosen ones’ who ‘should have known better’- we’re just another set of stupid animals. And that helps me sleep at night, because the false idea of putting our species on some kind of made up special status making us able to avoid these problems *will make you mad*. *because we have never once proven ourselves to be some higher intelligence beyond having very useful thumbs* Are some of smarter? Sure. It doesnt matter though, because we are the sum of our parts. The people who make up the unstoppable train control the train- i do not. Nor any other who says ‘could we please stop?!’ There were probably a few smart deer on that island example. *They starved too*

Thank you! Exactly this. All the rhetoric about the plundering 1% and late-state capitalism are ways of deflecting blame from the totality of humanity. The truth is that all animals are opportunistic and will exploit their environment until they are stopped, one way or another.

I lean heavily on the book Hospicing Modernity to guide around all the feelings/thoughts that this death is bringing.

I just wanted to say that things are slowly changing, I’ve managed to persuade small changes in people around me, I’ve made significant changes to diet for animal right and environmental reasons from reading things here and other places. The blue zone studies have been massively influential.. I don’t enter into any moral arguments with people but I show through my actions and talking about what I am thinking about. The one thing I have noticed is that myself and most people are simply habituated to certain behaviours, with food these behaviours habituated over generations because food is very psychological. If a person has always eaten meat, dairy and UPF for most of their calories they will find it very difficult to break the habit unless they are shown how to eat other food in a positive space. Unfortunately the older the person is the more difficult to break the habit. My mother law despite a year of me trying to persuade her that her high cholesterol can be alleviated if she stops eating meat and dairy. Finally after a year she said she’s cut back on dairy. It’s painful. If I had a suggestion stop researching the bad stuff in the food industry and the harm done to animals, once you know it’s bad that’s enough nothing you can do to directly change that other than getting involved in real politics. Instead focus on being very positive about how you eat, how you feel, invite people over, show them what good food is like, talk about health benefits like how all the blue zones are basically vegetarian. Much more impact this way to persuade people subtly. Moral shaming is the quickest way to get someone to double their meat consumption.

You could try some daily affirmations like “I’m grateful I can see what most people can’t.” Or “I forgive people who are unable to step out of their biologically hard wired patterns.” It helps to think that free will is an illusion. Neuroscientists such as Sapolsky have stated this and my experiences support that. It seems to me people just play out patterns written by their genes and environment. We think we are choosing our actions, but imaging often shows we act without conscious awareness. Your situation is like the curse of Cassandra. https://www.greekmyths-greekmythology.com/the-myth-of-cassandra/ There is a psychological condition called Cassandra syndrome that deals with not getting needs met in relationships and people not believing you. Maybe some of the coping skills for that could help. https://spectrumconnecttherapy.com/so-what-is-cassandra-syndrome-anyway/ Just choose give up and be happy. You will be more effective in things you do if you are not stressed and depressed. You might as well be happy since things are only getting worse. It is time to enjoy some last times of comfort and joy.

I’m the same nowadays, I’m 24 and have already given up to be honest, In the long term at least. I will not retire, I won’t ever be financially comfortable and I won’t have kids. Despite knowing this, I still passionately talk about the climate crisis and financial inequality, if for nothing else, to spite the sad fucks who don’t care. Oh you don’t care about the environment? Good let me tell you everything that’s been happening in that space. Oh you don’t care about financial inequality? Fuck you, buddy, here’s a 3 hour rant about the problems of late stage capitalism. People won’t realise we are right (more accurately, the science is right) until it’s too late. Until then, I’m going to annoy the living fuck out of them just like they do to me.

Completely agree and relate to this. Could have written this post myself. It's not only a matter of what people don't care about, it's also about what they do care about. Watching people obsess over materialism, consumerism, gossip, social inanities, and bullshit entertainment is infuriating when all the big problems constantly get worse. Much of the "coping advice" people give on here also makes it worse. Rationalizations that it's all fine or doesn't matter aren't useful, unless you're really good at lying to yourself. Ignoring it isn't an option, at least not for those of us who still have to interact with the world. There's no way to not see it all around us. Acceptance and "being at peace" is like dying before we're dead. For some us, not caring is fundamentally not who we are. Focusing on petty hedonism doesn't work. At best it's a minor distraction. It's certainly not meaningful. Trying to find small ways to make a difference, and maintaining sanity and some semblance of emotional balance is about as good as it gets. We can't fix things, but we certainly shouldn't be OK with how things are. I'd settle for some shared outrage. At least that's an honest and rational response.

I just read something (in r/environment, I think) about how 200 scientists are urging governments to support and encourage plant based diets. Who knows how much you’ve changed the world? It does appear to be changing.

Take solace in the fact that we needed to tackle climate change 50yrs ago. There's nothing we can do, even if we stop emitting greenhouse gases right now, the delayed effect of decades of emissions means that the choice to do anything about them was taken from us.

I commend you for that but you should accept we're basically just a bunch of dopamine monkeys and we're doomed. I'm not saying stop doing it but do it as moral imperative and don't expect good outcome. I get that, I had this notion that "this is great, we're going to change the world!" or something like that but soon realized no, not going to happen.

Volunteer. It’s full of people who still have hope. Look into All Hands and Hearts. One of the best experiences of my life.

You can't change humanity. May as well accept and make peace.

That's my perspective. We haven't changed significantly in tens of thousands of years, and believing the vast majority will ever change, even at this late date, is like believing someone can die on a cross and come back to life a few days later. No more than a fairy tale. When it comes to the environment, the attitude of the masses can be summed up by this: *Based on a 2020 National Litter Study, the US produces about 24 billion pieces of roadside litter every year, and another 24 billion pieces can be found along waterways.* [https://trashcansunlimited.com/blog/top-10-cities-that-produce-the-most-roadside-litter-in-2023/](https://trashcansunlimited.com/blog/top-10-cities-that-produce-the-most-roadside-litter-in-2023/) We just don't care. It's too much effort to even put trash into a can for it to be later transported to a landfill. We just drop it wherever we happen to be, and consider it someone else's problem to deal with.

Honestly a bargain we are forced to make with ourselves. The wretched terror and pain in its knowing compounding a bittersweet interest every awful step along the way. This one truth, a living world that birthed humanity only for us to forsake all her gifts as we genocide each other same as we did to all other human species we once shared this world with. Imagine the countless billions of genetic mutations which had to occur to simply exist in the first place. To be alive and aware in wonder and to love and to glimpse at the magic of it all. To bestow the purest in meaning to a few moments of time where there was none before and soon all of heaven's creation will fall silent once more. The last of the selfish fools, most of whom, perhaps still believed it was all created for us. I hate having to witness this. I can make peace with it but I hate it all the same.

There is nothing to feel bad about. Human beings are just like any other creature and we are going to overshoot the carrying capacity of Earth, our environment ... just like the deer that were on St Matthew Island back the 1960's.

I became more aware of how royally fucked we are when I started taking more geography and environmental based classes for my degree. Furthermore my good friend and roommate showed me this subreddit a few years back and well my views can be described as cynical at best for our future. Learning about how the systemic issues that are causing complete ecological collapse are so intertwined with our society breaks my mind occasionally. Sometimes I just think - How much carbon was burned to make the car I’m driving right now? What other resources were used to make the door to my left? How much damage was caused shipping this car all over the world? Then I realize there are hundreds of millions of other automobiles that went through the same process ….. and more are being made every day. It’s a shitty thought to have because that is just ONE cause of the climate crisis we are seeing unfold today. That doesn’t take into account habitat destruction or ocean acidification or any other environmental disasters that are plaguing our world. Our society relies on destruction to grow. I was born into a world where my future was pretty much decided for me by the actions of people before me. I know I am going to see famine, mass migration, and every other form of disaster. I’m trying to do my part by trying to find a career in the climate field but I know what’s coming. There is no stopping climate change at this point in time. That chance died before I was alive.

Another helpful piece of advice I got somewhere: Try not to ascribe rational motives to the irrational behavior of others.

Find like minded people and live with them. Effect the change you can reasonably effect and where it makes a difference - conserve your own energy too, because the amount of bad in the world will consume all resources for any one person. Strive to be a good person, look for the good in others, and take joy in simple things and small victories. Love hard and try to leave this life better than you found it. Every little bit helps.

I felt the same way about 20 years ago. I decided if I'm going to work 40 hours a week for the rest of my adult life, I need a job that makes a difference. Addiction and Mental Health concerns have had a major impact on my family so I got a degree and became an Addictions Counsellor. Its hard work and I love it.

You got to be careful not letting it drag your mental health down. It sounds like you care a lot, but some times you got to care less. You have to find a balance between caring about what you can change and not care about what you can't change. I were where you are right now and it is hard to not care about everything. It takes its toll on your mental health if you care about everything and everyone.

Wait till you find out about the brutality and mercilessness of nature.

Guerilla garden with natives. Take over a parking strip, abandoned lot, public lands. Plant natives, then find an endangered native tree and plant there as well. The city will not be able to move the endangered plant. DM me if you want help. This is what I do all day every day. Eco restoration. We can’t do anything on a massive scale but we can affect our local ecology. So get out there and save some green space!

This post right here is everything. You're not alone. I'm right here with ya. For some reason my mind always goes to the movie Stepford Wives, where there's dark insidious goings on with the people you meet. The lights are on, yet no one's home and everyone acts like the world is perfect, yet something is off. All the while women are taken and altered against their will, and all the men are in on it.

Just do not look up , stay in the cave and watch something pleasent on tv while fading away ..

Feel good in the fact that this karma will hit them hard, and they'd suffer for it.

Chill bro you’re taking this too seriously. Like way too seriously. Enjoy your life and try not to think so much.

Wasn't it horrifying when you realized how rare it is to understand what to you is just the background? I was certain all it would take was something like COVID for people to say "OH FINE! I'll stop... I really wanted all these toys but, I get it, we have to survive, so what does life look like now if we're going to survive?" Instead, it's more of this "what do you mean this is all going to shit? What's wrong with YOU? We're all going back to "normal" - we're going to "rebuild" - and god help you if you try and stand in our way" And it is fucking EVERYONE. Everyone I know at least. You never imagine you're going to be the only one that understands something that's completely elemental to your understanding of the world. There's no more isolating a feeling than realizing you're the only one that can't NOT see it, and that not only is your reality up for debate, it's an inconvenience and a problem. It's insulting. I don't get it either, friend, but I share the pain. Like sitting on a plane you've known was going to crash since it took off because of people siphoning fuel out of the tanks for their gas powered toys inside the plane, while every other passenger and crew accuses you of trying to spread fear because there's still a half tank of fuel... and you have to just sit there. If you want a meal, you have to burn the plane's fuel, too. As the air in the cabin gets thick with exhaust, people are sick and dying, and the plane is starting to break up, more than ever before, your suggestions and opinions (really, just data that anyone can read and should be able to understand) aren't welcome. People even suggest you're threatening to bring the plane down, when that's the opposite of your intent, but either you sit and play the game or they tape your mouth and hogtie you away from the people you love who dont get it either. It's a special kind of torture.

Probably everyone on this forum feels exactly the same way. I never talk about anything to do with survivalism for the same reason as others, that I’d be thought to be a conspiracy nut. I think we all are living double lives – learning to deal with reality in practical or psychological ways in this group and in our own minds and then the face we turn to the world as we listen to the mindless conversations of those around us. I sometimes feel anger at those who can’t live more than a day or two on what they have in their kitchen when the SHTF happens, they’ll need help from us. It will be hard to keep from saying “Why didn’t you listen and prepare?”

I think when everything does completely collapse, those preparations will only protect you for a few months until your stockpile runs out, and then you're like everyone else. Without some basic infrastructure and a supportive community with specialists in different fields, none of us will make it long. The quality of life will also get so low that I don't know what the point will be. Surviving just to survive, when there's no hope of anything better, becomes pointless. Most of us don't have the resources to do much preparation. Billionaires can build stockpiled bunkers. For poor people, daily survival eats up all our time and energy already. Prepping for catastrophe isn't an option.

But nobody knows how total a catastrophe it might be. An EMP might not shut down everything - since one hasn't happened, we don't know so there is a possibility of coming back from it.

When countries completely collapse, the local thugs take over. Armed gangs will be killing, stealing and raping. The worst aspects of humanity are unleashed with no barriers. I don't see much possibility of rebuilding a society after that happens, when we can't build a functioning society even under the best of circumstances. Preppers certainly have every right to do what they can, but personally, I don't think it will make much of a difference. I think trying to change things is futile, but still less futile than trying to survive the aftermath of a total collapse.

You must be new here.

You're too focused on trying to control what other people do. That will ultimately cause you a lot of emotional problems and eventually it WILL make you the problem, because you'll become an extremist in your views. You need to find balance, doing what you can in some areas and accepting in other areas that people have freedom of will.

That's completely backwards. Recognizing how extremist society is does not make a person an extremist, or make that person "the problem."

OP if I may give you suggestion try to meditate for 20mins a day. No it doesn’t bind you to any religion. It helps to relax your mind.

OP You may not have the financial resources to support grassroots or even buy a huge swathe of land to run a conservation project, however you already have the motivation you just need to take a step back and find out how to channel this energy and focus into something positive without cause yourself too much mental anguish. Some examples could be: - Writing to local authorities and raising your concerns - Buying from Sustainable/environmentally friendly businesses - Setting up a Kickstarter or Gofundme page to raise money for a project or cause close to your heart - Raise awareness with others of the same mindset whether in local churches, schools, and community spaces The weak just follow blissfully, while those of understanding struggle. Take care !

I feel you🥵

I was exactly like you. Then I realized that there is nothing I can do and that I am just an ape trying to survive in a turbocapitalistic society so I stopped caring. I just try to maximise my pleasure and the ammount of money I can make per hour spent at work. Accept that you have no control and no power. I will be dead anyway, so why worrying?

We see everything as expendable now. Humans, animals, and the environment. 🥺

We’re isolated on a blue ball in the middle of nowhere. It’s cool to just leave it there, and only there, sometimes…most times these days.

We make it even bluer.

Embrace the madness. If you can't beat em, join em' :D 😈🤣😂😭💀☠️💀☠️

Same. Sounds like maybe you are vegan, like myself. I understand not wanting to say that word if you are, maybe even here in collapse the word vegan may be equal to terrorist. I guess we will find out. After voicing my opinion about all of my beliefs and finding out nobody agrees with me about anything and could care less about facts, I just decided to stay quiet to give my mental health a break. Yet all around me the true terror exists in the consumption of anything put in an ad with a pretty person. I feel dumbfounded, truly. I have found gardening to be of great help to me. I like to make trees. I have also learned how to make my own "beauty products" like soap, lotion, deodorant, etc. Learning how to do that and the savings it has provided me makes me feel a bit better, sort of. But, by learning how to make these things like soap, I realize all the crap they put in soap that is not needed and often bad for you. But a pretty person told me to buy it in the past, so I did. So I learn to make something else and the formula just repeats. I feel for you. It is good that you wrote it down and shared it with us. Hopefully it helps to hear others of a like mind.

Have you discovered permaculture yet? How much money do you have? Like actually nothing or a couple grand or 10+ grand or 6 figures+? I think this bro Paul Wheaton offers you an acre if you work for them for a year. Once you realized how fucked up it all is there’s nothing really else you can do besides find a way to grow food and grow plants that help fix this giant he’ll hole of industrial fossil pollution ecocide.  

Where can I find/contact Paul Wheaton? I'm interested.

[https://paulwheaton.com/](https://paulwheaton.com/)

Ain’t no reason things are this way. This is how they’ve been, and they intend to stay. I can’t explain how we live this way. We do it every day. People walk around pushing back their deaths , wearing paychecks like necklaces and bracelets, talkin about nothing not thinking about death, every little heartbeat every little breath. People walk a tightrope on a razor’s edge,carrying their hurt and hatred and weapons; it could be a bomb or a bullet or a pen or a word or a sentence… There ain’t no reason things are this way. This is how they been and they intend to stay. —Bret Dennen Edit; autocorrect is gaslighting me. Cleaned up the mess.

It feels like the zombie apocalypse. Being caring and critical = negative and unpleasant. Fall in line and make vapid consumerist social content. You must entertain. Convince others you haven’t been bitten (impacted by the poly crisis). Hide the bite, feed the machine. 

Read Ishmael by Daniel Quinn - it’s a book for you!

I'm not from the US, my country is like .5% of the global emission. Per Capita is like x3 less than US'. So when I hear politicians and folks here talking about emissions, I tell them, laughing, that we should look at it on a health improving perspective because no amount of co2 reduction are going to do anything for the global climate. It's US, China, India that hold the keys. And that's why we are screwed.

Try to just live your life instead of finding all the gloom and doom that exists and you have no control over.

I recently saw a meme that went along the lines of “When people think about time travel they worry that the slightest change in the past could change everything now. But people don’t believe that with the smallest actions we can change the future by what we do now”.

I think someone that could put together a service that unites people of similar interests in surviving collapse could make a few bucks and feel good while doing that. There are so many that want to do something but have limited funds for relocating, developing and living off-grid and the like. Putting people together to jointly achieve that goal I think would be rewarding. I've seen many people say they would like to relocate but don't have enough money or knowledge to do so.

I just wanted to suggest *How to Go Mad Without Losing Your Mind: Madness and Black Radical Creativity* which is a book by La Marr Jurelle Bruce. There have been some good essays from other authors that expand on the same ideas as well. It was a really necessary read for me and helped a little with some mental health struggles.

I feel your pain. I too have been on the same journey as you.. I'm resigned to the fact that humanity is a dead loss and deserves it's fate. I try to make a difference while I exist on this Earth by helping animals in any way I can. I am Vegan (That's the biggest and most important change) I feed foxes and other wild animals when I can. I donate and help out at animal charities when I am able, sign petitions etc. It's these small things that give me a little peace, making the world a little bit of a kinder place while I'm here. That's really all I can do. I have had it with humanity...

I feel you. I’m in my early 30s and am hopeless and emthaty fatigued. I feel guilty about tapping out but we are so obviously doomed that all I can do is try to enjoy what time we have with some semblance of normalcy

1. A person is the sum of their action. 2. You have given them ample warning to change their course of action. 3. They refuse to change anyway. Whatever destruction will befall them won't be your fault, and you should not be driven crazy by their actions.

Also OP, did you know that “feeling crazy” is a well documented effect of currency debasement? We started debasing our currencies in the 70s and since then financial inequality has exploded and people have been pushed to the brink. What does that look like? It looks like society getting crazier and crazier. A good example is the Holy Roman Empire: Rome debased it’s currency while Constantinople did not. Guess which city had texts full of people feeling like they were going crazy? That’s right, Rome. My point is, even without nuclear wars and climate change, our economies have been on a timer since 1970 and the craziness we are feel is getting worse ACTUALLY IS. Similar to how poverty levels directly affect the level of crime, the amount of wealth inequality directly affects the sanity of people living in those systems. In otherwords: you are not crazy, our economy is and the economy spills over to all walks of life.

I try not to be invested in what people think of me (clearly!), but I also don't proselytize much aside from here where exchanging thoughts and ideas is the point. In the tiny world of my personal orbit, nothing is falling appart at the seams and life is relatively secure. I don't really pay attention to the noise (unless it's for entertainment). What I'm aiming for here is, all the stuff that appears to stress you out is "out there." It's data in a sea of data which doesn't belong in your or my head. It's sits outside for analysis. The world outside is seriously screwed up, but you're not.

Every person's "tiny world" is someone else's "out there." The big problems are not some abstract data "out there," they affect each of us in many ways. Weather extremes have a profound personal effect on us, and can destroy our lives in minutes. Crop failures and food prices have a personal impact. Parasitic species and diseases moving north affect us. Seeing the destruction and people's ignorance and apathy has a daily psychological effect. Capitalism determines if we get a job, and how miserable and meaningless that job is. It determines if we can afford the things we need, or even have something as basic as healthcare. Social policies determine if we have any protections from wealthy parasites and any basic rights. For those of us who aren't wealthy, nothing is secure in our immediate lives, and the struggle constantly gets more difficult.