Dear collapse writer…
Hello, I’m your psychiatrist, checking in. How are you feeling? Your collapse theory articles contain many elements that concern me. I’m worried you may harm yourself or indulge in behavior harmful to yourself and others.
It’s clear that today’s society and the forward march of business and technology are not working for you, and you feel left behind. It’s OK, you’re not alone. We’re experiencing a loneliness epidemic, a vast chasm of income inequality, and a worrying underclass of homeless and low-functioning and non-functioning citizens, people who have involuntarily dropped out of the program. We also see teen anxiety at a level not seen in recorded history.
It’s understandable that you may feel collapse is imminent.
But, it is not.
The human race is functioning extremely well. Better, in fact, than at any time since cavemen and hunter gatherers. What we’re not seeing as we read digital news, watch TV news and absorb the sentiment in day to day conversation, is that more people are lifted from poverty than ever before, more people have access to information, news, advice and opinion, than ever before, and that our financial system has more sophistication and built-in protection than at any time in the past.
The left — and the right — each have their very own brands of doomsday thinking. The uneducated rural folk who often populate the right wing underground, have strong beliefs and feel that white people are under attack, therefore prepare a bunker existence where weapons and ready meals are the key to surviving an apocalyptic world run by, I don’t know, rabid muslim zombies? I haven’t had the pleasure of an in-depth conversation with any of these guys. The left is less weapon-ready and more intent on creating a harmonious post-collapse society where we somehow return to village living and till the fields together in a peaceful and anti-capitalist utopia. I’m not sure how this community will respond to a visit from Boko Haram or ISIS, but I’m sure they have a plan. Either way, many people have taken refuge in a belief system that tells them the world as we know it is about to self-destruct.
Your thoughts of impending doom are created by the news industry which wants you afraid, and by your personal situation which has not brought you financial security — yet.
These things are fixable.
First of all, look after yourself. Get some exercise every day. Eat better. Read more positive and edifying content — ditch the doom writers, they aren’t helping you. Add hot yoga to your diet and exercise program. This will create a calm, meditative element in your daily life. Reduce your association with negative people. If you have friends who hate the rich, hate the police, hate men, old people, white people etc, make an active decision to reduce your exposure to their narrative. Ditch everything that isn’t helping you.
Once you begin to become ‘the new you’, start investigating ways in which you can live a truly new and better life. Side hustles can be fun, without quitting your job and starting on a new and uncertain venture. A good hustle should be less about the money than the happiness it brings you — and yes, it should eventually bring in some money. Writing on Medium? Sure, but let’s be clear: writing clickbait stories about the end of the world is not a healthy or happy side hustle, and it has a very limited addressable audience. Writing useful, helpful content that people can use to enhance their lives, will eventually break through for you and become a more worthwhile activity.
In the meantime, please look at a few stark facts about the collapse theory as indicators that it is not real, and belongs exclusively in the basements and dark quarters of the people whose lives have not worked out well. Most entrepreneurs are positive about the future. Especially successful ones, those who have managed to buy beautiful homes and take amazing trips and vacations with friends and family. These people don’t see collapse as imminent or even probable. Now look at immigrant families who have come to US / UK / Germany / etc from desperate and violent countries. Do you hear any of these people predicting collapse? I think not. Talk to the brightest graduates in their first 2–3 years out of college. They’re in demand and are being recruited by America’s best companies. They’re hearing direct from the bridge of corporate America’s ship, and they’re brimming with excitement. These people are smarter than you. And they see a bright future. Please tell me why you’re smarter than all the above mentioned groups, and why — despite your apparent lack of financial and career success to date — you know collapse is imminent, and these people don’t know it. Yeah, no.
I encourage you to get some new glasses and try to see the bright, exciting world we live in, because your collapse theory is a fabrication of the failed people and it is not an accurate assessment of where humanity is today. Enormous opportunity awaits those who remain curious, brave, focused and positive. It would be a wasted lifetime, spent in constant dark mood awaiting a collapse that never happened.
