The Hollow Men Collapse

There will be no "collapse" the way some of these people think of it. It's not going to be like the movie "Dawn of the Dead" or whatever where one day suddenly shit hits the fan and prices skyrocket and everyone begins to riot and the SS comes marching down the street to kill everyone. There will be no "happening." It's far more insidious than that. Read the poem "The Hollow Men" by TS Eliot and you'll understand. You'll just notice that every day simple things will become a little more expensive. Everyone's homes and apartments will start to get smaller. Your work hours will get longer, but your pay will decrease. You'll see your family and friends less, and find that in time you care less about them. Every day you'll find yourself lowering your standards for everything: work, food, relationships, etc. Job security will no longer exist as a concept. You'll notice houses and apartments shrinking. People will start hanging on to clothing longer and longer. Less people will get married, even less will have children. People will engross themselves in technological distractions and fantasy while never truly experiencing the real world. Whatever dream people used to have about what their lives were going to be will become for them a distant memory. The only thing left for them will be the reality of their debt and their poverty. And every minute of every day they will be told, "You are stupid, ugly, and weak, but together we are free, prosperous, and safe." That is the collapse. The reduction of the American man into a feudal serf, incapable of feeling love or hate, incapable of seeing the pitiful nature of his situation for what it is or recognizing his own self worth.

A 4chan-style text post argues that societal collapse will not arrive as a dramatic zombie-apocalypse event, but as a slow and invisible decline. It describes rising costs, shrinking homes, longer work hours, lower wages, weakening relationships, debt, poverty, and technological distraction, ending with the reduction of the average American into a powerless feudal serf. The joke is the grimly overdramatic, dystopian reaction used to comment on economic decline and modern life.

• @eternalclassic / 51436 2024-05-23