A couple of months ago I wouldn't have taken the article too seriously but right now, I'm beginning to think there is a grain of truth in it.
Having lived in a former PHRASECENSOREDPOSTERSHOULDKNOWBETTER. country and experienced the economic collapse, then the many years of all-around decline (which they called "transition") first hand, Orlov's message strikes close to heart. Most of all, I agree with the following two passages:
So how do you prepare? Lately, I’ve been hearing from a lot of high-powered, successful people about their various high-powered, successful associates. Usually, the story goes something like this: “My a. financial advisor, b. investment banker, or c. commanding officer has recently a. put all his money in gold, b. bought a log cabin up in the mountains, or c. built a bunker under his house stocked with six months of food and water. Is this normal?” And I tell them, yes, of course, that’s perfectly harmless. He’s just having a mid-collapse crisis. But that’s not really preparation. That’s just someone being colorful in an offbeat, countercultural sort of way.
Some of you may be frightened by the future I just described, and rightly so. There is nothing any of us can do to change the path we are on: it is a huge system with tremendous inertia, and trying to change its path is like trying to change the path of a hurricane. What we can do is prepare ourselves, and each other, mostly by changing our expectations, our preferences, and scaling down our needs. It may mean that you will miss out on some last, uncertain bit of enjoyment. On the other hand, by refashioning yourself into someone who might stand a better chance of adapting to the new circumstances, you will be able to give to yourself, and to others, a great deal of hope that would otherwise not exist.
Going off the grid is not viable for most people. But even if the situation really deteriorates to the point of collapse it doesn't mean the end of civilization. It will be an enormous change but it won't happen overnight and it won't look anything like Mad Max.
One thing I've learned during the infamous transition is that people are adaptable and will come up with new solutions. The times ahead may be tough and what we take for granted now might never again be available to us (or at least not for a long while). But we're all in the same boat so we'll just have to work together and do our best.
Not to be an alarmist but the true extent of the current crisis is far greater than we realize. It's still just the proverbial peak of the iceberg. What worries me the most is that nothing much has changed - the system still looks and feels the same even though the entire economy is running on fumes already. The people in charge are not committed to take any drastic measures but the situation calls for something drastic, not just patching a hole here and there.
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