What kind of post-apocalypse survivor are you?

Why do I like apocalypse movies...

and books...

and tv shows...

aaaand comics...

anyway...

Why? Because of the challenge. They all ask the same question, What would you do (or how would you do) in a world without all the protections and comforts supplied by this civilization? How would you remake your life out of this context, on your own or with a small group of other survivors? I think the popularity of the genre is a hint that a lot of people are not entirely comfortable with our comforts. Do we feel, somewhere in the back of our minds that we're being set up? That life really just ought not to be so comfortable and easy, (materially speaking, that is... spiritually/emotionally it's really a lot harder than it used to be, but that's another day's rant).

Do we all have a sneaking suspicion, perhaps, that all is not so very secure as our grandparents thought it was going to be? Is there a growing civilisation-wide distrust of this way of life? Is there maybe just a disquiet that we relatively tiny group (1st worlders, white anglo westerners... whatever) are living this way like the aristos of France eating cake all day in our silk frock coats while millions of everyone else are teetering between starvation and uprising? That our coffee-house iPad lifestyle is all about to pop like a soap bubble and the smart people are the ones with the basements full of dried food packs and boxes of batteries?

And in a larger, less personal and material sense, which aspects of (fallen) human nature would come to the fore? Assuming we survived "the Event," would we be the victims or the joiners? Would we be the ones to set up a little distributist hobbit society and try to raise goats and hoard books? Or would we be the ones joining the leather-gang and roaming around the withered landscape stealing gasoline and ammunition? Are we, deep in our souls, the good guys or the bad guys? We are pretty smug about what kind of people we are until there is a serious crisis.

(Why do I like Cracked.com videos of nerdy people talking about pop culture? Another question entirely. Mind your own beeswax.)



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