I Lived Through Collapse. America Is Already There.

[teach1st]

I Lived Through Collapse. America Is Already There.
Medium, by Indi Samarajiva, 9/26/2020

(The author refers to events in Sri Lanka)

I lived through the end of a civil war. Do you know what it was like for me? Quite normal. I went to work, I went out, I dated. This is what Americans don’t understand. They’re waiting to get personally punched in the face while ash falls from the sky. That’s not how it happens.

This is how it happens. Precisely what you’re feeling now. The numbing litany of bad news. The ever rising outrages. People suffering, dying, and protesting all around you, while you think about dinner.

If you’re trying to carry on while people around you die, your society is not collapsing. It’s already fallen down.

I was looking through some old photos for this article and the mix is shocking to me now. Almost offensive. There’s a burnt body in front of my office. Then I’m playing Scrabble with friends. There’s bomb smoke rising in front of the mall. Then I’m at a concert. There’s a long line for gas. Then I’m at a nightclub. This is all within two weeks.

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[Pacifist Patriot]

1. Very sobering read, thank you for sharing.

[niyad]

2. KNR,

[PatSeg]

3. Very powerful message

This is real life, not some movie.

America has fallen. You need to look up, at the people you’re used to looking down on. We’re trying to tell you something. I have lived through collapse and you’re already there. Until you understand this, you only have further to fall.

[leighbythesea2]

4. Very very good

Thank you. I just shared this on fb & twitter. The self admitted privilege really contributes to how it affects perspective.

Have Colleagues in Sri Lanka who talk about it. But never like this, bc we are doing business i suppose. Had a trip planned there for 2020 (and india).
Have a dear friend from Venezuela.... and it sounds similar too.

[Le Roi de Pot]

5. Combined civil and armed death toll in Sri Lanka is 150,000.

We are comfortably past that number.

[Igel]

10. And for a comparable impact

we'd have to be upwards of 2.3 million dead.

150,000 out of 21 million is a bigger deal than 200,000 out of 325 million.

It also matters that one is from illness, and the other from what people personally do to others because of ethnic rivalries and tensions and grasping for power.

[dawg day]

6. This writer is really good.

he has a series on the sri Lankan successful response to Covid.

[AlexSFCA]

7. not the best comparison

Spanish flu pandemic killed even more people in the US but it was not a collapse. Also, societal collapse is temporary, by author’s own logic. That means there is hope and even optimism to end it and start rehabilitating. Are we better now than in 50s or 60s? black people and women who were alive then will tell you resounding yes. Did we collapse then? and it is less of a collapse now? Western democracies are in a lane of its own because protests are our normal way of progressing. The best comparison we can find is to Germany in 1930s and early 1940s. And yet, Germany emerged better than ever at the end of it all, the best economy in EU and one of the most humane societies on the planet. Democracies tend to learn from mistakes and become stronger whereas other societies usually not.
Right now, we still have nearly unlimited freedom of speech, including freedom to lie. Also, trump is too undisciplined to sustain and many people who surround him are way too incompetent. Evil needs to be competent to work long term, like Putin.

[NJCher]

9. when people are part of the process (meaning protests)

Democracies tend to learn from mistakes and become stronger whereas other societies usually not.

They (meaning protesters and those who seek to form substantive changes) have a stake in the outcome. Other types of government preclude that. I think this is why people in democracies can learn but people with other types of government probably don't.

An aside: I used to tell my students that when forming a judgment about protesters, follow the money. I would point out that they're not getting paid. In fact it's probably costing them a day's salary to go protest.

[peacebuzzard]

8. The civil wars in India were horrific.

And, with India in overpopulation, primarily in poverty, combined with and topped off by seismic climate devastation nothing looks great. Except for the people. The resilience, the inner strength, the search for the good in devastating situations is what turns a country around.

The same is true in the U.S. The inner strength and resilience works well for us, and does seem to overcome most obstacles. Our common greatest challenge with India and the rest of the world will be the race for time in a cataclysmic collapse of the environment due to climate change and pollution. And, this country is guilty of being possibly the prime culprit of the cause.

This pandemic has exasperated and increased the difficulty and challenge of a seconds to midnight emergency situation. I agree with the intent of the article that we are already there. In reference to the civil wars: this transcends international borders and is a war between the classes. The mega-billionaires exploiting the environment versus the inheritance of the earth for all citizens, most notably the indigenous who live in a direct exchange with earth and the surrounding nature. Unfortunately, the real sons and daughters of the earth who do the least harm have suffered the greatest onslaught from the pillagers. Yes, we are already there.

Thank you for this article, teach 1st.