>I don't think it should be anyone's duty to accept widespread, severe adversity based on the mistakes of world leaders
I think this is a worldview that's very centered on humanity and civilization as it stands today, and not reflective of the wider human experience across space and time. Adversity and conflict has historically been the norm, and "The Long Peace" is a true anomaly in world history. What we're likely to see is more a "regression to the mean", so to speak.
>It'd be a difficult, long grind back to normality with no guarantee of reaching a better or more equal world than today
I would posit there would be zero way back to where we are today. Ever. The easy to access hydrocarbons that were available to be exploited initially are no longer available and the ones we exploit today require tools, and techniques that would no longer be operable or reproducible given their complexity. I think that's true for an astounding amount of technology. I recently took my car for a warrant of fitness and it passed, but I was told I will need to replace the tires at some point in the near future. I was also told no tires were in stock. I assumed this was just due to Covid related shipping delays, but then I recently learned there was a rubber shortage. Digging into it I found that Thailand produces a remarkable portion of the worlds rubber. There are all sorts of these linkages in the supply chain that if one were to completely give out would lead to everything else being on a pretty limited timeline.
>If unrest really becomes that widespread, I'm off on the road with some books, the most-reliable, widely-compatible electronics available, whatever's left of my sense of humour, and a few stories.
Looting is the obvious thing in the short term you sort of expect to occur, so having supplies enough to put you out of the craziness of that would damp down risks there. I guess one hopes that the population density reduces to the point where pockets of people that band together stop facing immediate security threats and resources once used by people who are no longer around can be utilized by those that remain and at some point in that equation an equilibrium will be found.