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Comment by rglover | Hacker News Reader

Here's what I don't understand: what is the ultimate goal of this newfound desire to police everything? The obvious answer is control over people en mass, but say that happens...then what?

Articles like this (which I'm glad are being written) point out the flaws and injustice in the system, but don't discuss the presumed results "those in control" are looking to achieve by manipulating it.

From what I understand, the desired result is to minimize the autonomy of the general public and funnel the bulk of money, control, and power into the hands of a national elite. What happens next (an honest question, as I have some semi-paranoid theories but am curious to hear from someone who is a bit more educated on the topic)?

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We live in an era of delicate balance between global overpopulation and resource depletion. We have exceeded the carrying capacity of the planet, we are at peak supply rates for oil and other essential resources. We're rendering things less habitable and global climate change - coupled with water table depletion and topsoil burnout - threatens to crash food crops in some key regions.

It's not a conspiracy. People who know things - and when you have wealth you have the ability to know things - tend to see that we have a period of incredibly instability coming involving a lot of dying and misery. In such a situation having a tight control of the masses and a control of resources in the hands of a tiny elite benefits that elite in ways that times of abundance make seem unnecessary.

Thanks for the response. Fairly inline with what I thought. Next question, how to prepare? Is it futile to make an effort to protect myself and those around me, or is such a thing feasible (I imagine this would require a huge edit to lifestyle)?

I don't want to be "that guy" but I also don't want to be caught in the headlights if shit hits the fan (which it seems is inevitable). Anything to study to guide my thinking without going full-on bomb shelter?

Don't talk to me about that - I'm buying a ranch with farmable defensible land in a remote underpopulated location with good water access, large enough to support friends and family indefinitely. Ya, know. Just for vacations and things of course.

On a serious note (though I really am getting the ranch) I would recommend reading John Robb's resilient communities blog - though his former defense-related work on Global Guerillas is brilliant too (he used to be a military strategist before realizing all these problems boil down to what I refer to above).

It's about resiliency. When things fail, and given our lack of investment in infrastructure, and coming challenges they will, it's important to be resilient and make sure those around you are too. After that it depends on how big you think the bottle neck is we all have to squeeze through to whatever is coming next. I worry it's quite narrow personally, but ymmv.

Finally... that edit to lifestyle is coming. It's just whether it's managed by you or you're managed by it.

Happy holidays.

You may plan your life to get a minimal exposure to future problematic development. Moving to a quiet place overseas might be a wise decision. This being noted though, you may also chose to gird up your belt, lift up your boots, and stay put enjoying what's coming - it'll be a helluva show (definitely worth witnessing)!

I have two kids. One with special needs. I see no joy in a world of increasing instability, rising violence and significant economic shocks.

Massive profits for the war industry and for-profit prison systems, for a start.

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