pessimum
pessimum
the least favorable environmental condition under which an organism can survive
Somewhere out there, there’s a billionaire group chat that’s just itching for collapse. Their designer bug-out bags are by the door, and they can’t wait to stop pretending they want anything other than their own little fiefdom.
The ultra-wealthy don’t buy apocalypse bunkers to avoid any specific fate. In reporting where pressed, they claim they are preparing for “The Event”. This is their euphemism for whatever they want to be scared about that quarter.
The Event could be nuclear war, yet another virus, widespread food shortages, or even Skynet. They don’t know exactly what it will be, all they know is their bunkers come stocked with hammers and everyday the peasants look more and more like nails.
This isn’t limited to the tech bros either, all flavors of powerful have some contingency plans. Politicians who hem and haw over disaster relief spending have personal bunkers overseas, and the top brass has a taxpayer-funded one at Raven Rock. Just don’t ask where their constituents fit into these blueprints.
That’s something that differentiates the ruling class from the rest of us. For all of their resources and influence, they hover one hand over an eject button instead of building any form of community that isn't upheld by violence.
That’s the tell with these tech goons. Opportunity of a lifetime to make real change, develop major solutions out of proven foundations, and instead they’re fine-tuning shock collars and writing secret codes into the food storage system to prevent a mutiny.
It takes a certain type of person to build servants’ quarters into an apocalypse bunker. Let’s not let them decide what comes next.
ContextFall
Tell Me the Story of Something Ending by Matthew Roy
Too Dystopian for Whom? A Continental Nigerian Writer’s Perspective by Oghenechovwe Donald Ekpeki