Every time I turn around, it seems like preppers are getting new ... eh names. This one I came up on a while back.  It's collapsitarian. Collapsitarian?!  Let me guess - one who collapses something?  Believe it or not, I was close! The Merriam-Websters Dictionary states that a collapsitarian is one who believes that society will collapse due to rapid economic and environmental degradation.  Well there ya go! 

I've also heard that it is one who predicts a coming apocalypse. Geeze.  Prepper seems so lame now doesn't it? Okay, so collapsitarian it is - for now. 

But before we jump on board, lets take a closer look into this term and see what the heck it really means.   

From what I've gathered, the term surfaced in a 2008 in an issue of the New Yorker that quoted Howard Kunstler, author of the survivalist novel, 'World Made by Hand'.  

So, is it a good name or bad name?  Well, I'll let you decide. 

For the most part, collapsitarians hope for a complete collapse of the U.S. economy in exchange for brighter new world.  Brighter? Hmmm. Not sure that's gonna happen. 

As it stands today, America is doomed if we don't get our act together. American society is in decline. Look around. But we accept it and move on. 

For example, gas prices.  We rant and rave but pay.  Why?  Well simply put - we have to.  What else are we going to do?  We have to get around. 

We now buy cheaper food so we can continue to pay for cable TV and our reality shows.  Go figure?
 
Bottomline. We adapt. 

Author, Chris Hedges, writes about a terrifying failure of the American state brought on by the corruption and economic excess in his book 'Empire of Illusion'. 
 
What he says is, we've borrowed for everything.  Our wages have dropped.  And we are now faced with years of joblessness or declining incomes without access to new credit.   All true. 

Thor Muller, an Internet entrepreneur says, “It’s good news. We’re squeezing the industrial era out of our system. Perceived value is collapsing, leaving only real value.”

Real value?  What these collapsitarians don't realize or aren't seeing in my opinion, is there is something more sinister beyond this rainbow of hope.  Utter disaster.

Once international investors stop buying U.S. Treasury Bonds, the dollar will become junk.  Then what?  As the saying goes "no ticky no laundry".  Which means, no money no service. Give me something and I'll give you something.  There won't be anything to give - to get. How does one move forward without money? How will this be brighter future?

Dmitry Orlov also writes on subjects related to "potential economic, ecological and political decline and collapse" in the United States.  His main goal seems to be to get Americans to understand what it will mean to live without an economy, when cash is virtually useless and most people won't be getting any income anyway because they'll be out of a job.

Again, I'm not really sure where collapsitarians are getting this bright future thing from?  We all seem to see the first part correctly.  A failure of the American dollar and economic and societal collapse.  But rainbows and butterflies?  Nope, I don't see it.

Maybe we'll just call collaspitarians the ugly step-child for now. Just sayin'. 

- Survivor Jane

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