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wingedbeastAfter a couple very heavy weeks that have brought up issues that need to be discussed and taken seriously. Still, we need to breathe, to relax a bit with some good old-fashioned fun. With that in mind, the catastrophic end of civilization and most everybody we know.
The concept has been explored and, for reasons we might some day wish to examine, we really like the world after this utter and complete destruction. Some are already preparing to survive the apocalypse, in whatever form it might be. Survival guides can be found on quick internet searches or, if you're starting a little late, in whatever book stores and libraries might remain. (After all, there's time now, finally time at last... and optometrist's offices to check out just in case.)
That said, I want to provide something of different value. More than mere survival, I want to provide you with a Society Guide, with tips and steps to starting, growing, and establishing a new stable society with the benefits thereof.
The first issue, according to many a fiction on the matter, is who to include in the new society. This is especially an issue if you're planning before the Apocalypse, such as in Deep Impact or 2012. It's not a bad question to ask, after all, there are numerous concerns with regards to just the people included.
You want a physically and mentally healthy population, if at all possible. Both the apocalypse and the later rebuilding will involve both physical and emotional stresses that need to be weathered. You want an intelligent and industrious population, that will be able to recognize new problems and creative solutions and put those solutions to work. You want a cooperative population, that will be able to work together without unnecessary conflict.
The natural question, acknowledging these concerns, is how do you discriminate in order to achieve that population. That, however, is the wrong question, because discriminating on any of these issues will actually make them more problematic for your future society.
Remember, people want to live. If they find out that, for instance, diabetes is an eliminating factor, that will only push people to try to hide that fact. As a result, you'll have a population that is hit by a health issue that you didn't plan for, but could have. The same is true of any mental health issues. The answer to these issues being in your society is to prepare with the resources and education to address the issues, not to imagine that you can eliminate them.
Any tests that you may have for intellect are going to be, by nature, flawed. The IQ tests, for instance, are heavily skewed by culture, meaning that some people score higher not for higher intellect but for simply having the tests check for the wrong things. At best, you'll get people who are better at making you think they're smart.
Similarly, for a cooperative population, again, it's a matter of getting people to make you think they're good at working well with others. In fact, you're going to skew for extroverts in this method, which isn't an effort towards cohesiveness so much as an effort to getting people who are going to be more at ease at parties. (The fact that this would push me out of the effort is, admittedly, a point of bias.)
No, the only appropriate means to deciding who to include in the new society is to include as many people as possible, as indiscriminately as possible.
Try to encourage people with skills you know will be useful to join up, but, beyond that, never assume that a skill is useless. More on that if I continue this series.
The concept has been explored and, for reasons we might some day wish to examine, we really like the world after this utter and complete destruction. Some are already preparing to survive the apocalypse, in whatever form it might be. Survival guides can be found on quick internet searches or, if you're starting a little late, in whatever book stores and libraries might remain. (After all, there's time now, finally time at last... and optometrist's offices to check out just in case.)
That said, I want to provide something of different value. More than mere survival, I want to provide you with a Society Guide, with tips and steps to starting, growing, and establishing a new stable society with the benefits thereof.
The first issue, according to many a fiction on the matter, is who to include in the new society. This is especially an issue if you're planning before the Apocalypse, such as in Deep Impact or 2012. It's not a bad question to ask, after all, there are numerous concerns with regards to just the people included.
You want a physically and mentally healthy population, if at all possible. Both the apocalypse and the later rebuilding will involve both physical and emotional stresses that need to be weathered. You want an intelligent and industrious population, that will be able to recognize new problems and creative solutions and put those solutions to work. You want a cooperative population, that will be able to work together without unnecessary conflict.
The natural question, acknowledging these concerns, is how do you discriminate in order to achieve that population. That, however, is the wrong question, because discriminating on any of these issues will actually make them more problematic for your future society.
Remember, people want to live. If they find out that, for instance, diabetes is an eliminating factor, that will only push people to try to hide that fact. As a result, you'll have a population that is hit by a health issue that you didn't plan for, but could have. The same is true of any mental health issues. The answer to these issues being in your society is to prepare with the resources and education to address the issues, not to imagine that you can eliminate them.
Any tests that you may have for intellect are going to be, by nature, flawed. The IQ tests, for instance, are heavily skewed by culture, meaning that some people score higher not for higher intellect but for simply having the tests check for the wrong things. At best, you'll get people who are better at making you think they're smart.
Similarly, for a cooperative population, again, it's a matter of getting people to make you think they're good at working well with others. In fact, you're going to skew for extroverts in this method, which isn't an effort towards cohesiveness so much as an effort to getting people who are going to be more at ease at parties. (The fact that this would push me out of the effort is, admittedly, a point of bias.)
No, the only appropriate means to deciding who to include in the new society is to include as many people as possible, as indiscriminately as possible.
Try to encourage people with skills you know will be useful to join up, but, beyond that, never assume that a skill is useless. More on that if I continue this series.
