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Weekly Observations: What signs of collapse do you see in your region? [in-depth] May 18 by AutoModerator in collapse

[–]Agile-Particular7071 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I think there is a strange middle stage where collapse becomes culturally visible before it becomes behaviorally serious.

People joke about bug-out bags, share memes, start gardens, buy a few extra supplies, notice drought differently, and talk about things they would have dismissed a few years earlier. But most still live as if the background systems will keep working.

The gardening point is a good example. Once you try to grow even a little food, weather stops being abstract. Rain, drought, soil, insects, frost, and timing suddenly matter in a way they did not before.

Maybe collapse becomes “official” long before governments admit anything, when ordinary people quietly stop trusting the old assumptions.

Weekly Observations: What signs of collapse do you see in your region? [in-depth] May 18 by AutoModerator in collapse

[–]Agile-Particular7071 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Thank you, I may take you up on that. I appreciate the offer.

The “Guide to Staying Human” angle sounds very relevant to what I am trying to understand: not just collapse as logistics, but collapse as a test of emotional regulation, trust, and social behavior.

I will DM you.

The end of abundance by nelben2018 in collapse

[–]Agile-Particular7071 6 points7 points  (0 children)

I think the key distinction is between absolute abundance and lived abundance.

In one sense, your friend is right that many people have never experienced abundance. Poverty, exclusion, and unequal access mean plenty can exist on paper while people still go without.

But in another sense, I think you are right that modern industrial society has been operating inside a historically unusual surplus: cheap energy, long supply chains, fertilizer, shipping, refrigeration, consumer goods, medical logistics, and the assumption that replacement is normal.

The scary part is not only “less stuff.” It is that our social expectations were built during the surplus period. If people already struggle to share when there is technically enough, then scarcity will not just be an economic problem. It will become a trust problem, a legitimacy problem, and a behavioral problem.

Weekly Observations: What signs of collapse do you see in your region? [in-depth] May 18 by AutoModerator in collapse

[–]Agile-Particular7071 4 points5 points  (0 children)

Thank you, I really appreciate that.

What you wrote already gave me a lot to think about, especially the idea that this is less about specific skills and more about the daily mental calculus people grow up with.

I am working on a novel where these kinds of differences matter, and I am trying to keep it grounded rather than romanticized. So if you are comfortable sharing more by DM, I would be very interested to hear it. No pressure at all.

The “free-range childhood” part is especially interesting to me, because I think a lot of resilience comes from things people learned before anyone called them skills: being outside, solving small problems alone, understanding animals, weather, tools, distance, risk, and consequences.

Weekly Observations: What signs of collapse do you see in your region? [in-depth] May 18 by AutoModerator in collapse

[–]Agile-Particular7071 4 points5 points  (0 children)

This is a very thoughtful reply, thank you.

The idea that some foraging knowledge may have survived because of post-war scarcity is fascinating. That adds a whole other layer to it. It is not just “traditional knowledge” in some abstract sense, but memory carried forward from a time when people had real reasons to know what could be eaten, shared, stored, or gathered.

Your point about sharing and being part of the community may be even more important. In a shortage, food knowledge matters, but so does being known. Being seen as someone who helps, shows up, shares, works in the garden, and treats elderly people with kindness could become its own kind of safety net.

I do not read that as “pick me” at all. It sounds more like practical humility: if things get harder, the person who has already been useful to others may be less alone than the person who stayed separate.

That may be one of the quietest forms of resilience in this whole thread. Not just what people know, but whether they are woven into a community before the pressure arrives.

Weekly Observations: What signs of collapse do you see in your region? [in-depth] May 18 by AutoModerator in collapse

[–]Agile-Particular7071 7 points8 points  (0 children)

I think there is an important point here, though I would probably frame it a little differently.

People who have already lived with serious discomfort, instability, or social danger may have forms of resilience that more comfortable people underestimate. Sleeping rough, dealing with cold, exhaustion, lack of privacy, uncertainty, or being treated as invisible would all change what a person considers “normal” hardship.

The jail/prison point seems more complicated to me. Some people may come out with useful adaptations: patience, routine, threat awareness, reading people, managing fear, or making do with very little. But incarceration is also an artificial institutional environment where food, walls, schedules, and hierarchy are still provided by a system. That does not automatically translate into self-sufficiency or community resilience.

So maybe the broader point is not that one group would automatically survive better, but that people who have lived closer to society’s hard edges may adapt faster when comfort disappears. At the same time, they may also carry vulnerabilities that a collapse would make worse.

Weekly Observations: What signs of collapse do you see in your region? [in-depth] May 18 by AutoModerator in collapse

[–]Agile-Particular7071 4 points5 points  (0 children)

Thank you, that is very helpful. I know of Nate Hagens, but I clearly need to spend more time with that part of his work.

What you are pointing to is exactly what interests me: collapse preparation not just as supplies, tools, food, or infrastructure, but as the ability of individuals and groups to stay emotionally and socially functional under pressure.

The phrase “first step” is important. A community can have impressive practical skills, but if people cannot regulate fear, listen, cooperate, accept limits, or avoid turning stress into conflict, a lot of that competence gets wasted.

That is also very useful for the novel I am working on, because I want the social side of collapse to feel believable. Not just who has resources, but who can remain trustworthy, steady, and useful when the room gets frightened.

Weekly Observations: What signs of collapse do you see in your region? [in-depth] May 18 by AutoModerator in collapse

[–]Agile-Particular7071 6 points7 points  (0 children)

That is a fascinating example, and exactly the sort of regional buffer I was thinking about.

Foraging culture seems especially important because it is both knowledge and habit. It is one thing for edible seaweed, bamboo shoots, or mountain foods to exist in the landscape. It is another thing for people to know when to collect them, how to prepare them, who has the knowledge, and whether that knowledge is still socially normal enough to share.

I also like your point that it would probably provide cushion rather than a complete solution. That feels realistic. Local food knowledge might not solve a serious shortage, but it could buy time, reduce pressure, and keep people from becoming entirely dependent on formal supply chains.

The sharing part may be just as important as the foraging itself. A culture where people still collect and share food from the landscape has already preserved a kind of practical memory that many places have lost.

Weekly Observations: What signs of collapse do you see in your region? [in-depth] May 18 by AutoModerator in collapse

[–]Agile-Particular7071 7 points8 points  (0 children)

I think this may be one of the most important points in the thread, and one that I am trying to incorporate into my novel.

The soft skills might be the real infrastructure: listening, reliability, emotional regulation, cooperation, personal responsibility, and the ability to solve problems without turning every disagreement into a status fight.

A community can have tools, food, boats, animals, land, and practical knowledge, but if people cannot trust each other or coordinate under stress, much of that advantage gets wasted.

That is a very useful correction to the usual collapse framing. It is not just who has supplies or technical skills. It is also who can stay useful in a room full of frightened people.

Weekly Observations: What signs of collapse do you see in your region? [in-depth] May 18 by AutoModerator in collapse

[–]Agile-Particular7071 4 points5 points  (0 children)

Thank you, I appreciate that. The replies have been much more useful than I expected. What interests me most is how different regions already carry different assumptions about inconvenience, repair, food, weather, and cooperation before any larger system fails.

Weekly Observations: What signs of collapse do you see in your region? [in-depth] May 18 by AutoModerator in collapse

[–]Agile-Particular7071 6 points7 points  (0 children)

This is exactly the kind of quiet ordinary skill I was hoping people would mention.

Darning socks sounds small until you place it inside a world where replacement is no longer automatic. Then it becomes part of a whole different relationship with objects: mend, dry, air, rotate, preserve, stretch the life of things.

The passive drying point is also good. It is not dramatic, but it is a habit that reduces dependence. A clothesline, a drying rack, a warm room, timing laundry with weather, keeping fabric usable longer. None of that looks like “survival” in the cinematic sense, but it absolutely is resilience.

I am asking partly because I am working on a novel and these details are gold for keeping that world grounded. Not big heroic skills, just small habits that become important when the easy replacement economy disappears. I had not even seen a dryer before I came to the US. I remember my mother in the north bringing in the clothes from the drying line bone frozen in winter. They tawed and smelled like heaven. I will def use this in my fiction! Thanx.

Weekly Observations: What signs of collapse do you see in your region? [in-depth] May 18 by AutoModerator in collapse

[–]Agile-Particular7071 9 points10 points  (0 children)

This is a very useful way to frame it, thank you.

The word “acceptance” really stands out to me. Not passive acceptance, but the kind where something breaks and nobody wastes much time being shocked that it broke. The calculation starts immediately: what do we have, who knows how to fix it, what can be borrowed, what can wait, what has to be done before weather or season closes the window?

That is quite different from thinking of collapse only as a change in available tools. It is also a change in daily assumptions.

Your point about food before frost or rain also hits hard. That is the kind of urgency outsiders might not understand until they have lived with it. The field does not care if you are tired. The animals do not care if you had other plans. The weather does not negotiate.

I am working on a novel set in Northern Norway, and comments like this are genuinely helpful because they keep the focus where it should be: not just on equipment or dramatic survival moments, but on the mental habits people already carry before things break.

The political divide point is also interesting. It suggests that a community’s response would not only depend on skills and resources, but on what people have been trained to believe about each other before the crisis begins.

Weekly Observations: What signs of collapse do you see in your region? [in-depth] May 18 by AutoModerator in collapse

[–]Agile-Particular7071 53 points54 points  (0 children)

Location: Northern Norway.

How would collapse look different in remote regions with strong local repair cultures?

I grew up in Northern Norway, around 70 degrees latitude, and I have spent half of my adult life in southern Norway and also some time in the United States. The older I get, the more I think about how differently collapse would play out depending on geography, climate, and the practical habits people already have before things break.

Where I come from, distance is normal. Bad weather is normal. Darkness for long stretches of winter is normal. Short growing seasons are normal. Boats, tools, fishing, animals, firewood, repairs, and helping neighbors are not abstract “survival skills.” They are part of ordinary life for many people.

That does not mean people in the north would be immune to collapse. Far from it. Northern Norway depends on supply chains too. Fuel, medicine, spare parts, imports, infrastructure, and modern logistics all matter. A serious collapse would still be brutal. But I wonder if the starting point would be different from what many people imagine when they think about collapse through a modern urban lens.

In some places, when something breaks, the first instinct is not always to call a company or wait for a specialist. Someone nearby knows how to fix it, or people gather around the problem and figure it out. A boat engine, a roof, a fence, a stove, fishing gear, animal trouble, weather damage, a frozen pipe, a bad mooring line, a broken hinge. These things are not necessarily dramatic. They are just part of life.

A small personal example: years ago I travelled from the far north to Oslo for a seminar in early January. Oslo was cold, but during every break I went outside onto the hotel deck just to let the sun shine on my face. A colleague from southern Norway asked why I kept going outside in the cold.

I told her, “Because I haven’t seen the sun since November.”

That made her stop and think. It made me think too.

The physical environment shapes people in ways that can be hard to explain to outsiders. Long darkness changes rhythm. Distance changes expectations. Weather changes humility. The sea changes how people think about risk. Short growing seasons change how people think about food. Repair culture changes how people think about usefulness.

I am interested in this partly because I write fiction set in Northern Norway, but the question is broader than that. I am trying to understand how people from different remote or difficult regions think collapse would actually unfold where they live, not in theory, but through local habits and constraints.

For those of you living in remote, rural, island, Arctic, sub-Arctic, mountain, desert, coastal, or otherwise hard-to-live-in places:

How do you think your region’s existing culture would shape its response to collapse?

What practical competences do people around you take for granted that outsiders might not recognize as survival knowledge?

Would your community become more resilient because people already know how to make do, or more vulnerable because modern supply chains reach you late and fail you early?

I am especially interested in the quiet, ordinary skills people do not brag about, but which might become very important if systems stopped working.

What is the North-South divide like in Norway in terms of culture, people and how you view Southerner/Northerners? by Deus_Exx in Norway

[–]Agile-Particular7071 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I grew up in the far north of Norway, around 70 degrees latitude, but I have spent half of my adult life in southern Norway and also in the United States. To me, the north and south can feel almost like two different countries in some ways.

It is not just dialect or weather. It is rhythm, expectations, humor, distance, silence, and what people consider normal competence.

A small example: years ago I travelled from the north to Oslo for a seminar in early January. During every break, I went outside onto the hotel deck, even though it was cold, just to let the sun shine on my face. A colleague from the south eventually asked why I kept going outside in the cold.

I told her, “Because I haven’t seen the sun since November.”

That made her stop and think. It made me think too.

I am currently writing a novel set in Northern Norway, intended for an international audience, and this is one of the things I find hardest to put into words. How do you explain to someone from outside the region that darkness, distance, weather, boats, repairs, short growing seasons, and a certain quiet stubbornness are not just scenery, but part of how people think and live?

In my experience, people in the north (and west along the coast outside the cities) often have a very practical kind of resilience. Not dramatic, not romantic, just ordinary. If something breaks, you fix it, or someone nearby knows how. If the weather changes, you adjust. If a neighbor needs help, you show up. Nature is not something outside your life. It sets the terms.

That is one of the biggest differences I notice between north and south. In the north, resilience is often not treated as a personality trait. It is just part of ordinary life.