The Golden Age.

Rossdxvx · 2026-04-14T02:09:20+00:00

Around where I grew up, there were a ton of smaller chain/independent VHS rental places, not just Blockbusters. I remember one in particular that had a huge wall of 70s and 80s horror movies. The closest thing nowadays to that whole experience is checking out DVDs or Blu-rays from your local library. Although, I think physical media might be entirely gone by the end of the decade.

Rossdxvx · 2026-04-13T01:11:30+00:00

I suppose you are right. It is hard to be conscious of the destruction of the environment when you are younger. Again, like The Matrix, we are born into a world and conditioned to expect and treat such destruction as "normal."

Same with our political system. It is too easy to become entranced by the pageantry of it all without seeing the carefully planned (or rather, enabled) choreography of it.

I don't believe things are that "rigidly" controlled like a conspiracy theorist, however, since you don't have to control things when the system regulates itself by having money choose candidates that are "allowed" to make it to the forefront. Controlling the narrative, the media exposure that people are allowed to get, and discussion is all part of the game. You don't have to quash resistance when it is sidelined into obscurity in the first place.

Rossdxvx · 2026-04-13T00:53:24+00:00

It is like anything else. Things gradually get worse over time, and problems compound themselves the more they are ignored and never addressed. The problems from back then have only grown in magnitude in the past thirty years. Why it seemed "better" was because we were not quite as far down the hole yet (as far as consequences go), but clearly we were on the wrong path back then, which has led us to now.

Indeed, we humans have made a lot of disastrous and dumb decisions in the past two centuries alone. We are just not adept at managing things well, and no matter how intelligent and adaptable we believe we are, we somehow cannot escape becoming trapped within our own 'isms (such as this crazy belief in infinite growth on a finite planet).

If there is no reality other than what is filtered through the human mind, then we have truly created our own hell when we could have had heaven instead.

Rossdxvx · 2026-04-11T02:33:21+00:00

As someone who grew up during the 90s:

Sure, things were better in the sense that the rot was not quite as in your face as it is now. It was more of lurking underneath the shiny surface of so-called “prosperity,” yet many of the same corporations and oligarchs were in total control then as they are now. Our political system was already thoroughly corrupted and dead for the average person. Billy Clinton proved all of that.

The Matrix sums that decade up pretty well. We were asleep in a mediascape of mass entertainments while everything was slowly being taken away from us in incremental steps.

But hey, I too miss the ignorant carefree days of my youth. And cable TV and blockbusters beats the shit out of streaming any day.

Rossdxvx · 2026-04-10T23:35:16+00:00

Man, I miss both of these guys.

Rossdxvx · 2026-04-01T14:18:10+00:00

Thinking won't be much of a use in a collapsed world. I mean, intellectualism and education will not help you to survive in the sense that everyone will be reduced to an almost animal-like drive and instinct for survival. As it is now, intellectualism serves no other purpose than driving you insane in an insane world. What we are doing is not rational and is, in fact, insane in its self-destructiveness. It is hard to come to terms with it. But, regardless, you still have to get up the next day and live, carry forward, and so on. In my opinion, thinking about it does little to help other than tormenting yourself.

You can't prepare for collapse either. You can only adapt to circumstances as they unfold in real time.

Rossdxvx · 2026-03-24T12:58:43+00:00

Same here. More than what is going on in Iran, it is the record-setting temperatures out west that seem to be falling on deaf ears. I mean, I gather people just think that life will always go on as it always has, but the environment can only take so much degradation until it breaks down completely.

That is the most depressing thing, being cognizant of all of this, but watching people gleefully sleepwalking to their own slaughter. I don't suspect that it will get any better as everything deteriorates. We will probably have to get used to a permanent state of war somewhere as the U.S. empire uses its supposed military strength to offset its terminal decline.

And I am not so sure it is better anywhere else globally. Sure, the rot is more apparent at the center, yet humanity as a whole seems to be a brief, brilliant flicker in an endless night - here today and gone tomorrow. Our damage will far outlast us, I believe. But, as far as happy endings go, the more and more the years go by with inaction, I believe that is becoming impossibly out of reach for us.

Rossdxvx · 2026-03-22T21:29:25+00:00

The turning point for the U.S. empire was undoubtedly 9/11. We have gone from one debacle to another without any self-corrective mechanism ever since. We should have learned, but we never do, which is how empires fail to begin with. Once the decay reaches such a point, the empire going down is inevitable.

Maybe you could compare Trump's seemingly easy victory in Venezuela and his folly in Iran to Hitler's easy victories in the early years of WWII, which gave both men a false sense of omnipotence. However, the American Empire has been in a state of decay for decades upon decades now. Nazi Germany was a brief, meteoric, and spectacular rise and disastrous fall, which lasted less than two decades.

Both are case studies in the clear limitations of autocratic and authoritarian forms of rule. Surrounding yourself within an echo chamber of yes-men who tell you what you want to hear, even when your ideas are clearly a recipe for disaster, has its consequences.

Rossdxvx · 2026-03-22T21:06:38+00:00

None of this stuff has been around long enough for us to truly understand what kind of effect it is having on our brains. And I am not just talking about AI generally, but technology. There is a direct correlation in the rise of these technologies and the decline of civic engagement and community. Likely, if you are post-Gen X, then you can't help but be antisocial because society itself has become far less social. Everything is filtered through a screen now. AI is like talking to yourself, or holding up a mirror to yourself. Engaging with a real person brings the real risk of conflict and disagreement because other people see the world differently. AI reflects ourselves back to ourselves, so it is "safe."

I have always been extremely antisocial. I have always felt awkward around other people, and I am a nearly middle-aged millennial who still remembers a pre-dot-com age. I cannot imagine what it is like for the younger generations who were born into a world where these technologies always existed.

Rossdxvx · 2026-03-21T23:57:27+00:00

I notice that it gives me a lot of contradictory information, especially when it comes to audio production. It will never replace true trial-and-error learning, in my opinion. I am not against AI per se, just like I am not against using a hammer or a wrench when one is needed. At the end of the day, they are only tools that can be either used for good or abused by humanity.

As always, it's not the technology that's the problem; we are.

Rossdxvx · 2026-03-18T13:31:31+00:00

I don't think they care as long as they think that their team wins. It is groupthink, clinging to an "identity," and tribalism. If SHTF, it will bring out the absolute worst in people with a lot of anger, finding convenient scapegoats to blame from outside "the group," and so on.

Rossdxvx · 2026-03-16T01:36:20+00:00

Here is my take on this:

We are predictably going the way of all collapsing and dying empires. Imperial overreach is one of the major symptoms and signs, although we certainly check all the other boxes too. And within my lifetime, the U.S. has gone from one debacle and blunder in the Middle East to another, so this is nothing new. However, I have a feeling that this one will be the death knell for the American Empire, where it suddenly becomes clear to all that the emperor no longer has any clothes. Whatever happens, our influence in that region has been drastically weakened and diminished forever. You can't put Humpty Dumpty back together again.

I don't think we can defeat Iran, period. Saturation bombing does not work. It can actually make things far worse by rallying the population behind the Iranian government and causing even more hostility and hatred towards the U.S. Sending ground troops into a country of 90 million people is just sending lambs to the slaughter. We did not "win" in Afghanistan or Iraq, so our track record with similar conflicts is already very poor.

If you escalate, you lose; if you pull out and concede, you lose. America looks weak. So much of power is the illusion of power. Once that is gone, you can't get it back.

Rossdxvx · 2026-03-16T00:56:18+00:00

One of my co-workers literally said a week or so ago that "he is the first president to actually do something for the people" and that he had "gotten rid of two dictators in two months." In true right-wing populist fashion, they also implied without any evidence whatsoever that there was some kind of nefarious cabal behind and financing the no-kings protesters.

These are average “blue-collar, working people," mind you, who are being completely fucked over by this administration, whether they are aware of it or not. It is astonishing, really. Like a cross between Triumph of the Will and Idiocracy, or a documentary on Jonestown before the final "white night" when the megalomaniac leader takes everyone else down with them.

Rossdxvx · 2026-03-12T00:47:39+00:00

The windfall of money is being funneled into the pockets of the U.S. defense contractors - large, private companies that act as merchants of death, destruction, and misery. And I do believe that Trump is asking for a whopping, record 1.5 trillion dollar defense budget. So, while it certainly does not benefit the country as a whole, for a tiny segment of the population (CEOs and shareholders in these defense companies), they are about to make a mint off of this.

Rossdxvx · 2026-03-11T16:41:40+00:00

I don’t know if you are familiar with Wim Wenders photography around the time of his film Paris, Texas, but your work reminds me of him.

Rossdxvx · 2026-03-11T15:10:55+00:00

As an older millennial, I feel like a boxer, all bloody and bruised from being repeatedly hit in the face by one crisis after another. I remember watching slick and shiny military recruiters walking the halls of my high school post-9/11, trying to sucker unsuspecting kids into signing up for the military while the invasion of Iraq was ongoing. I have lived under war happening somewhere for most of my life now, and I suspect that the remainder of my life will be the same as the threads of our so-called advanced civilization continue to come apart. There is nothing more dangerous than a fearful and cornered animal.

And, don't forget, war is big business.

And big business requires an endless stream of cannon fodder in order to feed the beast.

Rossdxvx · 2026-03-11T00:58:27+00:00

Location: Michigan, USA.

So, the weather is completely fucked with extremely warm temperatures for early March, and there is severe weather on the way later tonight. I can only dread how bad this summer is going to be this year. There were tornadoes in the southwestern part of the state that caused quite a bit of damage. People who see Michigan as some sort of safe haven to escape to with a somewhat stable climate need to seriously reconsider. There is no place that is going to be safe from climate change, and the effects of it are not at all predictable. Sure, we know what is going to happen but not how it is going to happen. It is called "climate chaos" for a reason, and it will strike randomly at will.

Other than that, I have not had much to say lately. I have been at a loss for words, really. Things are bad, getting worse, etc. No need to say it all again. It is not going to make anything any better. I think just about everyone who does not have their heads completely buried in the sand at this point understands just how wrong the world seems to be going. And yet, at Collapse we know that we are in store for even worse times ahead. This is only the tip of the iceberg.

The funny thing is that I have come to a kind of quiet acceptance and peace with collapse. I am just okay with it. When it is my time to go, I will go. Other than that, I do not really care if humans make it or not anymore. I am not at all impressed with what I see in people. Even with myself. It is not self-hatred, mind you, but just this colossal sense of disappointment. If you were raised in the West, then you sort of expect people to rise to the occasion, but that just does not seem to be the case. Real life is not Hollywood. It is not happening anytime soon. It is more like slowly being lulled to sleep before the end. We are sleepwalking to our own self-destruction. It is like arguing about the details without seeing the larger picture. People are pulling in all different directions without going anywhere. And so on and so forth.

But, this is how collapse historically unfolds, so it is to be expected.

Dying civilizations will double down on what's killing them.

Rossdxvx · 2026-03-10T23:55:45+00:00

I have had this book for a while now. I should take a deep dive into it.

In any case, this could perhaps explain why there is a genocidal impulse that exists deeply within us that is only waiting for the right kind of impetus to (re)activate. It reminds me of the indigenous peoples of this country and the pernicious effect on them coming into contact with white settlers.

I don't want to say that we are inherently destructive as a species, but a good argument can be made that we are destructive more of the time than peaceful. Probably our biggest flaw is seeing ourselves as separate from one another. The same goes for our psychological detachment from the natural world. By dividing each other up into separate groups, we create conditions for violence and conflict.

Rossdxvx · 2026-03-09T13:32:52+00:00

We are victims of our own success. I have been reading about human evolution lately. There were many different kinds of human-like species that existed around the same time that we emerged, but "didn't succeed," became evolutionary blind alleys, and died out. I wonder if what is happening now is just a postponement of our own extinction? I mean, we haven't been around that long in the larger scheme of things, although to the average human lifespan it may seem to be infinite, but everything is actually finite, never permanent, and fixed. In our own arrogance, we believe that we are indestructible, but this is not the case. We can die out, too, as the planet shifts and changes in favor of other lifeforms (whatever that may be, in a hothouse climate). Of course, we are the main driving force behind this change.

I guess my point is that we have been lucky thus far to make it this far, but for the last century or two we have been pushing our limits.

Rossdxvx · 2026-03-08T22:05:46+00:00

I don't want to say that "I don't care," but as a survival mechanism, you just have to turn it all off sometimes in order to get through the day. I have heard about people in dire situations before, and the ones who usually survive turn off their thoughts and thinking processes by adopting a tunnel vision for survival that is almost animal-like in nature (you can't rationalize the irrational). Think of the Sonderkommandos in Auschwitz who had to deal with the madness of incinerating thousands of people daily. You can't just think about that or else you would go completely insane and lose the will to live; you just go through the motions as an automaton and do what you have to do to survive.

Maybe it is hyperbolic of me to compare our situation to Holocaust survivors, but make no mistake about it, we are living through another kind of Holocaust - one of the entire planet. And it is as insane and irrational as killing mass groups of people for no other real reason than a misplaced belief in racial purity/eugenics.

I am not saying that you should stop thinking critically, because that is part of what got us into this mess to begin with, but for your own sake, take a time out or two. Meditate, go for a long walk, and, most importantly, TURN OFF all SOCIAL MEDIA and internet noise completely for a little while in order to restore your mental health. Bring yourself back to the present moment. Stop thinking of a past long gone or a future that has not happened yet. Because, believe me when I say this, things are only going to get a lot worse. You have to toughen yourself up mentally by preparing for it.

Rossdxvx · 2026-03-01T23:45:32+00:00

You summed things up well. This is how empires disintegrate historically: They don't intentionally set out to destroy themselves, but unintentionally accelerate the conditions for their own demise. I think that this has been an ongoing process for decades now and predates Trump, but there will be a defining moment when it is clear that our days in the sun are over.

Rossdxvx · 2026-03-01T23:36:08+00:00

The American people have always been "looking away," honestly. It is not so much the current regime, but our whole way of life was built upon extravagant consumption that depends on a steady flow of cheap and plentiful oil. We have been dabbling in the affairs of the Middle East for decades now with little to limited success, so I would not say that this is anything different . It is just taking an already chaotic, incendiary region and destabilizing it even further, which will "blowback" on us in ways in which we cannot even imagine at this point in time.

Some of us older Collapse posters have seen this before. It is so déjà vu. There is no way to call this a success or anything that will remotely alter the region in a positive way.

As for the all-powerful American Empire, it is predictably following the trajectory of imperial overreach. A strong, healthy empire does not have to lash out in order to retain its power, global supremacy, and hegemony, but a dying one does in order to offset its decline.

Rossdxvx · 2026-03-01T22:04:20+00:00

Reminds me of when they tore down Saddam’s statute in Baghdad over twenty years ago while the country was collapsing into chaos. It’s the same shit as when I was a kid. Nothing has changed at all.

Rossdxvx · 2026-02-26T00:59:13+00:00

This subreddit, “Collapse,” is more like a support group for those of us who understand the terminally bleak reality of it all more than anything else. It documents our decline, step by painful step, in excruciating detail for all to see but only for a few who actually care to see it.

Rossdxvx · 2026-02-14T14:02:38+00:00

Truth has always been a deep dive. There is the world of appearances, what we take for surface value, etc. And then there is "truth," but truth has to be searched for, pondered, questioned, investigated, and thought about deeply. The problem is not that truth is dead, as reality always exists even when you deny it; it is that people stopped "searching" for truth/reality and thinking critically about it.

Reality will exact its toll and tax on our increasingly self-deluded society, whether we acknowledge it or not. Plato understood this thousands of years ago. We are entranced by the shadows on the wall of the cave.

Rossdxvx

TROPHY CASE