I was big into escapist apocalypse fantasy pre-2020, and I’m not any more.
Previously, I pictured the popular apocalypse as destruction of the agency-limiting systems of civilization, which would leave behind post-scarcity amounts (relative to the remaining population) of the agency-enhancing tech of civilization. It’s basically the best of both worlds, if you survive—you get most of the material benefits of centuries of industrialization if you’re resourceful about it, without the individual limitations necessary for participating in the continuation of the industrial economy.
The other appeal of many apocalypse scenarios, which is highly impolitic to discuss in mixed company, is the population drop. I think there’s a widely held intuition that modern life involves way more humans than our brains historically ever had to cope with. Fantasies about disconnection from the internet—getting stranded on a tropical island with a good group, or similar—address this problem from a less globally lethal angle as well.
The fantasy of a world in which an individual or small group functions (explores, rebuilds) independently might stem from the American cultural mythos of “wild west” exploration, and seems to also underlie the appeal of open world games where you’re either the only person or the most powerful/agentic person in the world that you’re aware of.
Post-2020, it’s lost the appeal for me, though. Turns out my escapist fantasies were based on assumptions about humans’ underlying pro-social proclivities that didn’t actually play out when stress tested.
2020 - and the pandemic in general—seems to have been a bit of a watershed moment for figuring out certain things about human nature and society in general for me as well.
I also like your characterization of post-apocalyptic fantasy as getting all the benefits of a modern technical civilization with none of the people-driven drawbacks.
I was big into escapist apocalypse fantasy pre-2020, and I’m not any more.
Previously, I pictured the popular apocalypse as destruction of the agency-limiting systems of civilization, which would leave behind post-scarcity amounts (relative to the remaining population) of the agency-enhancing tech of civilization. It’s basically the best of both worlds, if you survive—you get most of the material benefits of centuries of industrialization if you’re resourceful about it, without the individual limitations necessary for participating in the continuation of the industrial economy.
The other appeal of many apocalypse scenarios, which is highly impolitic to discuss in mixed company, is the population drop. I think there’s a widely held intuition that modern life involves way more humans than our brains historically ever had to cope with. Fantasies about disconnection from the internet—getting stranded on a tropical island with a good group, or similar—address this problem from a less globally lethal angle as well.
The fantasy of a world in which an individual or small group functions (explores, rebuilds) independently might stem from the American cultural mythos of “wild west” exploration, and seems to also underlie the appeal of open world games where you’re either the only person or the most powerful/agentic person in the world that you’re aware of.
Post-2020, it’s lost the appeal for me, though. Turns out my escapist fantasies were based on assumptions about humans’ underlying pro-social proclivities that didn’t actually play out when stress tested.
2020 - and the pandemic in general—seems to have been a bit of a watershed moment for figuring out certain things about human nature and society in general for me as well.
I also like your characterization of post-apocalyptic fantasy as getting all the benefits of a modern technical civilization with none of the people-driven drawbacks.