"They wouldn’t want, as happens in the South Park episode, to be found chewing on a human femur when the snow plow shows up."
This immediately brought to mind the ending of the movie of The Fog, a Stephen King novella adaption.
I would imagine that the adoption of a new moral code is dependent on when survivors accept that there's no going back to "the way things were", and their acceptance of their new reality.
I find the question around accepting a new morality interesting, as if humanity are not constantly reviewing and updating our morals as society evolves. We openly mock Victorian style pearl clutching around modesty now, with the caveat that we no longer live in that world. Accepting a new morality post apocalypse is perfectly rational once you realise the world you used to live in no longer exists.
I was thinking along similar lines. I don’t have the same moral code ( whatever that is ) I did when I was 18. Thank God. A societal or civilizations moral code depends on who’s willing to enforce it . Those who can’t kill will always be subject to those who can . Morality is a bit of an illusion I think. Like someone smarter than me said …we are 3 meals from anarchy
When i lived out of town there was a genuine dyed in the wool doomsday prepper who lived down in the valley out the back. He was friendly enough but completely out of touch with reality. He believed that world financial ruin was due "tomorrow", and the collapse of civilisation with it. He lived down the back with his mate and lived a subsistence lifestyle growing potatoes etc and a few discussions with him alternated between "i'm a community minded person who likes to help out whenever its needed" to "i'm a naturopath and i can cure type 1 diabetes and the world order is going to bring things down so you better be ready by stock piling fertiliser and fuel"........all i could think of was explosions when he mentioned that.
When people ran into him and asked my opinion it was always "seems harmless enough, but treat with caution as being out of touch with reality you dont know what the trigger might be". In other words, his layer of paint was very thin indeed, possibly contaminated with lead. I'm usually a polite guy so i never got around to asking him what his thoughts were about cutting himself off from society but then using said society when he needed 'stuff', as in the case of medical attention for broken bones or something more serious like cancer but i suspect he may try naturopath remedies in those cases and not get out of the valley one day. Also wanted to know what he thought when he kept waking up each day and despite the websites he reads the world kept turning again and again and at what point does he accept his point of view may not be a realistic outcome. But it kind of feels like scratching at the paint layer doing that and who knows what would happen. Felt sorry for him really, he was estranged from his family living a fairly isolated existence with his equally doomsday minded mate. Humans aren't geared for that type of existence.
What do we choose, and how do we choose and in that way who survives? "It is prophesied that when the end comes, it will come in darkness: a catastrophe all foresaw but few believed. Most of us will battle too late against the chaos, but not the few, the radical few, who obey no discipline. Unencumbered by conscience, they prepare ruthlessly pursuing their own preservation. If they survive, the rest of us perish" - Frank Black Millennium
Sorry Sir, for plagiarising a good paragraph of your work for that super awkward fast talking in-front-of-class presentation in H.P.E. class TAFE in 1994. The awks have amassed legions gathered from sharehouses .
"Legendary as Tank Girl, Jubulant as Jet Girl, hairy scary adjacent, slightly less roofull" sez moore Faery Carey review of this one time John Birmingham impersonation.
I really enjoyed some of John Christopher’s other books as a kid - the White Mountains (a trilogy from memory), the Lotus Caves - same guy I guess, some of this was pretty dark stuff in hindsight. May add this one to the TBR pile.
I'm about 50/50 on Substack. Love it being a corporate free zone for writers but my notes feed has devolved into tRump meme spam mixed in with endless Tom Cox or Ted Gioia restacks. A fun rabbit hole for lazy weekends but just as distracting as the other social platforms.
I LOL'd at the Tom Cox and Ted Gioia restacks. I get them too. But I immediately mute any Trumpy content so my TL is gloriously free of orange contamination.
"They wouldn’t want, as happens in the South Park episode, to be found chewing on a human femur when the snow plow shows up."
This immediately brought to mind the ending of the movie of The Fog, a Stephen King novella adaption.
I would imagine that the adoption of a new moral code is dependent on when survivors accept that there's no going back to "the way things were", and their acceptance of their new reality.
I find the question around accepting a new morality interesting, as if humanity are not constantly reviewing and updating our morals as society evolves. We openly mock Victorian style pearl clutching around modesty now, with the caveat that we no longer live in that world. Accepting a new morality post apocalypse is perfectly rational once you realise the world you used to live in no longer exists.
I think you are referring to The Mist rather than The Fog, but I might be mistaken. The Mist - a perfect brutal end to that movie.
YES The Mist! Thank you!
I was thinking along similar lines. I don’t have the same moral code ( whatever that is ) I did when I was 18. Thank God. A societal or civilizations moral code depends on who’s willing to enforce it . Those who can’t kill will always be subject to those who can . Morality is a bit of an illusion I think. Like someone smarter than me said …we are 3 meals from anarchy
Decades-old apocalypse novels are completely legit. Of course, you have to overlook the sheer antiquity of the prose, but it's the bones that matter.
When i lived out of town there was a genuine dyed in the wool doomsday prepper who lived down in the valley out the back. He was friendly enough but completely out of touch with reality. He believed that world financial ruin was due "tomorrow", and the collapse of civilisation with it. He lived down the back with his mate and lived a subsistence lifestyle growing potatoes etc and a few discussions with him alternated between "i'm a community minded person who likes to help out whenever its needed" to "i'm a naturopath and i can cure type 1 diabetes and the world order is going to bring things down so you better be ready by stock piling fertiliser and fuel"........all i could think of was explosions when he mentioned that.
When people ran into him and asked my opinion it was always "seems harmless enough, but treat with caution as being out of touch with reality you dont know what the trigger might be". In other words, his layer of paint was very thin indeed, possibly contaminated with lead. I'm usually a polite guy so i never got around to asking him what his thoughts were about cutting himself off from society but then using said society when he needed 'stuff', as in the case of medical attention for broken bones or something more serious like cancer but i suspect he may try naturopath remedies in those cases and not get out of the valley one day. Also wanted to know what he thought when he kept waking up each day and despite the websites he reads the world kept turning again and again and at what point does he accept his point of view may not be a realistic outcome. But it kind of feels like scratching at the paint layer doing that and who knows what would happen. Felt sorry for him really, he was estranged from his family living a fairly isolated existence with his equally doomsday minded mate. Humans aren't geared for that type of existence.
*quietly adds to his Penguin cart*
What do we choose, and how do we choose and in that way who survives? "It is prophesied that when the end comes, it will come in darkness: a catastrophe all foresaw but few believed. Most of us will battle too late against the chaos, but not the few, the radical few, who obey no discipline. Unencumbered by conscience, they prepare ruthlessly pursuing their own preservation. If they survive, the rest of us perish" - Frank Black Millennium
Ready for the new falafel fandango Fæbriiz Ed?
Yew let's go
Sorry Sir, for plagiarising a good paragraph of your work for that super awkward fast talking in-front-of-class presentation in H.P.E. class TAFE in 1994. The awks have amassed legions gathered from sharehouses .
"Legendary as Tank Girl, Jubulant as Jet Girl, hairy scary adjacent, slightly less roofull" sez moore Faery Carey review of this one time John Birmingham impersonation.
As you were, Sir.
As you were.
*doffs cap*
I really enjoyed some of John Christopher’s other books as a kid - the White Mountains (a trilogy from memory), the Lotus Caves - same guy I guess, some of this was pretty dark stuff in hindsight. May add this one to the TBR pile.
I'm about 50/50 on Substack. Love it being a corporate free zone for writers but my notes feed has devolved into tRump meme spam mixed in with endless Tom Cox or Ted Gioia restacks. A fun rabbit hole for lazy weekends but just as distracting as the other social platforms.
I LOL'd at the Tom Cox and Ted Gioia restacks. I get them too. But I immediately mute any Trumpy content so my TL is gloriously free of orange contamination.