But I am getting ahead of myself – let me rewind a little.
Being the sort of person who thinks a lot about the future has its downside: I am the type of viewer who watches shows about ‘preppers’ (“a person who believes a catastrophic disaster or emergency is likely to occur in the future and makes active preparations for it, typically by stockpiling food, ammunition, and other supplies.”) and for the first 30 minutes thinks ‘this person is very sensible’, and for the second 30 minutes thinks ‘maybe this person is nuts’.
And I guess that’s just a feature/bug of neurosis – it’s adaptive up to a point. Human beings are exceptionally good at worrying – one might even say that that is the essence of human nature: we can project possible futures and prepare for them. So being fairly neurotic is adaptive, whilst being terribly neurotic is not.
The fundamental problem is that bliss requires a degree of ignorance. We have even edified it with the expression ‘being in the moment’ – which one might argue is a lot like ‘being like an animal’ - as opposed to ‘being human’ and worrying a lot.
If you take an active interest in the future, you will be well aware of the Doomsday clock, and the ever-increasing list of existential threats that respected scientists believe we are facing, even as (superficially) life seems to be getting better. From AI to global warming, nuclear disaster and – of course – global pandemics, every day that something catastophic doesn't happen is increasingly surprising. Living a cheerful existence in the face of this can only be accomplished in one of two ways: a near-complete ignorance verging on denial, or a type of schizophrenic compartmentalisation. Optimism bias keeps the world turning.
The upshot is that I have been stockpiling for years; I have enough non-perishables for a considerable time. True, some of them will have spoiled – I estimate around 50% - but I still like those odds. I have no need to panic-buy. I have been panicking for a long time.
So what will our sanguine extroverts do in the face of TEOTWAKI (The End Of The World As We Know It)? It does trouble me (as someone who thinks about the future) that their survival strategy might actually be better: they will likely band together and exploit all the neurotic introverts. One might even argue that this is what they are doing today in organisations around the world, where charismatic executives profit from their obsessive engineers and researchers. It is the thoughtful neurotics that are panic-buying; the sanguine extroverts are sitting around chuckling to themselves and sipping their lattes – ‘it will all blow over’ they say. And perhaps this time it will.
Which brings me to the vodka. A year ago I was sitting in a taxi with a Croatian colleague – we were both due to speak at a conference in Zagreb, on ‘The Future’. Somehow we got talking about preparations for the impending apocalypse and a discussion about stock-piling took place. He scoffed at my ideas. I was intrigued. “Listen,” he said “I have lived through war. Through siege. In those times people will trade anything for vodka. You want my advice? Buy vodka.”
His advice stuck with me.
Image: Edho Fitrah
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