How about wars that last for years and years…on our soil?
My mother grew up in Austria during WWII, and the stories she and her friends told of those years were dark and bleak. They all heard “it could never happen here,” before it did. What some of us fear most is a social/civil breakdown, possibly accompanied by a war with another country. There will be no secure homes, no healthcare, possibly no food to feed our families if this happens. You will not have the day-to-day routines of school and/or work to distract you from the horrors going on around you.
What we “pessimists” fear is not that we lose stainless steel appliances or our internet connections, but that we lose control over our most basic daily needs…that we have to fight to survive, every single day, for years and years.
Unfortunately, most of us Piggs (and Americans, in general) grew up in a time and place that saw incredible freedoms, wealth, and a drastically improved quality of life that was evident just in our own lifetimes. It’s difficult for most of us to imagine what many around the world have to live through on a regular basis — when food, medical care, shelter, potable water, etc. are hard to come by. Or when roving bandits and/or soldiers break down your door at night to rape and kill you and your children. This is reality for far too many people, and it could very well become our reality. It’s easy to be considerate and law-abiding when everyone has enough to eat, but as is often evident during large-scale natural disasters, there are many who eagerly await a breakdown in our social/legal/physical infrastructure so that they can victimize everyone in their paths.
