There's this Tumblr post, written in 2016, that's been reblogged almost 200,000 times. It's about a new genre concept called "soft apocalypse" and it sounds...really nice, actually.
(I won't do a good job of re-explaining it here so I won't try; it's perfect the way it's written. Please go read it.)
Why is this so lovely?
I sent the link to my friend Katy, and we texted back and forth about it for a little bit. Here's what I wrote to her, piecemeal, while at the gym.
The soft apocalypse. A world where everyone values the things that we value.
It feels like holding a bird in your hands. I'm loving right now thinking about why this is so attractive, hypnotizing.
1) Base equity. Everyone is facing the same challenges, working within the same constraints. No one is better off than anyone else.
2) Creativity, hard work, and passed-down knowledge are valued.
3) Handiwork is critical for survival = more time/effort spent in pursuit of these crafts, which are especially satisfying since they produce a useful physical product = more happiness and satisfaction in work.
4) Reliance on community becomes paramount. That which we can't do, our neighbor can. We survive because of each other. Acknowledgement and value of this symbiosis feeds community building, respect, and kindness.
5) Increased pride in one's own abilities, since we are able to witness directly how they fuel our community's survival/success.
6) More unity with nature. Interruptions in electricity/water delivery/automobiles force community-based, nature-informed responses to basic needs. Adverse nature events require collaboration, and therefore reinforce equity balance and community reliance.
Something's missing though...maybe it's 2 and 4 combined. Community reliance and value of passed-down knowledge engender the valuation and care of those who are not able to contribute directly.
That's 7.
And 8) Bounty. Forced to creatively reassess the utility of the things we have or can produce ourselves (since nothing can be ordered from a faraway factory anymore), we find that we as a people have or can make anything we need.
Back to 7, love matters because community matters. Then one day, love just matters.
9) Time/energy spent on creating the physical. We believe that love survives after our deaths; but we KNOW that at least some of the physical things we create do. Our lives, our work reassure us that someTHING will be left — and that we will value the women left whose only purpose is to add our names and our work to their poems.
= we never die.
(I can be a prolific texter.)
Katy pointed out rightly, beautifully, "It's really the pieces that are missing/devalued with capitalism."
I'm left with self-assigned homework: Keep this idea warm. Help it grow by rereading The Feminist Utopia Project. Try to amplify the whispers of these values in my daily life. Imagine honestly the other side of the coin: what would be lost in this hypothetical version of society (vaccines? accessibility?). Watch warily as news of our planet grows bleaker (NYT). Remember to compost.
If this subgenre resonates, you might like reading Station Eleven [affiliate link].
