What will aspies do when the economy collapses?

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Such an extreme did not occur during the Great Depression in the U.S. People were fed. Very few died of starvation. The U.S. has historically produced much more food than its population consumed.

ruveyn

If it does come to starvation and living on a land that's infertile, I'll just do what the canadians do and club me a baby seal or calf.

But only if I'm really really hungry....> >

There are a number of pertinent differences including scale, the means of production and distribution and sourcing of food. There are a lot more people in the US who need food now than there was during the depression. During the depression there was a great deal less reliance on integrated economy and technology. In short if the economy curtails the fuel available, contemporary US's capacity to produce food falls dramatically, as does the capacity to distribute it. There is additionally a much greater reliance on foodstuffs produced outside the household now than there was at the time the depression occurred.

What happened in the depression is not necessarily predictive of what will happen in the future.

Although that said, in the event of the worst happening it will not be a resumption of evolution as evolution has not ceased, and the same "survival of the fit enough" that characterizes now will continue, although the precise parameters of "fit enough" may change.

I don't think this is true. It might be true for diagnosed aspies, but that's at least in part because people who are employed don't tend to worry about whether they have asperger's. I think the vast majority of aspies have jobs and are undiagnosed.

Some doctor in Connecticut got in trouble because he was using the fats from his patients to power his automobile, as in gasoline. what got that doctor in trouble was over zealous liposuctioning of his patients

I really feel like speaking my mind to this pezar, but I don't want to get banned...

maybe, but street smarts are useless in a situation of social collapse. What will be valuable is knowledge like "what plants are edible", "how can yo treat this injury", and "when is it going to rain next". I would say that our obsession with random and obscure topics would make us more valuable, not less.

As for what I would do? probably try and migrate to the northwest cost. there's always food in a coastal rainforest.

Thats the naration given at the beginning of a BBC docu-drama depitcing the aftermath of a nuclear war.

Lesson to learn = Aspergers/autism or not if the economy collapses your unskilled unprepared urban dweller arse is heading down diahorrea drive without a saddle

Its part of why I'd recommend martial arts like Aikido, Kali, or Systema to most aspies (and the nice thing about all three of these is that they're both efficient and brutal enough to be quite effective for women). Partly that we're cerebral enough to assert ourselves if there's organized training but also - even without national catastrophe, and especially if we look meek or geeky - we're 'marks' for all kinds of things; ie. scams, muggings, even hate crimes, mainly because the world tends to read exterior first (especially the side of society that's into this) and a lot of us tend to look a bit toy-like.

Good thing I wasn't planning on using the brains anyway, there are more frightening things than prion disease lurking in the brain of the average Seattleite.

who scams nerds?

you know, besides wizards of the coast

MaRo!! !! *shakes fist*

It was called Threads.

I once wrote in a script, "If you don't let go of the past it'll haunt you. But if you forget it - you're doomed."

There are typically four human reactions to societal collapse which have been analysed and found to parallel one another from similar events in history. I have explored these in great detail in my upcoming project. They include: archaism, futurism, detachment and transcendence. Typically only those who meet the challenges of a decaying environment with new insight will "transcend" to form a new structure. The others will turn to anarchy, hedonism or be overpowered. I think the ability to adapt though depends on the person rather than the condition. In my script, both an NT and AS transcend because they learn to adapt to the new conditions despite their personal flaws.

I should suggest however I don't advocate militant survivalism. I have been in communication with some important people in that subset and I find that what they view as transcendence is in fact quite likely a mixture of archaism and detachment.

I fall into the detachment category. If the economy fails along with all major governments, I would say to myself "about time." The world hasn't got much better since the great depression (unless you count appearance,) and I believe that if all bonds to current ideologies were cut, the new ones that form will at least be slightly better.

The main reason I think this is people will remember why it all came falling down, and will go to great lengths to avoid it the second time around. Evolution has been gone for a little too long anyways. I know it sounds bad, but our survival is to dependent on technology of society, rather than skills of an individual, so when society fails, it's just proof that dependence on technology wasn't a very good move.


IMPORTANT: This whole post is based on the assumption that the economy and all major governments will collapse (which I don't really believe and therefor I don't believe my post outside of the given context.)

I'm not a militant survivalist in the traditional American sense either. I tend to follow Fernando Aguirre, who has written about how people coped with the collapse of Argentina in 2001-02. He advocates adapting to the new environment, rather than trying to escape it and build bulwarks against it, as is usually the advice from American survivalists. He starts out with an obvious observation: most people will not be able to leave the cities. He furthermore says that living in a remote area is NOT a good idea, as you tend to be vulnerable to bandits and other disasters. In his view, the cities don't go away, they just get really crime infested and dangerous. The American view has traditionally been to buy remote land and hoard food. Of course, what happens when your food runs out? What happens when you're overwhelmed by bandits? He suggests that it's best to carry a knife for close quarters fighting, such as being grabbed and assaulted. Guns are usually for home defense, although he does carry a gun sometimes as well.

My OP was my experience of aspies as I've encountered them, mainly online in forums like this one. The ones I've encountered are VERY vulnerable. It's usually pretty obvious that many of them are disabled, which is a red flag to those who would wish to harm them. In an Argentina like situation, the disabled tend to end up in shantytowns, begging for money and gathering recyclables to sell for food money-called "cartoneros" in Argentina. In previous collapses, most aspies were likely unrecognized, and lived on farms so they could produce their own food. Today, it seems that most of us live in cities and depend on welfare and are unable to drive. That puts us at a disadvantage.

again, I fail to see why you think we'll be at a disadvantage. driving is only a useful skill if there is a society to produce fuel. Farming will be the most useful skill in a situation of social collapse. that and crowd control.