From "The super-rich ‘preppers’ planning to save themselves from the apocalypse" by Douglas Rushkoff (The Guardian).
September 4, 2022
"[T]he CEO of a brokerage house explained that he had nearly completed building his own underground bunker system, and asked: 'How do I maintain authority over my security force after the event?'"
"The event. That was their euphemism for the environmental collapse, social unrest, nuclear explosion, solar storm, unstoppable virus, or malicious computer hack that takes everything down.... They knew armed guards would be required to protect their compounds from raiders as well as angry mobs. One had already secured a dozen Navy Seals to make their way to his compound if he gave them the right cue.... [W]hat would stop the guards from eventually choosing their own leader?
The billionaires considered using special combination locks on the food supply that only they knew. Or making guards wear disciplinary collars of some kind in return for their survival. Or maybe building robots to serve as guards and workers – if that technology could be developed 'in time.'... I made pro-social arguments.... The way to get your guards to exhibit loyalty in the future was to treat them like friends right now, I explained.... They rolled their eyes at what must have sounded to them like hippy philosophy.
This was probably the wealthiest, most powerful group I had ever encountered. Yet here they were, asking a Marxist media theorist for advice on where and how to configure their doomsday bunkers.... For them, the future of technology is about only one thing: escape from the rest of us....."
From "The super-rich ‘preppers’ planning to save themselves from the apocalypse" by Douglas Rushkoff (The Guardian).
From "The super-rich ‘preppers’ planning to save themselves from the apocalypse" by Douglas Rushkoff (The Guardian).
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
Posts
68 comments:
Or maybe building robots to serve as guards and workers – if that technology could be developed 'in time.'..
HELLO! they WILL be developed.. 'in time', and THEN, be sent back to kill Sarah Connors
PAY ATTENTION!!
These pajama boys need to listen to Jesse Kelly. You need to be your own security force.
The Guardian... probably bollocks.
After everyone is gone - who will shine his shoes? and make bring him his dry martini?
"'How do I maintain authority over my security force after the event?'"
Very good question. As a professional skilled in the use of violence, allow me to offer you a solution. While food and water is available, be prepared to offer me your wife or any females related to you by kinship. This will work well for a while, as I said, while things are relatively good. As soon as the food starts to run low, I highly recommend you make yourself scarce. God help you if you've put on any weight.
Oh...btw. Did I mention it's not 'your' bunker anymore. I don't like you using the possessive, so you should probably get used to not using it right now. Also, you will sit down when you pee in my bunker, because reasons. Capiche?
okay, i've finished the reading assignment, and i'd like to Ask:
Why are we studying these obviously fictitious stories?
First the Obviously fake "Kaitlyn Tiffany"
Then the "letter" about the girl that caught her boyfriend cheating, 'cause he made her cum so hard!
Then, this tripe about BILLIONAIRES that are worried about climate change!!
worried enough to spend their money on it; And, to spend that money on marxist writers!
Can we Please have some stories that AREN'T OBVIOUSLY FICTION?
The 12 close friends were a miracle, until one betrayed him.
#7 TikTok
This report, if true, only reveals how pitiful are the wealthy in today’s society. None of them will survive in a world where money is no longer king. They are not aligned with the people and would be the first to be pushed aside in a major calamity.
The tech billionaires will very quickly find out that catalog-scanning and barking orders for prepper bungalows is a whole lot easier that having to defend it from being taken over by hungry spec-ops types for their own families. They haven't figured it out yet: For their workers (whom they condescend to and look down upon), they are the insurance policy.
The event. That was their euphemism for the environmental collapse, social unrest, nuclear explosion (EMP), solar storm, unstoppable virus, or malicious computer hack that takes everything down...
The bolded items seem the most likely events to me (although social unrest is seems to be running a strong second). Our near total reliance on computers to run nearly every facet of our our basic economy is a very weak point. Not sure how to shore that up.
"Then, this tripe about BILLIONAIRES that are worried about climate change!!"
They're not just worried about climate change, but about the global breakdown of society resulting from climate change...and the mass starvation and violence that will face everyone who is not hidden away in a secure and fortified hideout.
I'm laughing at the notion of Navy Seals saying, "Sure, boss, we'll be your security force and put on this discipline collar. The bunker and food you've procured for free for us -- ahem, I mean for yourself -- is perfectly safe."
Our near total reliance on computers to run nearly every facet of our our basic economy is a very weak point. Not sure how to shore that up.
Most of the townfolk of Littleton, Iowa (and the surrounding area) could explain how to, in detail..
But, it'd all just be dutch to you
I have been thinking lately that there is not enough thought given to how much of the rhetoric we get from the Left side of the aisle is actually rooted in abject terror.
The billionaires considered using special combination locks on the food supply that only they knew.
Oh sure. Nothing can go wrong with that plan.
“ For The Mindset also includes a faith-based Silicon Valley certainty that they can develop a technology that will somehow break the laws of physics, economics and morality to offer them.”
This is perhaps the central flaw of the Left. They can create Utopia on Earth with their brilliance. As real historian Victor Davis Hanson has written, we need to understand and appreciate the tragic aspect of human nature.
The Left’s Green New Deal is the prime example of their desire to create Utopia.
New status symbols - my bunker is better than yours. Never realistically expected to be used.
These people are going to have to build robots to protect their bunkers (like Westworld). But what if the "Event" is robot apocalypse instead of a zombie apocalypse or a nuclear war or whatever. Can the billionaires trust the robots?
These people are going to have to build robots to protect their bunkers (like Westworld). But what if the "Event" is robot apocalypse instead of a zombie apocalypse or a nuclear war or whatever. Can the billionaires trust the robots?
One had already secured a dozen Navy Seals to make their way to his compound if he gave them the right cue....
Don't the Navy Seals work for the Navy? Are they to be paid to defect? Have they already received a retainer as well as special uniforms and armored vehicles to get to the hideaway?
The billionaires considered using special combination locks on the food supply that only they knew.
Why are these combination locks "special"? Don't all combination locks have combinations that "only they" know?
Their extreme wealth and privilege served only to make them obsessed with insulating themselves from the very real and present danger of climate change, rising sea levels, mass migrations, global pandemics, nativist panic and resource depletion.
It turns out that commercial success does not prove that a person (or persons) possesses even one grain of common sense. Or maybe it is the editor that approved this article for publication that is missing his or her marbles.
The first rule of Super Bunker is that you don't talk about Super Bunker.
There is no way to control the bunker guards. They will have the guns and they will make the rules, and super-rich CEO meat on a spit will be part of the menu.
Our near total reliance on computers to run nearly every facet of our our basic economy is a very weak point. Not sure how to shore that up.
1965 pickup trucks will be in high demand. Ammunition will replace money.
The smart billionaires had better start worrying about more mundane stuff - like who is following their granddaughter on her early morning jog about town.
That guy in the black SUV following your little precious grandkid has George Soros on his side, ensuring that, even after he's caught raping and murdering your grandchild, he'll soon be right back on the street to do it to the next billionaire daughter. George Soros wants him back on the street.
Ya'll's next Bilderburg meeting agenda needs to make space for a session on how you better deal with George Soros before your grandkid pays the ultimate price.
The threat is already acting upon you and yours.
The smart billionaires had better start worrying about more mundane stuff - like who is following their granddaughter on her early morning jog about town.
That guy in the black SUV following your little precious grandkid has George Soros on his side, ensuring that, even after he's caught raping and murdering your grandchild, he'll soon be right back on the street to do it to the next billionaire daughter. George Soros wants him back on the street.
Ya'll's next Bilderburg meeting agenda needs to make space for a session on how you better deal with George Soros before your grandkid pays the ultimate price.
The threat is already acting upon you and yours.
Will the robots shoot bullets from their brassieres?
Fembots, unite!
Mafia boss Frank Costello brushed off the notion of having bodyguards. He believed if they want to kill you, the first ones they bribe are the bodyguards.
Octavian Caesar fought a sea battle against Mark Antony and Cleopatra at Actium in Greece. The unhappy couple lost when Cleopatra deserted the battle with her ship that contained the treasury of Egypt. This was a LOT of money in gold and silver.
I've wondered why Cleopatra's captain or a faction of the crew didn't simply cut her throat and make off with the treasure on their own.
In the ancient world, this was a problem. If you had a lot of money, you had it in a big box. Why didn't the master's slaves simply take it an retire in luxury somewhere?
"For them, the future of technology is about only one thing: escape from the rest of us"
But the medium-term future of technology is about the inability of the rest of us to escape from them. Aided and abetted as they are by the state, the executive committee of the ruling class.
Human history offers the answer. Clans and kinship based groups will do well. Relationship based groups will do well.
Some random former billionaire surrounded by 12 militaristic types wouldn’t survive a week.
Octavian Caesar fought a sea battle against Mark Antony and Cleopatra at Actium in Greece. The unhappy couple lost when Cleopatra deserted the battle with her ship that contained the treasury of Egypt. This was a LOT of money in gold and silver.
I've wondered why Cleopatra's captain or a faction of the crew didn't simply cut her throat and make off with the treasure on their own.
In the ancient world, this was a problem. If you had a lot of money, you had it in a big box. Why didn't the master's slaves simply take it an retire in luxury somewhere?
It nice to see that social media induced paranoia is an equal opportunity brainwashing technique.
"For them, the future of technology is about only one thing: escape from the rest of us....."
Blisstonians. The Simpsons nailed it,
https://pbs.twimg.com/media/BC3pGeACMAAFugI.jpg
Well the governments of the Netherlands and Canada have decided — in the name of combatting global climate change — to order their farmers not to raise as much food. So, yes, social unrest is not all unlikely. When the crops failed in Sri Lanka their President had to literally run for his life. Justin Trudeau and Mark Rutte think it will never happen to them. They might be right.
When nuclear war breaks out, I want the first bomb to fall right on my head. You all can fight over the irradiated scraps of society that remain.
These people need to start thinking in more explicitly feudal terms.
You control and incentivize the captain of your guard by marrying him to one of your daughters or nieces.
You create family ties and other reciprocal obligations so that instead of having just an employment relationship you have something of an extended family or tribe, people who are willing to fight for each other and who all have an equity stake in the enterprise.
The Admirable Crichton
You don't. They kill you and take your stuff and you'll be lucky if they don't eat you.
John Ringo had a lot of fun with that in his zombie books. Black Tide Rising IIRC. His advice, don't hire the lowest bidder.
Life in the wake of diversity [dogma], transgender pride parades, Green blights, Mengele mandates, democratic/dictatorial ideology, human rites, and other wicked solutions guarded by people from Venus, Mars, Uranus, and The Fourth Estate.
The billionaires could consider using their financial clout to get the licenses to legally buy some machine guns and do their own security — or acquire M240s and several thousand rounds of ammo from the Taliban, taking advantage of all the weaponry the US accidentally (?) left behind in the bugout. Then they could spend some time on a range and get sufficientlydd proficient to do their own security. Or try to.
Let’s not forget that the people who built the bunkers know precisely where they’re at, and some of those good old boys are pretty handy with a rifle themselves.
You really can tell who spent a hot minute in the military and who didn't. The way to ensure their loyalty is to deserve it. These dudes dont have a chance to meet that standard. And they want SEAL team guys as bodyguards? Good luck. Those guys are notoriously independent and they can spot bad leadership from a long ways. Money won't buy their loyalty.
I'm old enough to recall news stories about Saddam Hussein's (who?) secret, fortified, high-tech bunkers scattered around the country.
Totally secure. Built by West German firms, you see. (No way the Bundesdienst [and therefore half the spies in the world] knew the secrets.)
And where did they find him?
IDK, Bill R. Even in the Ancient World some people lived and died by codes of honor and loyalty?
Just a theory, from a historian.
Perhaps they judged that their own lives were forfeit either way--everyone knew how the Great Alexander had rewarded the Persian nobles who brought Darius to him a prisoner, and nobody liked pirates.
What would Bill R or Narr have done in their place? We can't know. We can tell ourselves anything but we don't know.
Yeah. Sure.
But, it'd all just be dutch to you
Not sure what they know that would prevent the breakdown of supply lines, but I'm assuming you mean they are a farming community that has the skills to live off the land in the event of a society wide breakdown.
But as Cook points out Littleton had better be heavily fortified.
There have been many novels exploring the various forms of apocalypses such as, Brooks' "World War Z" and Niven and Pournelle's "Lucifer's Hammer". There are also apocalyptic movies like "Book of Eli". First off, the billionaires' money would be worthless. The knowledge and skills they used to amass their fortune in their high-tech world would be useless. A wheelbarrow full of cash wouldn't buy a can of beans. Can they grow and preserve their own food? Can they repair their toilet? Can they do anything for themselves? In a nutshell, they are in deep doo-doo.
"They're not just worried about climate change, but about the global breakdown of society resulting from climate change...and the mass starvation and violence that will face everyone who is not hidden away in a secure and fortified hideout."
However did we survive the Medieval Warm Period?
None of the billionaires we know build bunkers or hire seals. Sure, they use Kroll on trips or maybe have a retired cop on payroll as their driver or whatever. They do take the hostage classes and sometimes basic firearms…
What they do do is spend a bunch in intel from a former CIA director and a few others at that level. I suspect the thinking is to be nimble and flexible in an armageddon scenario, and be out in front. But it leads to false positives. EVERYBODY was asking how much cash to have on hand long before the e-castastrophe became fashionable with the masses. One family sold off their sizable equity holdings before the covid lockdown was public knowledge. Oopsies…
The other thing others have noted- they are all good at cooperation. Collectively, they are a very big tribe with an impressive array of skills…
The lefties, even the famous fundraisers and such, they never act like climate disaster is a probability. Funny that…
Once the world ends, the people in your "survival group" had better be people you like and trust, who like and trust you.
Or else your'e fucked.
The thing I find amusing about this is there's no discussion of the "super rich" actually trying to bond with their guards, and treating them like fellow valued human beings.
Which tells you a lot about both the "super rich", and the people writing the article
I want to be standing or sitting near hawkeyedjb.
Human history offers the answer. Clans and kinship based groups will do well. Relationship based groups will do well. Some random former billionaire surrounded by 12 militaristic types wouldn’t survive a week.
Exactly — the antithesis of the system that made them rich and powerful.
Yeah, as other commenters have pointed out, Rent-a-Knight isn’t going to work.
It didn’t work out too well in the days of condottieri and Swiss mercenary pikemen.
You’ve got to build the community long before you build the invisible bunker.
Someone like a Ted Turner, who actually enjoys being out in the boonies, doing rough stuff with rough people, might have a chance at forging a cohesive group.
If you’re a tech billionaire and you started out as some kind of engineer or scientist, brush up on those original skills and adapt them to a survival situation so that you have some value once your fiat currencies and stock options evaporate. EE guys can keep their own generators and security monitors working. Chemists or geneticists can cross-train themselves into decent medics and/or munitions makers. MechE’s can keep the physical plant running. Bio people can figure out how to grow the food supply beyond the MRE’s in the special-combo-locked containers.
Speaking of food, for the community to have any longevity, you need more than just fighters. More than ever before, you need people who grow and make stuff. This group could overlap with the fighters, but either way, it will be hard to get work out of them at gunpoint. The successful communities will have a power balance between makers and killers. This will also help the founding billionaire to stay relevant and alive.
Even the ‘soft’ business skills will be of value in a survival situation. Once you mow down the unorganized mobs, you’ll be left with the other bunkers in your vicinity. To avoid mutual destruction, you’ll need to negotiate and influence each other to build trade networks, defensive alliances, etc. Some special-ops people, most notably traditional SF, are good at that; a lot of self-proclaimed “operators” have no ability or interest in this area. They will need some kind of “peace chief” to keep all the non-sexy stuff running.
Couldn’t you see e.g. Musk doing that? Heck, even Bezos.
JSM
pacwest said...
But, it'd all just be dutch to you
Not sure what they know that would prevent the breakdown of supply lines, but I'm assuming you mean they are a farming community
They're AMISH! i'd thought it was obvious?
The billionaires naturally assumed that a Marxist would know how to enslave competent people. They didn't understand that there are incompetent Marxists. Universities full of them.
Jupiter calls out "incompetent Marxists."
Fair enough, but it makes me wonder what would make a competent one?
Does the term Praetorian Guard ring a bell?
It's the old Henchman Dilemma. Who shall guard my guardians?
They're AMISH!
I thought of it after I posted. Duh on me.
"When nuclear war breaks out, I want the first bomb to fall right on my head. You all can fight over the irradiated scraps of society that remain."
I live less than 2 miles from a primary target- a target that will one of the first hit and with multiple warheads. When nuclear war comes, I'm a goner in the first minutes.
The minute someone says that they are a Marxist I begin to doubt the accuracy of anything they report.
The CEO with the best plan is the CEO of Bed, Bath and Beyond. 18 stories straight down.
The answer is to be the biggest, baddest warlord of the wastelands. Mad Max chaps-without-underwear is a style option.
Jamie @ 9:37am,
Somebody's gotta to link this XKCD cartoon.
Blogger Readering said...
"I want to be standing or sitting near hawkeyedjb."
You guys...don't be dopes. If they're going to nuke us they'll just blow up a few nukes in the upper atmosphere for a giant EMP. Then they just have to wait 90 days after which 60-70% of us will be dead and the rest starving. Show up with some CrispyCremes and milk and they own the place. I'm sure, Readering, if you suck up enough you'll get the job of beating the survivors into submission.
The world won't be a smoldering ruin after "the event" with nowhere to go except a buried bunker. There will always be somewhere to go that is safe and functioning, especially if you go there in a G-500 or better. Think of the estates of the wealthy up around Kalispell (Demi, can you spare a room?), or on the Hawaiian islands (Hey, Zuck, got an extra bed on your 1500 acre estate on Kauai?), or even just out to the weekend place the Hamptons, well away from the city folk rioting in Times Square.
Their security forces, after "the event," will either leave to care for their own families or stay to take advantage of the personal connections of their employer, which will be more important than their bunkers.
"The CEO with the best plan is the CEO of Bed, Bath and Beyond. 18 stories straight down."
He was the CFO.
I've had an odd career that has allowed me to meet a few tech billionaires in small settings. Although I haven't ever been to an event as cloak-and-dagger as the desert meeting described in the article, I have been seated at tables more than once with small groups of such people who wanted to explore "what's next." (Very roughly speaking, I work where biotechnology, information technology, and behavior overlap.)
FWIW, this is one of the few Guardian articles that ring mostly true to me, at least in terms of the behaviors and interests of (some) tech billionaires.
I also fully agree with some of the comments here about why the billionaires' post-apocalypse plans almost certainly will fail.
It's a legitimate concern for someone in the position to command labor on the basis of wealth in the present system. Perhaps on reflection they'd rather bunker down with trusted friends+family who have learned to shoot. Shock collars would be a huge interpersonal mistake - basically sulf-fulfillment.
Post a Comment