I lived through water shortages as a kid in the Soviet Union's collapse. You opened the tap and there was no water. It did not matter if you paid your utility bill. /1

Powerholders who are agitating for societal collapse do not understand how this works. They think their personal tap will have water. But it won't if society collapses.

Our systems are very fragile.

When society collapses, powerholders are more vulnerable, not less. Many people in those early years after the collapse found out they liked walking out of the windows, suddenly.

Why would anything we know hold if society collapses? It won't. The powerholders' power won't.

Those of us who lived through coups or with family history of living through coups understand the incredible fragility of systems that allow us, imperfectly and fallibly, to have a society in which there is a hope for positive change via the will of the people.

Those of us with these life histories of living through/fleeing coups and collapses are living through a special kind of hell rn. I am not looking for any sympathy but I just want people who have never lived through this and who think they'll be fine bc privilege to get this.

I remember how money went away and we got "coupons". I remember having a surgery in a hospital in which there was no water. I remember my father being asked to pay mafia protection moneys for daring to open a business. Why would any elected official want the collapse of society?

The only thing that comes to mind is the people who want to jump into the abyss truly refuse to understand what the abyss feels like from the inside. Because they have always been protected by privilege, and refuse to understand that privilege also exists in society.