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🎧Listen To This Article, Dealing With Doom Fatalism:
Doom Fatalism — In this article, we examine when preppers find that fatalism hinders their preparation for significant SHTF events and how to overcome this obstacle.
This article may not apply to everyone. If it doesn’t sound like an issue for you, perhaps you know someone who finds doom fatalism to be a hindrance to prepping for the really big SHTF events.
I’m referring to doom fatalism as the acceptance or resignation of something so catastrophic that it may be difficult to imagine that anything we do could help. It’s inevitable, and I cannot stop it. So I will ignore it.
❝We are forced to fall back on fatalism as an explanation of irrational events (that is to say, events the reasonableness of which we do not understand)❞
Leo Tolstoy, War and Peace [Aff]
You don’t have to be a mental health professional to recognize this fatalistic mindset when someone has pain in their lungs and decides that if it is lung cancer, knowing isn’t going to do anything but ruin their lives. Even when a person logically understands that knowing is the first step to potential survival, many still ignore the warning signs.
Or those who say, “It’s in God’s hands. If he decides it’s my time, I can do nothing to stop it.” They conveniently forget about the gift (or curse) of free will or that those signs might be from God. It’s easier to ignore them.
Ezekiel 33:3- ❝If when he seeth the sword come upon the land, he blow the trumpet, and warn the people; Then whosoever heareth the sound of the trumpet, and taketh not warning; if the sword come, and take him away, his blood shall be upon his own head.❞
When Fatalism Meets Doom
I imagine doom fatalism may come into play with those scary SHTF events for some. Facing extreme risk can be difficult. Think about the people who close their eyes just before they crash into another car. They can’t bear to watch.
❝In the Norse Myths, Ragnarök represents the doom that we know, deep within ourselves, is bound to come. And that knowledge, the knowledge of certain doom, opens what I call the chasm of despair. This pit is so deep and dark that it seems we either must close our eyes and numb ourselves to its darkness or simply let ourselves slip down into its nihilistic depths.❞
By Joshua Gillingham: Ragnarök in the Norse Myths and the Power of Dystopic Fatalism
When you’re sitting there doomscrolling on your phone rather than doing whatever you should be doing, do you find it motivating or crippling? While zombies are fun, they probably don’t make most of us start wrapping barbed wire around a baseball bat, as appealing as that might be.
But what about the dreaded EMP, comet collision, or nuclear war? Motivating or crippling? I recently had a conversation with a prepping buddy, Hey Mic, and he wondered if a level of Doom Fatalism kept many people from prepping. That’s an interesting observation.
“I’m not preparing for the end of the world; everyone’s going to die anyway.”
or
“I wouldn’t want to live like that. I’d rather just die.”
I’m pretty sure Mic invented the term Doom Fatalism during that conversation. As expected. Mic Roland is an author, after all.
While Mic may be onto something with doom fatalism keeping “normal” people from becoming more prepared, that made me wonder how Doom Fatalism may affect the prepper community. I’ve talked to preppers who avoid the topic of really bad SHTF scenarios like nuclear war, for example, because there’s no point or it’s too overwhelming.
“There’s a fine line between excuses and Fatalism.”
On the other hand, some preppers feel that if they prepare for an EMP, they’ll be prepared for everything. That’s not really true, but I’ll table that for another time.
Two years ago, I wrote, ‘Yes, You CAN Survive Nuclear War,’ but you’ll have a better chance if you have prepared for that event and know what to do and what not to do. Some preppers, while being WAY ahead of non-preppers, might be doomed due to their doom-fatalism.
Ironic, huh?
“Lack of Planning: Because they believe that outcomes are fixed, fatalistic individuals may be less likely to engage in long-term planning or goal-setting. They may not see the point in making plans for the future.”
If you have the means to shelter safely indoors for a couple of weeks but ignore the topic because it is too scary, you might not know to get inside. You might try to outrun the fallout. You might not know looking to see what that bright light is could be the last thing you see. You might not know the water from your tap may not be safe to drink.
Doom fatalism is something to overcome, not succumb to. Let those big SHTF event scenarios motivate you, not cripple your mindset.
Keep in mind, however, that we should start with the more likely SHTF events when getting our prepping house in order. With my example of a nuclear explosion, who’s better prepared to shelter indoors for a couple of weeks than a prepper? As long as they know enough not to get chopped up by flying glass and other debris, or drinking contaminated water.
If doom fatalism keeps you from learning how to prepare for a nuclear threat, you might starve, thinking your preparations are contaminated. Don’t be scared; get prepared. Learn about threats, face the challenges, and survive.
I imagine that most people who would say, “I’d rather die,” will have a change of heart when faced with that painful reality. Sonny (Burt Reynolds) understood that.
🎬 Wrapping Up This Uplifting Piece 🫂
I wanted to keep this a short and uplifting 😉 article, so let’s wrap it up.
If you find yourself mentally avoiding a scary event, focus on what you can do to make it less scary — prepareness. Talk with others in the prepping community and help one another. There’s no twelve-step program because doom fatalism is normal behavior – in my non-professional opinion.
So, for prepper’s sake, stop being normal.
Speaking of not being normal, consider subscribing to my Substack if you liked this piece.
Next Step: Becoming A Prepper – Take On A Preparedness Mindset
Stay safe. Stay prepared.
Hawkins Out.
Image Credits: Featured image background by J Byers. Spidermen by Pilar. Callout balloons by Sunzu. Tornado image by Alexander Roy. Skier by Aggrey.
