How to deal with your existential dread

Plus a plethora of links

“Okay but Briar…how do you deal with the existential dread?”

I’ve gotten this question a (probably not) shocking number of times the last couple of weeks. If you’re not American, this probably isn’t hitting quite as hard, but it’s still very much a thing.

It’s kind of an honor that y’all seem to think I’ve got my shit together this much, but in fact…I do have some thoughts on this one.

We live in an age where everything can kill you.

Honestly, everything already has. Your body just hasn’t caught up yet. Microplastics, anyone?

I don’t know if this is a general autism thing, or just a terrible special interest, but I’ve spent literal decades polishing my zombie attack plan. (The documents that might actually be helpful, are…less polished, and we’ll leave it at that.)

Many of my favorite movies are disaster films.

Obviously, there’s nothing better than Tommy Lee Jones yelling at lava, and I will not be discussing this, but I love the whole genre, from volcanos to tornados to asteroids to climate change conspiracies.

I lost sleep for weeks after reading about the earthquake that’s apparently overdue in the pacific northwest.

Also, did you know that a lot of city water pipes are still made with lead?

And people think I’m joking when I tell them that the fact that Omaha is a first strike nuclear target is one of the reasons we live here.

But I’m not joking.

Not even a little.

Of all the world ending disasters that might happen, I am 1000% sure that I don’t want to live through the post-nuclear holocaust.

I haven’t even gotten to AI yet, and y’all. Truly, you have no idea how hair raising all of this has gotten the last couple of months.

Religion, class, awareness. I expect funerary rituals by the end of the year. (I’m still writing this one. It’s…a lot.)

The question of our robot overlords is only a matter of when now.

The truth is, that’s a LOT of fucking dread.

It’d be very easy to get absolutely stuck here, in a never ending spiral of doom.

And I’d be lying if I said I never have.

But I’ve found that thinking about worst case scenarios, and THEN, and this is key, planning for them, helps a lot, actually.

There’s a lot going on right now.

And regardless of the results of the election this week, most of us won’t be picking up and fleeing the country.

But have you considered making a plan anyway?

And really…lean into this.

What would you need to leave? What kind of assets?

What would you be leaving behind?

Where would you go?

What are the actual conditions that are required for you to actually leave? Be specific.

Because it’s not just about who wins the Presidency. There are all sorts of reasons why you might need to leave your home and never return. Hurricane, fire, rampaging dragons, whatever makes your heart race and keeps you up at night.

And having a PLAN helps your brain to process all that existential dread.

Every time you start down that ugly, anxious path, you can remind yourself that it’s okay.

You got this.

You have a plan.

You know where the flashlight is.

There’s toilet paper and bottled water in the basement, so you don’t have to leave the house.

You can just sit on your porch with a shotgun and a corpse rake.

Or watch your hard copy of FRIENDS in your bomb shelter.

Whatever.

The point is, you have OPTIONS.

Listen, I’m not saying everyone reading this has pathological demand avoidance, but you have to have at least a healthy streak of skepticism to still be here.

They say history never repeats itself. But it often rhymes.

So you don’t have to worry about the collapse of our society. It’s practically a foregone conclusion.

And what do you do about it?

You keep your eyes on your own damn paper.

Listen.

On an individual level, you’re never going to fix things.

That’s out of scope for almost all of us.

But that doesn’t mean you can’t CHANGE THE WORLD.

Run a successful business. Hire employees, maybe. Treat them like you would like to be treated.

Vote.

Join a committee (if you click any of the links in this piece, click this one). Run for local office.

DO SOMETHING.

The dread is real.

But you CAN do something about it.