Outquisiting

[leahbobet]

Cory Doctorow and Alex Steffen coin The Outquisition, an alternate notion of the apocalypse:

I noticed that while there's a whole ton of stories -- and people who emulate them -- about heavily armed survivalists bravely holding off the twilight of civilization after the Big One, there are damned few stories about super-networked post-apocalyptic Peace Corps who respond to the Great Fall by figuring out how to put it all back together. I even came up with a name for it: the Outquisition; the opposite of the Inquisition -- missionaries who come to your town to remind you of how awesome it can all be, leave behind a bunch of rad, life-improving systems and tools, and generally get on with the business of being happy, well-fed and peaceful.

My first impression of this is that their catastrophic apocalypses clearly contain more power generation capacity and a stronger resource base than any of mine. Which is not to say people can't be nice at the apocalypse -- in fact, considering the nature of agriculture these days you'd sorta have to be nice, as you're not going to make it long-term in anything smaller than a small community -- but does this seem a bit pie-in-the-sky to anyone else?

Any ideas on making it practical?

Comments

[willowfagan.livejournal.com]

Yeah, that scenario does seem to be based on having a lot of power capacity and resources. Maybe they're assuming more technological advances which will help? I tend to be pretty skeptical of technological solutions to collapse-of-industrial-civilization scenarios. It does seem plausible to me that some communities might have it together enough to at least send useful information and models to other communities--but I think there's also a danger, especially if the people doing so really think of themselves as missionaries, of that being done with a narrow-minded, self-righteous attitude that their approach is better, when the "farm communities" might have more knowledge of the local ecology, geology, history, etc., as well as more experience in practical survival skills. What works best in one bioregion isn't necessarily a good strategy in a different one.

[leahbobet.livejournal.com]

*nodnod* I'm skeptical of technological fixes too. It's just a little too...sexy. And I deeply suspect that postapocalyptic survival is not in fact about the sexy.

when the "farm communities" might have more knowledge of the local ecology, geology, history, etc., as well as more experience in practical survival skills. What works best in one bioregion isn't necessarily a good strategy in a different one.

And THAT is an excellent point.