In his recent piece posted on Medium, writer Indi Samarajiva describes his life in Sri Lanka during the civil war that lasted from 1983 to 2009. As with most modern conflicts, the root of it was western interference (in this case, British colonialism) and there is reason to believe that the US and UK were complicit in genocide against the Tamil people (who lost the war). However, the most interesting aspect of that period from the perspective of a person living in the US today, is that life just kept going for the most part — if you were not directly affected by the war, and most people were not.
I Lived Through Collapse. America Is Already There.
How life goes on, surrounded by death
by Indi Samarajiva, a writer living in Colombo, Sri Lanka
“I went to work, I went out, I dated. This is what Americans don’t understand. They’re waiting to get personally punched in the face while ash falls from the sky. That’s not how it happens. This is how it happens. Precisely what you’re feeling now. The numbing litany of bad news. The ever rising outrages. People suffering, dying, and protesting all around you, while you think about dinner. If you’re trying to carry on while people around you die, your society is not collapsing. It’s already fallen down.”
There are at least a couple of aspects to our collapse today in the US. The most obvious at this moment might be COVID-19 which has killed over 200,000 Americans, left possibly 2 million with permanent health issues, and sent US politics into a tailspin. But thanks to the already-existing divide between the near-right Democratic party and the far-right Republican party, and their mutual love of licking boots, there are many other things to worry about in the US today, and we’d be collapsing even without this new virus. This will get much worse before it gets better.