Societal Collapse and Intergenerational Disparities in Suffering

Abstract

The collapse of society is inevitable, even if it is in the distant future. When it collapses, it is likely to do so within the lifetimes of some people. These people will have matured in pre-collapse society, experience collapse, and then live the remainder of their lives in the post-collapse world. I argue that this group of people—the transitional generation—will be the worst off from societal collapse, far worse than subsequent generations. As the transitional generation, they will suffer disparately. This intergenerational disparity in suffering is inequitable. Given that other disparities in suffering are worthy of remediation, this intergenerational disparity in suffering is worthy of remediation. However, the only way to do so is to target the mental states of the members of the transitional generation.

Societal collapse: A literature review

“…A broader spectrum of emotional responses to climate change was charted by Moser (2020), including climate grief, solastalgia (emotional distress related to climate change), climate anxiety, guilt, fear, and profound grappling with the meaning of what scientists are saying. In addition, Crutchfield (2022) concluded that people who will have matured in pre-collapse society, experience collapse, and then continue to live in the post-collapse world will suffer more and feel much worse than subsequent generations.…”