The instructor walked into the classroom where several students already were getting set to take notes and looked upon them expectantly.
"Today, we're going to speak of human history, as in how far was a human's instinct to survive and prepare. That is, the psychology of what humans, in that era, called Preppers, and how that psychology is ingrained in humans into the modern day. We'll explore the benefits, and the costs, of such a mindset, and how companions can better understand such mindsets in order to pack-bond with their humans." -- Lessons
Some ancient humans before the Shattering Era foresaw the end of the world as they knew it. It came, initially, as a mushroom cloud that laid waste to vast areas around it. Something about the image of a whole human being turned into nothing more than a shadow got straight to their instincts.
In the previous wars, everyone was expected to have a bomb shelter. A simple underground space in which to weather out the more common explosives. They were not built to be a shelter for more than a handful of hours.
Nuclear weapons rendered the land above the shelters unlivable for decades. Therefore the shelters had to be deeper, roomier, and filled with supplies that would also last for decades. The world above would be changed forever, they reasoned, so they needed to prepare.
As time changed, the anticipated apocalypse changed. Some prepared for a viral disaster, others prepared for a seemingly inevitable revolution, some used a 'zombie apocalypse' as a catch-all for any given disaster. All these Preppers, as they called themselves, had one thing in common.
An image of a musclebound hero. Shirtless, besmeared with artistic levels of filth, aiming a gun at an unseen enemy. He is lantern-jawed, standing alone against the burning world around him.
The ones doing the prepping cast themselves as solitary heroes protecting only their families against a world gone mad. A heavy thread of individualism ran strong through the varied cults of Preppers. They, alone, were going to rebuild the world in their own image.
Of course, the simple math of survival of the species failed to reach them. That interfered with the narrative. The Human species had already gone through one genetic bottleneck in their evolutionary past. They could not survive the levels of inbreeding that one family's survival would necessitate.
They would need a minimum of five hundred people for short-term survival without the dangers of inbreeding. Five thousand to rebuild the world. The largest community of preppers had accommodations for that number, but we do not have data pertaining to whether they achieved that population.
The disaster they anticipated didn't come. Not the way they wanted it to.
Ironically, those who prepped to protect themselves from a globally lethal pandemic joined the throng of those protesting measures to protect others from the disease. The political atmosphere surrounding Prepping was heavily conservative, as well as individualist. They chose to believe the lies of populist leaders and many suffered the consequences.
When the first rush of colonial ships began the Shattering, the need for Prepping died down. It eventually fizzled out late in the twenty-second century, when a cataclysm did occur, and all the prepping they did turned out to be useless in the face of the toxic mindset they championed.
They did not exactly shoot themselves in the foot. They shot others of their philosophy in theirs. When they finally ran out of ammo, there was very little left to salvage.
Nevertheless, there remains a very Human need to prepare for disaster. If carefully coached with a rational mind, you and your Ships' Human can install measures to protect all fellow crew from any given catastrophe. A Human will protect their pack first, and think of others later, so be certain that all crew become part of the pack.
And also be certain that your Human does not invest solely in weapons as a means of catastrophe prevention.
[Image (c) Can Stock Photo / zabelin]
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