If the ultra-rich want to escape from reality -- good riddance

[marmar]

If the ultra-rich want to escape from reality — good riddance
Billionaires are building luxury getaways to hide from civilization’s collapse. Cool. We’re better off without them

By Troy Farah
Science & Health Editor
Published February 16, 2025 9:00AM (EST)


(Salon) I can sometimes get irrationally upset by movies with an incredible premise that is poorly executed. “The Creator,” for example, was nothing but mind-blowing concept art with zero plot or acting. Watching it made me mad that such beautiful trash was wasted. “Civil War” was so politically neutered, with such wooden characters, that it completely missed an opportunity to expound on the growing tensions in this country or how to navigate them. It was devoid of stakes, context and depth, a complete waste of 109 minutes. But to me, the biggest and most recent missed opportunity was “Leave the World Behind,” a 2023 film financed by Barack and Michelle Obama, no less, that is so out of touch with reality it’s astonishing.

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Such blueprints and escape schemes are in vogue, and probably for sale near you. I’m not above occasionally Zillow surfing multi-million dollar properties with super-creative names like the “Las Vegas Underground House.” Author Douglas Rushkoff has seen this perverse trend firsthand, and says he’s been courted by elites for advice designing their doomsday bunkers and adapting for a future insulated from the coming collapse.

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I can sympathize with the impulse to survive — that’s encoded in our DNA or something — but I can’t get over how misguided this mentality is. Rushkoff puts it succinctly on why the post-apocalyptic fantasies of the Nerd Reich are destined to fail:

“What I came to realize was that these men are actually the losers. The billionaires who called me out to the desert to evaluate their bunker strategies are not the victors of the economic game so much as the victims of its perversely limited rules. More than anything, they have succumbed to a mindset where “winning” means earning enough money to insulate themselves from the damage they are creating by earning money in that way. It’s as if they want to build a car that goes fast enough to escape from its own exhaust.”

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Anyway, if you’re a moneyed packrat with a ticket out of here, please don’t hesitate. Occupy Mars or the high-tech version of your mom’s basement. Bring your Savannah cats and Gucci bags with you. I think all us peasants will do well enough without you. Without the stewards of capitalism, would the world come to an end? It’s a gamble many of us would be willing to take. ................(more)

https://www.salon.com/2025/02/16/if-the-ultra-rich-want-to-escape-from-reality--good-riddance/