The Duality of the tv series "Fallout"

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After staying in and watching the series Fallout, I couldn't help but notice the parallels I see with today in the dualities of society.

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In the futuristic series Fallout, based off the popular video game, society gets blasted under nuclear attack--pushing the rich and elitist society underground into the safety of protective vaults that they have prepared to preserve the human race, while everybody else must go through the trenches, learn to survive through radioactive and dangerous terrain, and defend themselves against looters and criminals.

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Those that live in the underground vaults, live a semi idealistic life (that of which they can in those circumstances). They farm their food, have comfortable living quarters, and strong community living. They have idealistic ideas that they will be the ones to save and repopulate the Earth once the radiation levels have come down to safe levels. They see themselves as heroic, living by the rules and always doing what they believe to be the right thing.

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Those that live above the ground live in a completely paradoxical world. Hardened by generations of people who have lived through a decaying world, encountering danger at every corner. In order to survive, you must be ruthless, brave, and lack empathy. Cities have turned to junk piles, soil turned to sand, and morphed animals/bugs that changed through centuries of radiation are unpredictable and rabid.

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After a good hearted but naive vault womans' father gets kidnapped to the above ground (the real world), she leaves the comfort and safety of the vaults in search for her father. As she ventures into the chaotic world, she realizes she isn't as strong or tough as she thought she was--and learns she must harden in order to survive.

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I've spoken out over the years about the detriment I see coming through the enabling of "coddling culture". I'm not sure when it started happening, as growing up in the 90's (although it wasn't hard) we did not have the large amount of rule and regulations we have today that enact safety precautions for society. If you were naughty growing up, you'd get a spanking. If you spoke like a brat to your peers you'd get beaten up. If you didn't win a competition, you wouldn't get a participation trophy. Things were different.. there were still rules and regulations in place, however you were responsible for your behaviour. If you did great and strived to achieve, you'd get rewarded, if you slacked off you would get punished. Again, I am not sure when this started to change, perhaps once parents and school boards started to step in with bullying culture, or the rise of social media, or more government control, whenever or whatever it was, it created a domino effect towards what I call "coddling culture".

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At some point things seemed to be flipped upside down. There became a divide in society between those who are tough and those that are soft--with both of them not interacting with each other. Support groups got made for every life issue, mental health became societally accepted and numbed (with the help from big pharma) instead of worked on, triggering someone became your fault and responsibility not theirs, being drastically overweight became healthy body love, 1000 genders had to be adhered to otherwise it would make someone cry. And all of this in the name of creating a "new world" a "better world" a "future utopia". Don't get me wrong, we should all be aiming to create a loving society, but shouldn't we also realize we are from the animal kingdom--and in the animal kingdom instincts can always create chaos and disorder, it will never be 100% civilized. 

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How do animals deal with unpredictability in the animal kingdom? They become tough, they are trained from being young how to fight and defend--how to hunt and feed their future young. If a cougar decides to attack a deer, it's not going to stop and check in how that deer feels about it, it's not going to care if it's crying. This sounds harsh, because it is! The world is actually a very harsh place, it's beautiful, loving, horrific, sad, joyful, and exciting all at once! You never know which version you are going to get by each day that goes by, and isn't that the point? Aren't we all here just to experience life in it's entirety, it's ups and downs, it's negatives and positives?

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I suppose watching this series really triggered these thoughts within myself. Are we creating a dual vault-like society that attempts to build borders or a safety bubble around it to protect it from scenarios out of our control? How does that feaze well to a world that is entirely run through the balance of rules AND chaos? We will always have chaos, as that is why we have rules--they go hand in hand. Duality is always in play, there is always hot and cold, black and white, up and down. To attempt to ignore the opposite, keeps us ignorant and vulnerable to anything out of our control that comes our way. What happens if world war 3 comes our way? Are we strong enough to know how to even handle that? Can we fight and defend ourselves personally? Are we strong enough to build our own shelters, know who to trust, go weeks without food, know how to even grow and sustain our own food? What happens to our nervous systems then? If our nervous systems can't even handle being told no, being told we are unhealthy, not having our values or ideas valued amongst a group--then how are we to even come close to surviving being met with the dangers that come along with being alive on this earth? 

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I'm not here to write about how we must go back to being untamed, blood thirsty humans--but I am here to give a reality check. As someone who has travelled to many different third world countries and have seen families with completely calm nervous systems who live amongst chaos, but then come to Canada to be told in order to calm our nervous system we must make everybody bend to caring about our own needs--this doesn't add up. After years of mental health struggles, I have only become more strong in who I am after working to take responsibility for my own nervous system. To understand that the world will not cater to me, my ideas, or my values. To know that there are so many more people who have it incredibly worse than I do, who are surrounded my dangerous crime, living conditions, and abuse every day and who are still grateful and present in their day to day life, that do not let it crumble them, that use it to motivate them to direct their life in a new direction. Cultivating strength has been a large part of my healing journey, and one that I have only scratched the surface on. I believe many years of coddling culture influenced me in ways that I am having to deal with now, to undo this mindset, and cultivate a healthy balance of strength and softening while keeping balance amongst the chaos around me. 

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I don't have all the answers, who am I but a woo-woo herbal and astrology lover who loves to ramble my words. But I do encourage people to reflect, perhaps even watch a few episodes of Fallout--see what happens when you live in a world of rose coloured glasses and get forced into the real world full of all it's uncertainty and corruption. We've had  millennias of cultivating strength, adaptability, and survival skills that have got us through each era of this changing world--maybe we shouldn't abandon  all of these teachings for a promise of comfort, illusionary safety, and blinders (especially when it's being controlled by governmental institutions who benefit from it). 

Something to think about.

<3 Syd

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