It felt a bit strange driving our car through Kansas where the super rich have built their shelter from the storm in an old Titan missile silo.  About 9 years ago we had toured a Titan silo converted into a museum in Green Valley Arizona. During the cold war the US had 2 secret silo sites. One in Salem Kansa and the other in Green Valley. What made the super-rich think it made sense to buy a condo in a missile silo? What kind of a life would they have there?

I think many of the super-rich fear what Quentin Tarantino emphasizes in many of his films–i.e. the turning of the tables. In many of his films a very evil man tortures an innocent man and later in the film the tables are turned and the innocent man gets the chance to impose revenge for the injustice. I think that is exactly what many rich Americans feel deep in their corroded souls. A guilty conscience can generate a lot of fear.

In America many rich people have wealth beyond any imagination. And the greater the wealth the deeper the unconscious belief that such wealth is not justified and that justice might be served sometime soon.

In 2016 a toxic Presidential election campaign revealed these fears starkly.  Fearful people voted for Trump who promised to build a wall to keep them safe from “rapists and murderers.”  They feared the carnage Trump warned about.  Americans zealously bought that up.

Antonio Martínez a rich 40-year-old former Facebook manager bought 5 wooded acres on an island in the Pacific Northwest, and then bought generators, solar panels, and thousands of rounds of ammunition. He was preparing for the inevitable. His explanation was that “When society loses a healthy founding myth, it descends into chaos” That makes some sense, but what do you do about? Buy a luxury shelter in a concrete silo?

I interpret such a loss of confidence as a sign of civilizational collapse. iIs that a prelude to the grand finale?