9 Meals Away From Anarchy: The Quiet Test Run Before The Great Shutdown

In 1906, author Alfred Henry Lewis famously noted that “human civilization is always just nine missed meals away from complete chaos”, a sentiment later echoed by various influential people ranging from sci-fi writer Robert Heinlein to Leon Trotsky.

You see, what makes food unique compared to other essentials is its absolute urgency. While a shortage of footwear might force us to patch up old shoes for years, or a fuel crisis might push us to rely on public transit and walking, we simply cannot delay nutrition. The moment the food supply breaks down, panic takes root. We’ve seen how quickly neighbors turn against each other in the Covaids scamdemic. Now, imagine how that will look when there’s a food panic.

If people lose faith in when their next meal is coming, survival instincts quickly override social norms. It takes less than three days of starvation for desperation to turn law-abiding neighbors against one another, turning even the closest friendships into violent struggles over a single loaf of bread.

Here’s the other thing you need to know. The most dangerous thing about collapse isn't the collapse. It's that no alarm bell rings when it starts. Look at Southern Italy:

Monday: truckers protest high diesel prices.

Tuesday: refinery access gets blocked.

Wednesday: diesel runs short.

Thursday: deliveries stop showing up.

By the weekend, supermarket shelves across the entire region are stripped bare.

Four days. That's all it took to go from “protest” to “no food available for purchase” across half a country.

And, here's what should really bother you: this wasn't an accident or a natural disaster. These are trial runs. Test runs. They're calibrating how fast they can snap their fingers and wipe out the food supply of an entire region.

Who has that kind of power…?