Many years ago, I wrote a post on Reddits /r/Collapse using a failing barn as a metaphor to explain collapse. It was a very popular post, especially for a pre-covid collapse/prepper forum post, back before being a prepper was the norm.

I live in Montana, and old barns are everywhere. What’s amazing though is how old some of them are. For instance one old hay barn I recently helped demolish, was nearly 100 years old. It was amazing it was still standing…Or was it.

It took us the better part of a day to tear down that old hay barn. It was hard work ripping out planks, pulling nails, dragging 100 year old posts to the dump trailer. But towards the end, as we slowly ripped out the walls and supports, we expected the hay barn to just come crashing down. It didn’t though. It resisted gravity with a tenacity that bordered on the divine.

After all the walls but one was gone, we figured a slight breeze would knock it over. When it didn’t we tried pushing it over, but it would just slump a little, then bounce back. We tried knocking out the last few posts by throwing an 8 lbs hammer at it. This didn’t do anything other than make us feel like Thor.

The last post actually took several hits before it was dislodged. However, there suspended in space and time was that barn! It still didn’t fall, it just hung there suspended in place. HOW?!@

As it had collapsed, it started leaning against an old poplar tree ever so slightly, which we didn’t notice. Somehow that old tree held up the entire barn all by itself. We eventually just pulled the barn apart piece by piece, as the tree was clearly not going to let it fall.

That moment where the barn seemed suspended in mid air got me thinking a lot about collapse again. Even through years of rot, bad weather, baking sun, cows rubbing against it, etc, it still wouldn’t come apart. I remember thinking: "Boy they sure don’t build them like the used to. " In fact, that might be the point.

The Collapse of humanity has been happening for a while, but like the Roman empire before it, it might take a really long time for the effects of collapse to affect or impair a majority of us. It may collapse all at once, but the stronger the foundations of the building the longer it will take to erode enough to start falling apart. Even when it does start to fall apart, it will likely lean on something else to keep it supported for a while longer.