Global financial crisis, global warming, life savings disappearing, food shortages and the like are all starting to take their toll on more people. And guess what? They’re walking.
Increasing numbers are evacuating our seemingly dysfunctional civilizations much like the counter-culture hippies of yesteryear. The evacuees are moving out into the world to explore their own alternatives in radically varied states of preparedness. Triggers for this radical break from ‘civilization’ can be as varied as mounting debt, sudden employment termination, meaningless work, depressing relationships, or just religious feelings of impending doom and gloom.
Civilization evacuees are coming from all backgrounds and can be initially hard to distinguish from tourists, travelers and more common transitory types. Their defining point however is in their critical language and willingness to engage in experimental thinking about new social paradigms, political structures and modes of ‘being’ in opposition to the current status quo.
Many evacuees combine environmentalism, social activism and new age thinking to inform their new outlook on the world.
Keep you eyes pealed. They’re out there.
Civilizational Evacuation
People are leaving the old civilization behind
Trend Themes
1. Sustainable Lifestyle - Disruptive innovation opportunity: Develop eco-friendly and self-sustaining products and services for civilization evacuees embracing environmentalism.
2. Alternative Communities - Disruptive innovation opportunity: Create platforms and technologies to connect civilization evacuees looking to form new social paradigms and experimental communities.
3. Social Activism - Disruptive innovation opportunity: Design tools and platforms to empower civilization evacuees in their pursuit of political change and activism.
Industry Implications
1. Sustainable Living - Disruptive innovation opportunity: Develop sustainable products, renewable energy solutions, and eco-friendly services to cater to the needs of civilization evacuees concerned about the environment.
2. Community Building - Disruptive innovation opportunity: Build online platforms and physical spaces that facilitate the formation of alternative, experimental communities for civilization evacuees seeking new social paradigms.
3. Social Engagement - Disruptive innovation opportunity: Create social engagement tools, digital activism platforms, and political change initiatives to support civilization evacuees in their pursuit of social and political change.