The Literal End of the World
Grace Ledoux
Today’s world is terrifying. It’s easy to feel like the actual apocalypse is right around the corner, which is especially disturbing for young people preparing to inherit this world. So how do young people cope with existential dread and commiserate in their anxiety? Humor.
The young people of today have an unparalleled ability to simultaneously participate in creating real change by speaking up, protesting, and volunteering, and have a laugh along the way. This coping mechanism is a kind of life raft navigating through the rough seas of our modern world.
This project is a celebration of generation Z’s humor superpower, distilled into a literal survival kit for the end of times. Borrowing from the visual format of wilderness survival handbooks and 1950s atomic bomb educational literature, this piece of satire could appear as a legitimately helpful kit on the surface. With the ridiculous “survival tips” and accompanying unhelpful props, it aims to capture the magnificent ability to cope with enormously difficult global issues through exaggeration, satire, and humor, while still somehow remaining optimistic and ultimately encouraging serious action.
The calls to action at the end of each faux instructional pamphlet bring all the humorous content into the real world and remind us that it’s not all over. Yet.