The wealthy, believing that civilization will soon end and the world will end with a cataclysmic event, are preparing themselves for "Judgment Day." So, what do billionaires who build themselves luxurious bunkers know that we don't, that makes them prepare for the "end of the world"?
With the global climate crisis, drought, pandemics, the Russo-Ukrainian War, conflicts in the Middle East, and the threat of nuclear war, signs of a possible third world war or the end of the world are increasingly abundant. While we mortals sit waiting for our fate, billionaires, anxious to prepare themselves for a possible "doomsday" scenario, are buying land in the Pacific Islands, building luxurious bunkers, and building castles with flaming moats!
Death is a fact of life. Perhaps it's even something that happens to everyone equally, rich or poor, and thus, it's the only thing that makes life meaningful. Because we live as if we'll never die, we miss out on many things in life: we can't be with the person we want, live where we want, or do the work we want. Because we forget the existence of death.
If there's one group that hasn't forgotten death, it's the world's billionaires. In fact, they're so obsessed with it that they're building luxurious shelters around the world, dubbed "Survivalism," to protect against a potential doomsday scenario.
If you were to ask me, "Would you like to live a few more months or years in a world where everyone died?", my answer would probably be "No." However, for the world's wealthiest 1 percent, led by Silicon Valley's top executives in particular, owning a shelter has become a commonplace status symbol. And they're no longer content with ordinary $500,000 survival shelters; they're taking things to the next level: Wired magazine, for example, published details of the 5,000-square-meter underground shelter built by META CEO Mark Zuckerberg on his 1,400-acre estate in Hawaii. According to the plans, the shelter will be completely self-sufficient with food and water supplies. The entire project cost over $270 million. Furthermore, the construction is being carried out with such utmost secrecy that everyone involved in the project has been required to sign confidentiality agreements.
If you're wondering, "So what's all this secrecy and security for?" it's, of course, to prevent the public from entering in the event of a doomsday scenario! Al Corbi, president of Strategically Armored & Fortified Environments (Safe), a US-based shelter company, told The Hollywood Reporter that his clients, who want to build shelters, "have found cunning ways to ensure their luxurious doomsday shelters can't be breached by the public." Al Corbi even describes one of the projects he worked on: "We built a castle with a moat around it for an unnamed businessman. We built a lake around the castle, and this lake was covered with a flammable liquid lighter than water. So, if anyone tries to breach the moat, flames erupt from below!"
Among the "Doomsday preparations" of the world's billionaires is purchasing land in a location far from any impending disaster, such as the Pacific Islands. That's why many are buying land in New Zealand and the islands they consider "the last place on Earth to be bombed." It's not just about buying land; who buys empty underground warehouses and turns them into bomb shelters? Who buys motorcycles because they anticipate traffic jams on the Day of Judgment? Who keeps their helicopter fueled?
Wealthy people preparing for the "end of the world" are also creating closed groups on Facebook to exchange ideas about which gas masks are best, where empty bomb shelters are located, and which regions are most vulnerable to climate change. For example, Antonio Garcia Martinez, a former Facebook product manager living in San Francisco and author of "Chaos Monkeys," purchased 20 acres of forested land on an island in the northwest Pacific. Martinez brought generators, solar panels, and a plethora of ammunition to the island. "You need a lot of things to survive an apocalyptic situation," Martinez says.
Steve Huffman, co-founder of the US-based social media site Reddit, had laser eye surgery years ago for an unthinkable reason. He said, "If the world ends, finding contact lenses or glasses will be a huge problem."
Huffman explained that she'd been thinking about this since watching the 1998 American film "Deep Impact," based on the scenario of a comet striking Earth, leading to the extinction of all life on Earth. That's when she decided to buy a motorcycle: "In the movie, everyone's trying to escape and get to safety, but they get stuck in traffic. I thought I should get a motorcycle, and finally I did. Because when that day comes, everyone without a motorcycle will be finished!"
Even tech billionaire Peter Thiel, known for his support of Donald Trump during the presidential race, hasn't been idle. It turns out that years ago, Thiel, the co-founder of PayPal, purchased land in New Zealand, considered "safe."
The question inevitably arises: Is all this bunker construction a sign that the richest 1 percent know something we don't and are preparing for the end times?
