“Immensely rich people have rockets to escape from Earth”. This is what the second vice president of the Government, Yolanda Díaz, assures, who this Saturday made a harsh criticism of the “technological elites”. The leader of Sumar said that the rich “are aware that we are going to hell.”

And that is why, according to her, “what they are doing is designing a very restricted plan B, fundamentally based on fleeing the world to protect themselves.”. In this way, Díaz has echoed the theories of some authors (and some facts) who claim that yes, perhaps some are preparing their salvation since they consider that everyone's salvation, that of the planet, is no longer possible. .

It's as if they wanted to build a car that goes fast enough to escape its own exhaust.”

One of those books is 'Survival of the Richest', by Douglas Rushkoff, which is now published in Spain as Survival of the Richest.. Escapist fantasies of technological billionaires (Captain Swing). “It's as if they wanted to build a car that goes fast enough to escape its own exhaust,” explains this writer and filmmaker specialized in media, technology and popular culture.

The privileges of extreme wealth

Rushkoff says he once received an invitation to meet a mysterious group of ultra-rich people in the middle of the desert.. They were five men from the top of the world of technological investment and investment funds.. They wanted to know the writer's opinion on a possible end of the world.

Specifically, he narrates in his book, they wanted to know which region of the world will be least affected by the next climate crisis; Which is the greater threat: global warming or biological warfare; whether a shelter should have its own air supply; what was the likelihood of groundwater contamination; or how to maintain authority within a bunker structure.

For them, the future of technology consists of one thing: escaping the rest of us.”

“Their extreme wealth and privilege only served to make them obsessed with isolating themselves from the real and present danger of climate change, rising sea levels, mass migrations, global pandemics, nativist panic, and resource depletion.. For them, the future of technology consists of one thing: escaping from the rest of us,” summarizes Rushkoff.

Islands and bunkers to hide

It is not so much that, as Yolanda Díaz says, that the super-rich have spaceships to escape in time, but rather that they are preparing to save themselves from a hypothetical apocalypse.. They are purchasing complex bunkers and hiring military security to survive a possible collapse of civilization.

Or islands. During the coronavirus pandemic, real estate agents specializing in private islands were overwhelmed by requests from many mega-rich. They even asked if there was land, not for a heliport, but for farming (that is, to have a certain food autonomy).

But, in reality, what can a bunker do against the end of the world like those shown in Hollywood movies full of computer effects? Not a fortified island. Rushkoff explains that small islands are totally dependent on air and sea supplies, and solar panels must be replaced and checked regularly.. Sooner or later these alternative gardens stop being gardens and become, in the best of cases, wild flora.

Or a self-sufficient farm

Therefore, better, a farm. The book cites the case of JC Cole, former president of the American Chamber of Commerce in Latvia, who is creating a series of shelter farms around New York – he does not specify where because he says that “the fewer people know the locations , better”-.

“The situation will be merciless when food shortages become real.”

“The main value of the shelter is operational security. When the supply chain breaks, people will not have food. Covid showed us this when people started fighting over toilet paper. “The situation will be merciless when food shortages become real.”. That's why those who are smart enough to invest have to be stealthy,” explains the head of American Heritage Farms.

However, more than farms, islands or – as Yolanda Díaz said this Saturday – mansions-fortresses in New Zealand, many millionaires are making a bunker.. They have a choice and it's just a matter of money. In the US, the company Rising S builds and installs bunkers and shelters against tornadoes from $40,000 for one measuring 2.5 by 3 meters.. If we have 8.3 million dollars, they can make us one of the luxury series “Aristocrat”, with a swimming pool and a bowling alley.

Another company called Vivos sells luxurious underground apartments in fortified locations like Cold War ammunition warehouses or missile silos.. They offer private suites for individuals or families, and larger common areas with pools, games, cinemas and restaurants.

Rockets to other planets

But the second vice president of the Government speaks of “rockets to escape from Earth”. Hollywood, once again the movies, has already told us the story of a spaceship built in a hurry to escape and search for another planet, a ship in which only a few can fit.. But some are doing it without disguise.

“There is a 100% chance of mass extinction of all species,” Musk said.

Elon Musk proposes inhabiting other planets, starting with Mars. “There is a 100% chance of mass extinction of all species,” said the billionaire in January 2022. His goal is to make humanity “become a spacefaring civilization,” he told Time.

The owner of X (formerly Twitter) already achieved in 2008 that the Falcon 1 was the first private rocket in orbit. The CEO of Tesla and SpaceX assures that his company will be able to take humans to Mars in the next 5 years or, in “the worst case scenario, 10 years.

“The Mentality” in the style of Silicon Valley

Another billionaire like Jeff Bezos, founder of Amazon, believes that “this planet is so small, that if we want to continue growing as a civilization, using energy as a civilization, most of it must be done outside the planet.”. This place is special. “We can't ruin it.”

Half of LinkedIn co-founder Reid Hoffman's millionaire friends have bought “apocalypse insurance,” meaning a bunker or something similar.

Rushkoff says in his book that perhaps the apocalypse is not so much something these ultra-rich are trying to escape as an excuse to maintain “the Mindset,” a Silicon Valley-style certainty that they and their cohort can break the laws of physics, economics and morals to escape a disaster of their own creation, as long as they have enough money and the right technology. What they intend, the author assures, is to rise above mere mortals and execute the definitive exit strategy… theirs.

Or as Jonathan Cook has written, “Musk and Bezos are pouring money—while offsetting it with taxes—on space colony escapism, premised on the same technological exploitation and monetization of nature that have been rapidly making our planet uninhabitable.” own planet.”

Reid Hoffman, co-founder of LinkedIn, has many friends in Silicon Valley who, like him, are billionaires. He claims that half of them have bought what he calls “apocalypse insurance.” They have done what we said, bought an island or built a bunker to guarantee THEIR survival… if that is possible.