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How Western Civilization Could Collapse


Hornius Emeritus

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Written three years ago.

"The political economist Benjamin Friedman once compared modern Western society to a stable bicycle whose wheels are kept spinning by economic growth. Should that forward-propelling motion slow or cease, the pillars that define our society – democracy, individual liberties, social tolerance and more – would begin to teeter. Our world would become an increasingly ugly place, one defined by a scramble over limited resources and a rejection of anyone outside of our immediate group. Should we find no way to get the wheels back in motion, we’d eventually face total societal collapse.

Such collapses have occurred many times in human history, and no civilisation, no matter how seemingly great, is immune to the vulnerabilities that may lead a society to its end. Regardless of how well things are going in the present moment, the situation can always change. Putting aside species-ending events like an asteroid strike, nuclear winter or deadly pandemic, history tells us that it’s usually a plethora of factors that contribute to collapse. What are they, and which, if any, have already begun to surface? It should come as no surprise that humanity is currently on an unsustainable and uncertain path – but just how close are we to reaching the point of no return?"


More here:

https://getpocket.com/explore/item/how-western-civilisation-could-collapse



 

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I work in agriculture and there's the belief that the Roman Empire was propped up by food coming in form the expanding hinterlands.  When it got too far to haul wheat all the way back to Rome, and land degradation in Italy itself hit a tipping point, they were sunk.  It dovetails with that article very well.

Would population growth be a factor as well?  Rapid population growth in poor countries is bad, but is flat/declining populations in rich countries bad as well?

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