[a sad character is slouched on a couch, looking at their laptop, looking depressed, while their coffee mug leaks on their carpet] I’m tired of living in the “Decline and Fall” section of the future Wikipedia article
All the more reason to live IMO. After the decline of the existing system is the potential for something better to replace it but only if we have people willing to do it.
Uhm, if we are the Generation in which the system breaks we will be the generation with the highest death (and suicide) rate since the great depression. (for example)
Though if I had to pick if my kids had to grow up into either a transitional breakdown and can build it up…
Or
Into a dystopian right wing nazi dictatorship as we see all over coming up…
I’d pick the rebuilding for them
I appreciate the optimism. Because I’m feeling really sad about the future.
The key difference between all previous civilizational collapses and the one we potentially face is that most people in the past were farmers. Even in the grandest empires like Rome, less than 10% of the population actually lived in cities. Most people lived in the countryside working the land. The city of Rome lost something like 95% of its population. But those people didn’t just crawl in a hole and die. They abandoned the city and joined the vast majority of the population that was living in the countryside. Many in the countryside actually saw their quality of life improve substantially. Many who had been slaves found the old legal system enforcing their slavery no longer existed. Rome collapsing just meant the end of the grand cities; political and economic systems could fragment, and people would just live more locally.
But today? Less than 5% of the population actually works on a farm. The vast majority of the population lives in cities. If the political and economic system collapses, the countryside can’t just absorb all those extra people. Hell, the farms can’t even operate without the equipment, fuels, and chemicals produced by the larger economic system.
Historically, when civilizations collapsed, the common folk just left the cities, abandoned the corrupt elites to their madness, and returned to small villages and rural life. But now there is simply nowhere for people to retreat to.
The rest of the world is happy it’s no longer a “Causes of WW3” article.
Until Trump invades Canada, Greenland, or Mexico.
please don’t jinx it
Jinx what? Everything’s fucked right now.
The ships sinking and on fire, yeah the water will put it out eventually, but we’re still sinking.
As if the rest of the world will outlast America by much. The whole world is going down with the climate. America is just trying to go down first, and hardest. We always gotta be #1 at something!
north america and the west are the ones bringing everyone down with the climate.
Agreed, but we’re not the only ones that will fall with it.
Yeah I think the Romans around 400 AD felt very much the same.
is there any evidence that they were already aware besides their barbians-at-the-gate diatribes?
The common people? Hardly. To them it really didn’t matter all that much as long as they were protected from war and famine.
But eventually that happened and they couldn’t ignore it anymore.
The elites of society will have been much more aware of the situation (and acted accordingly).
As always…
