February 20, 2019
Historian Arnold Toynbee in his 12-volume magnum opus A Study of History was an exploration of the rise and fall of 28 different civilizations. Toynbee concluded that great civilizations don’t “get murdered,” rather, they kill themselves, and all the signs of a civilization collapse are here.
The Roman Empire, for example, was the victim of many ills including overexpansion, climatic change, environmental degradation, and poor leadership. But it was also brought to its knees when Rome was sacked by the Visigoths in 410 and the Vandals in 455.
Collapse is often quick and greatness provides no immunity. The Roman Empire covered 4.4 million sq km (1.9 million sq miles) in 390. Five years later, it had plummeted to 2 million sq km (770,000 sq miles). By 476, the empire’s reach was zero. –BBC
Collapse can be defined as a rapid and enduring loss of population, identity and socio-economic complexity. Public services crumble and disorder ensues as the government loses control of its monopoly on violence. (Meaning people realize they are slaves, and no longer wish to be subjugated and punished at the whims of the ruling class/government, but seek their own liberty and self-ownership.) As people begin to realize that the political class (ruling class) is exceptionally wealthy as they slave away and half their wages are stolen to prop up those who exert power over them, societies tend to collapse. Government stays fat and happy when the slaves don’t realize they are enslaved.
Collapse expert and historian Joseph Tainter has proposed that societies eventually collapse under the weight of their own accumulated complexity and bureaucracy. Meaning the government becomes so burdensome and large that it can no longer maintain a…