‘The Collapse of Complex Societies’
Looking to civilisations of the past from our existence today, clearly history does not precisely repeat itself; but it certainly rhymes.
collapse of complex societies
Polycrisis? What Polycrisis?
Human societies the world over are confronted with a growing number and range of difficult and compounding problems and crises, which they are increasingly struggling to address and failing to solve, and which are slowly but surely eroding their ability to function effectively and undermining their capacity to coexist peacefully.
The Failure of Global Elites
The best strategic response for ordinary people would probably be to build grassroots horizontal power networks and get out ahead of the failing elites by doing whatever will minimize the crisis ahead.
How Resource Depletion Leads to Collapse. The Story of a Lost Kingdom
The idea that a civilization may collapse because of resource depletion is often hard to believe for historians.
Collapse: a Helpful Guide for the Perplexed
Archaeologist Joseph Tainter, whose book The Collapse of Complex Societies I mentioned in my previous post, uses this working definition: “A society has collapsed when it displays a rapid, significant loss of an established level of sociopolitical complexity”.
Anticipating Collapse
Collapse can’t happen soon enough, as far as I’m concerned. By collapse, I mean the breakdown of the complexities of our current society. It’s not that I long for the feral world, red in tooth and claw, portrayed in collapse fiction, although I know there are those who fantasize about mastering a post-apocalyptic wasteland.
Crazy Town: A New Podcast from Post Carbon Institute
If you recognize controversies and hypocrisies like these, then you know what it’s like to live in Crazy Town. Laugh along with Asher, Rob, and Jason (mostly so you don’t cry) as they explore the back alleys, figure out how to navigate sanely, and even find an escape route every once in awhile.
The Big Picture
It is only by pulling together that we can hope to salvage and protect what is most intrinsically valuable about our world, and perhaps even improve lives over the long term.
Brexit and Complexity
The historian and archeologist Joseph Tainter made a name for himself with his book The Collapse of Complex Societies. At a certain point civilisations collapse because they become more and more complex
Prejudice, Ignorance and Granfalloons – Society in the Trump Era
But what does it mean to say that a society becomes “more complex”?
Living in Unpredictable Times
Economists make forecasts about what is going to happen in the world of that great God – money.
The Era of Dissolution
I suppose you could call the era of dissolution the Rodney Dangerfield of collapse, though it’s not so much that it gets no respect; it generally doesn’t even get discussed.