The Era of Breakdown
The fourth of the stages in the sequence of collapse we’ve been discussing is the era of breakdown.
collapse of complex societies
The Butlerian Carnival
Over the last week or so, I’ve heard from a remarkable number of people who feel that a major crisis is in the offing.
The One Way Forward
As the conventional wisdom of flat-earth cornucopians crashes and burns around us, it’s time for some real heresy.
The Mariner’s Rule
One of the things my readers ask me most often, in response to this blog’s exploration of the ongoing decline and impending fall of modern industrial civilization, is what I suggest people ought to do about it all.
March of the Squirrels
Prediction is a difficult business at the best of times, but the difficulties seem to change from one era to another. Just now, at least for me, the biggest challenge is staying in front of the headlines.
A Camp Amid the Ruins
Well, the Fates were apparently listening last week. As I write this, stock markets around the world are lurching through what might just be the opening moves of the Crash of 2015…
Review: The Great Transition – The End of Growth?
We are on the verge of a major tipping point in the way civilization works.
Panarchy: Implications For Economic & Social Policy
Panarchy is a concept that recognizes the cycle of growth, collapse and renewal inherent in complex systems. What can this concept tell us about human society’s cycles?
Dark Age America: Involuntary Simplicity
The political transformations that have occupied the last four posts in this sequence can also be traced in detail in the economic sphere.
Bright Were The Halls Then
Arnold Toynbee, whose magisterial writings on history have been a recurring source of inspiration for this blog, has pointed out an intriguing difference between the way civilizations rise and the way they fall.
Transcending Collapse
I predict the lineages of people alive 1,000 years from now will count among their ancestors people who transcended today’s collapse mythology and got to the real work of self and community development, inner work and adaptation.