What Would The End of Civilization Look Like?

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Music written and generously provided by Paul Jernberg. Find out more about his work as a composer here: http://pauljernberg.com

There have always been prophets of doom who seem to be eager to interpret anything they can as a sign that the end of civilization is just around the corner – but as our Global civilization, because that’s what we are now, faces some unprecedented adversities, like a global pandemic, serious economic hardship, and now an escalating war involving Russia that could spin out of control in any number of directions that could have apocalyptic implications; I imagine there are more than a few people asking sincere questions about what the decline if not the collapse of civilization looks like – and are we facing that now? Like, what would be the warning signs or symptoms of a civilization that is facing its own annihilation? And to help answer this question, we have a vivid historical example in the fall of Rome and what’s important to understand about that event is that Rome wasn’t conquered or destroyed by some superior rival and then replaced. The fall of Rome is widely recognized as the end of civilization for that period but if a greater civilization had attacked Rome and taken its place, it wouldn’t have meant the end of civilization, just the end of that particular regime to be replaced by another. But it did actually mean the end of civilization for a time, which is to say that Rome’s end didn’t come from an external threat but because of its own internal deterioration and decomposition. It collapsed under the weight of its own success, prosperity, decadence, and the kinds of trivial and foolish preoccupations that distract us when we get too comfortable. So that’s an important thing to understand when we consider this question – civilization can survive the passing of one regime to another, but it can’t survive its own decomposition – which is to say, that is the greatest threat facing civilization.

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