Will Civilization Collapse?

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Saddest part of last 3 years is seeing how many well-to-do people, some of which I held in high respect, choose group conformance rather than inquisitive love of truth.

“That’ll never happen to us!” Said everyone it happened to.

I think the most pessimistic scenario I can think of would be a civilization that doesn't collapse, that just keeps going in it's sick state forever.

The worst part is that a LOT of us see this happening and are powerless to do anything. We look on with frustration and sadness as the people who help to speed it along continue on their destructive paths, all the while believing that they are righteous and good. This is the cycle. Human nature. It will only end when we destroy ourselves completely or fundamentally change what it means to be human.

I grew up in Rome, and whenever I would walk past the Roman Forum, I couldn't understand how something so beautiful, civilized and advanced could be left to decay to the point the ruins were at one time being used as shepherd land for sheep. I understand now.

My history teacher told us that there is often a direct correlation between the moral decay of a civilization and it's downfall. If this is true, I think we are probably doomed.

"When a culture becomes over loaded with pictures, when logic and rhetoric lose their binding authority, when historical truth becomes irrelevant, when the spoken word or written word is distrusted or makes demands on our attention that we are incapable of giving, when our politics, history, education, religion, public information, and commerce are expressed largely in visual imagery rather than words, then a culture is in serious jeopardy. " -Neil Postman

I believe that this particular instance of collapse will be quite different, because for the first time we are experiencing an engineered, global collapse. The predator class understands that in order to fix something to their liking, they must first break it.

"Kings built tombs more splendid than the houses of the living and counted the names of their descent dearer than the names of their sons. Childless lords sat in aged halls musing on heraldry or in high cold towers asking questions of the stars. And so the kingdom of Gondor sank into ruin, the line of kings failed, the white tree withered and the rule of Gondor was given over to lesser men." - Gandalf

Luckily civilizations don’t end on a particular date nor does a collapsing empire prevent a person from being spiritually, mentally, and physically fortified.

1920: addictions are bad 2020: find meaning in your addictions

I heard somewhere that when the barbarians were invading Rome, the Romans were begging them to come in and run their lives. I don't know if that's true, but it would indicate that civilizations end when conditions become so unbearable and meaningless that the people want it all to end. If things are so good and great about modern life there wouldn't be so many discontented people talking about its collapse.

Could've fooled me if we aren't living in an age of civilizational collapse. All the dystopian movies I watched in the 80's and 90's are pretty much becoming prophecy now.

One thing that does worry me is the death of basic skills.

We are already in deep decay. People just don't want to see reality. Time to live on the fringes.

Even if Rome is burning around you, don't forget to dance and sing, for it is the journey and not always the end that is worth recognizing and living... "We thought of life by analogy with a journey, a pilgrimage, which had a serious purpose at the end, and the thing was to get to that end, success or whatever it is, maybe heaven after you’re dead. But we missed the point the whole way along. It was a musical thing and you were supposed to sing or to dance while the music was being played." -Alan Watts

Søren Kierkegaard wrote in "either/or": "On the other hand, what was it that delayed the fall of Rome? It was panis [bread] and circenses [games].What is being done in our day? Is consideration being given to any means of amusement?" Kierkegaard wrote from the fictional perspective of A, a young esthete who thought that "the meaning of life is to be amused". A then goes on to explain that the only thing that could stall civilizational collapse was an abundance of pleasure and amusement. This was written in 1843, and now look at the world today.

Freud called this the repetition compulsion: "We feel driven to repeat mistakes from the past in the hopes that this time the situation will work out differently, but it rarely does. To break free, you must identify the pattern"

”Insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results“. - Albert Einstein