{"id":31705,"date":"2018-02-28T08:09:53","date_gmt":"2018-02-28T13:09:53","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/olduvai.ca\/?p=31705"},"modified":"2018-02-28T08:09:53","modified_gmt":"2018-02-28T13:09:53","slug":"how-societies-collapse-or-the-eerie-parallels-between-rome-nazi-germany-and-america","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/?p=31705","title":{"rendered":"How Societies Collapse:\u00a0Or, The Eerie Parallels Between Rome, Nazi Germany, and\u00a0America\u00a0"},"content":{"rendered":"
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How Societies Collapse:\u00a0Or, The Eerie Parallels Between Rome, Nazi Germany, and\u00a0America\u00a0<\/span><\/a><\/h3>\n<\/div>\n
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A little reflection occurs to me every time I write about American collapse.<\/p>\n

Societies collapse in much the same way\u200a\u2014\u200athere is something like a universal way of collapse. Yet the whole problem begins with the fact that human beings, having needy egos, find their own downfall difficult to accept<\/span>.<\/p>\n

Perhaps you yourself will object\u200a\u2014\u200ayou are a mighty citizen of a proud society. Ah. Do you think the Incas, Mayas, Romans, or Nazis ever thought they obeyed the laws of history? Of course not. Becoming a powerful society makes us vulnerable to collapse because it leaves us puffed up with hubris. \u201cWe shall never fall!\u201d, we cry, \u201cour thousand-year reign has barely begun!\u201d<\/p>\n

To think one is above history is precisely where collapse begins\u200a\u2014\u200apeople who don\u2019t understand how societies fall can\u2019t do a whole lot to stop it. We begin the story of how a society falls thus: there is an almost hysterical atmosphere of denial that it ever could.<\/p>\n

Step one.<\/em> The economy stagnates. Life becomes harder and meaner. An atmosphere of cruelty permeates. But elites must deny stagnation\u2014 otherwise, they have admitted that they have failed: in this way, a social contract never gets repaired.<\/p>\n

Step two. <\/em>Neighbour turns on neighbour for a constant share of a dwindling pie. They must compete more and more viciously to maintain the living standards of their parents and grandparents. Social bonds blow apart. Norms begin to disintegrate.<\/p>\n

Step three.<\/em> Growing ever more anxious and desperate, seeking a truce in what has become an unwinnable battle for survival, people turn to strongmen, glorified thugs, revelling in indecency, thus flaunting their power over broken norms and failed social contract.<\/p>\n

…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/section>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

How Societies Collapse:\u00a0Or, The Eerie Parallels Between Rome, Nazi Germany, and\u00a0America\u00a0 A little reflection occurs to me every time I write about American collapse. Societies collapse in much the same way\u200a\u2014\u200athere is something like a universal way of collapse. Yet the whole problem begins with the fact that human beings, having needy egos, find their […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[150,14273,5108,1024,14221,16981,827],"class_list":["post-31705","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-survival-2","tag-collapse","tag-medium","tag-nazi-germany","tag-rome","tag-societal-collapse","tag-umair-haque","tag-united-states"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31705","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=31705"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31705\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":31706,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31705\/revisions\/31706"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=31705"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=31705"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=31705"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}