This is all a bit amateurish but it might be useful…. and it might get expanded. These strike me as the most obvious dangers for English speaking ‘civilisation’ in the short term.
We run away from major problems, like Covid, Climate Change and ecological destruction. Running away from problems, or pretending they don’t exist is a fundamental mark of decline
Wealth distribution is massively unequal, in most countries. Inequalities of wealth distribution generally mean poor health, and domination of politics by the wealthy, or plutocracy. This generally means that the middle class start sinking, and social mobility declines. The possibility of fresh ideas which do not benefit the wealthy alone, are minimalised. Again the likelihood of solutions to pressing problems diminishes,
Refusing to help the poorer parts of society is also a mark of decline, as it indicates they are not considered to be part of society, and that the rulers of society have given up hope for society as a whole
Falsehood and fantasy seem to be rampant. In many cases it seems hard for people to see the real problems. This arises because the real rulers are opaque and so form a blank space for fantasy and because they engage in distraction techniques, to keep themselves safe from those who rule. The rulers also are probably not getting real information from their underlings, who depend on flattery for their positions. This reinforces the tendency not to face problems.
Encouraging and normalising political abuse prevents people from talking about almost anything, and promotes internal splits, but it keeps enough people onside with the plutocracy. As real discussion does not occur, again problems do not get faced, they tend to be blamed on others.
Infrastructure is falling apart all over the world. The cost of maintaining a working society goes up, and the wealthy do not pay enough taxes to make repairing it possible. This makes it harder to deal with major problems.
Authoritarian states seem to be slowly replacing democracies. This could be a sign of forthcoming war, or forthcoming breakdown. Authoritarian states can respond in a disciplined manner but rarely care about sacrificing people, and may not respond to a collapse that might cost the rulers anything.
The final issue is being able to distinguish different types of problems. Problems often have social components which mean they are not faced and left alone, or are faced in harmful ways. It is useful to remember these social components.
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In a rare moment of optimism, I forgot to mention the effects of prolonged or total war. Even ‘cyber’warfare’ or terrorism – local or international. There is no reason to assume that people could not war over political, or religious, ideology, over a shortage of resources, over the inability of the planet to regenerate, over the need to move away from unlivable areas, over the failure of food supplies, for revenge, and so on.
War nearly always takes away a focus on other problems, as immediate survival is primary. This allows other problems to get worse.
I don’t think that such wars are improbable – and if they go nuclear, destroy more infrastructure, or destroy more of the ecology, they could be highly damaging to the ability of societies to survive.
Tags: disorder
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