Rome as a Republic lasted many centuries, longer than the US has existed, but for a variety of reasons it fractured and fell. Some of the great Mesoamerican civilizations suddenly abandoned their cities, possibly due to drought and/or political collapse. Weather, infighting, one thing or another, all of the great empires have eventually fallen except ours.
Mainstream people's priorities, what they argue over, what is important to them, what they fear and why, none of these things include that it could seriously all just collapse...but it has happened to every empire in history before us.
Our leaders don't listen to our scientists. They listen to money.
Our soldiers aren't sent to rescue concentration camp prisoners. They are sent to fight for other people's money.
The vast majority of our workforce are not engaged in work of passion and creativity and purpose and love. Most people just work for money.
We let the poor die when they get sick, the mentally ill wander the streets, we imprison addicts, we brutalize prisoners at higher rates than North Korea, we dishearten and frighten our children with a deeply dysfunctional "education" system, and we have a very expensive justice system with victory all but assured for whoever has the most money.
Our politicians don't vote for truth or conviction, they vote for money.
And if it all collapses, who is most likely to survive? The cities will in the initial days be horrific burning charnel houses as people realize the most dangerous thing in The Walking Dead was never the zombies. Scared humans in large numbers, armed to a level of firepower unprecedented in the history of the planet, will madly fight one another in panic.
The most brutal and capably violent will soon emerge, and the fate of those around them will be determined by how reasonable and kind the most brutal and capably violent people are. The primitive ideologies, such as racial separatism and/or religious fundamentalism, will be powerfully effective and form larger and more cohesive groups. Many not so inclined to those things (which are powerfully destructive but ruled for centuries during the European dark ages) will have to flee.
There will be places, far from the major scavenging centers, where some will have the experience, knowledge, and willingness to go. They may not know why they felt compelled to do it, but Gaia has been executing the program of evolution for billions of years.
Anti-bacterial soaps are increasingly useless, scientists have warned, because what remains (and have propagated) are the resistant strains. So we fought bacteria for a while, and now it can't be hurt by that anymore, because a tiny few survived. It's like the Borg if any of you older people remember ST: TNG.
But we are nature, too. Gaia gives all her children great adaptability. Some of you, maybe on this board, are what nature has created to assure that when it goes down hard, there are some who may ready for what they need to do and more importantly, where they need to go.
Because you've always been doing it.
Does any of that make sense?
Mainstream people's priorities, what they argue over, what is important to them, what they fear and why, none of these things include that it could seriously all just collapse...but it has happened to every empire in history before us.
Our leaders don't listen to our scientists. They listen to money.
Our soldiers aren't sent to rescue concentration camp prisoners. They are sent to fight for other people's money.
The vast majority of our workforce are not engaged in work of passion and creativity and purpose and love. Most people just work for money.
We let the poor die when they get sick, the mentally ill wander the streets, we imprison addicts, we brutalize prisoners at higher rates than North Korea, we dishearten and frighten our children with a deeply dysfunctional "education" system, and we have a very expensive justice system with victory all but assured for whoever has the most money.
Our politicians don't vote for truth or conviction, they vote for money.
And if it all collapses, who is most likely to survive? The cities will in the initial days be horrific burning charnel houses as people realize the most dangerous thing in The Walking Dead was never the zombies. Scared humans in large numbers, armed to a level of firepower unprecedented in the history of the planet, will madly fight one another in panic.
The most brutal and capably violent will soon emerge, and the fate of those around them will be determined by how reasonable and kind the most brutal and capably violent people are. The primitive ideologies, such as racial separatism and/or religious fundamentalism, will be powerfully effective and form larger and more cohesive groups. Many not so inclined to those things (which are powerfully destructive but ruled for centuries during the European dark ages) will have to flee.
There will be places, far from the major scavenging centers, where some will have the experience, knowledge, and willingness to go. They may not know why they felt compelled to do it, but Gaia has been executing the program of evolution for billions of years.
Anti-bacterial soaps are increasingly useless, scientists have warned, because what remains (and have propagated) are the resistant strains. So we fought bacteria for a while, and now it can't be hurt by that anymore, because a tiny few survived. It's like the Borg if any of you older people remember ST: TNG.
But we are nature, too. Gaia gives all her children great adaptability. Some of you, maybe on this board, are what nature has created to assure that when it goes down hard, there are some who may ready for what they need to do and more importantly, where they need to go.
Because you've always been doing it.
Does any of that make sense?
