This is from the NewScientist, 2018 : https://www.newscientist.com/article/mg23731610-300-end-of-days-is-western-civilisation-on-the-brink-of-collapse/
To many, the term “Western civilisation” itself is an oxymoron; decadent, debauch, hedonist, selfish, greedy, and predatory to the point of eating their own babies. Add to that: political strife, crippling inequality and climate change. (BTW, some scientist believe that the US is already 20 years into a mega-drought enhanced by climate change.)
Will the US and European civilisation come to an end? That will be a worst-case scenario. I will go for decline and decay over a few centuries, much like the Roman Empire.
Will the US implode? Good chance (much to Putin’s glee; revenge for dismembering the Soviet Republic). (No one wants to think it now, but it’s entirely possible.)
Democracy? So far, the western model is not doing so good. It’s in a gridlock.
Which brings us to an interesting book I read a few years ago: The Watchman's Rattle by (sociobiologist) Rebecca Costa (Vanguard Press, 2012)about how civilisations fail. Included in her study are the collapse of the Mayan, Roman, Khmer, Egyptian and other empires. (Read about it here: https://www.rebeccacosta.com/about-the-watchmans-rattle.htm) According to Costa, “the first sign is gridlock”. (One can see that in the US, now.) Then, "the substitution of beliefs for knowledge and fact." (Ditto.) Third, memes that have morphed into super memes. (A sumermeme is any belief, thought, or behaviour that becomes so pervasive, so stubbornly embedded, that it contaminates or suppresses all other beliefs or behaviours.) Again ditto.
In other words, people have no idea what’s going on, and words like climate change, thermo-nuclear war and (now) pandemic simply fly over their heads (while they’re busy receiving and forwarding WhatsApp messages).
(I was a little disappointed at Costa’s ending that the US was in a good position to muddle its way through all this. I thought it was just wishful thinking.) Let’s see.
As the New scientist article says: “The train had left the station, and the forward-thinking folk were not steering it.”
Anyway, this is a realtime drama (better than any Netflix show) of an apocalypse unfolding before us. Don’t miss it!