Societal collapse is fairly common in the historical record, but it seems melodramatic to use the phrase in this context because of how hegemonic the US has been for so long. It appears so robust in so many ways and I imagine quite a few people would laugh at me for hysterical pessimism.
But collapse is often a slow, uneven process. Historians traditionally mark the fall of the Roman Empire in 476, when the Ostrogothic king Odoacer deposed the last emperor in Rome. But Rome had faced a near-endless series of crises for centuries, including massive political transformations, loss of territory, and a decline in its ability to manage complex projects like infrastructure.
And an emperor reined in the east until 1453, nearly a thousand years later. Lots of people living through collapse probably don’t consciously think of it as collapse, and many would probably aggressively deny any trends towards decline.
9/
HeavenlyPossum /
npub1hk…ls2a5
2023-09-01 14:20:16
in reply to nevent1q…f452
Author Public Key
npub1hkcr3hrpsu5skqcnavew9s8gtegat76zyd4fd3zlrrc29h66f2sqtls2a5Published at
2023-09-01 14:20:16Event JSON
{
"id": "25f42560f55d8b81dddce7d39ff726dcf18d9364ef9e90a63d606557c3cd25d0",
"pubkey": "bdb038dc6187290b0313eb32e2c0e85e51d5fb42236a96c45f18f0a2df5a4aa0",
"created_at": 1693578016,
"kind": 1,
"tags": [
[
"e",
"fc643ee6cbe26b497a2e7f22e3680c7c2cc290acaf89b5a634ed9c3059f869cf",
"wss://relay.mostr.pub",
"reply"
],
[
"proxy",
"https://kolektiva.social/users/HeavenlyPossum/statuses/110990328905059616",
"activitypub"
]
],
"content": "Societal collapse is fairly common in the historical record, but it seems melodramatic to use the phrase in this context because of how hegemonic the US has been for so long. It appears so robust in so many ways and I imagine quite a few people would laugh at me for hysterical pessimism.\n\nBut collapse is often a slow, uneven process. Historians traditionally mark the fall of the Roman Empire in 476, when the Ostrogothic king Odoacer deposed the last emperor in Rome. But Rome had faced a near-endless series of crises for centuries, including massive political transformations, loss of territory, and a decline in its ability to manage complex projects like infrastructure.\n\nAnd an emperor reined in the east until 1453, nearly a thousand years later. Lots of people living through collapse probably don’t consciously think of it as collapse, and many would probably aggressively deny any trends towards decline.\n\n9/",
"sig": "c900233af3601d3d7eff2d3151192e55e1f384631d4aafdf633c55c4dcc9cedea7db94511a47f1b997ab2d17586ca0de5308307ca827ab31bbcee48c82e605f6"
}