It amazes me that, with the decline of society, so few read Gibbon’s Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, Toynbe’s The Study f History -challenge and response, nor Spengler’s Decline of the West. The first two particularly show wisdom and folly worth understanding. The general picture From Gibbon is of sophistication in the long periods of peace within the 900 years of Rome that we have failed to achieve. If you think of the money spent in wars from WW1 till now, we could have had an amazing sustainable use of the earth and good lives for the vast majority of the people.
The good book Chip War shows how military use of existential threats have evolved to dominate the planet and the escalation - drones and new forms of atomic explosions - is unlikely to be stopped till it is used. The undevine comedy
My second thought is, can we discuss the likely fact that we will live and die within the next few years with rising temperatures and all that implies? I still see no plausible narrative on how we can limit temperature rise. Lessening fossil fuel use is not sufficient. Yet I do think we must try - who knows what good lurks in the hearts of the people?
Doug let's also remember Sir John Glubb’s The Fate of Empires, and Joseph Tainter’s The Collapse of Complex Societies....so much evidence and historic pattern recognition....