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Can Civilization Collapse?
The average schoolchild in the Western world learns at some point in his curriculum about the fall of the Roman Empire. The image of a once seemingly invincible world power disintegrating into dust troubles us when we think of our own complex world. Is it possible that civilization as we know it could suddenly collapse?
The intricately enmeshed global society man has built may be far more vulnerable than we think. It’s a world where, as they say, a butterfly flapping its wings on one side of the planet can cause a hurricane on the other side. How fragile is a civilization?
In the last century European archaeologists sifted the sandy soils of the Euphrates flood plain in search of lost cities. The ruins they found were at one time at the heart of civilization. Those cities were filled with art and literature and agricultural abundance. There, in today’s Iraq, the archaeologists discovered the ruins and artifacts of once-proud Assyrian and Babylonian cultures.
The effect on those romantic travelers was perhaps different from what it would be today. After all, they were living in an era of faith in their civilization, of pride in its achievements. The powerhouse nations of Western Europe dominated the world’s trade and industry in the bustling 19th century.
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