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Sincerely whenever an history book names just one cause for the decline of the Roman empire, I toss it aside. I get it, people want to have a nice clean explan

Sincerely whenever an history book names just one cause for the decline of the Roman empire, I toss it aside. I get it, people want to have a nice clean explanation for the fall of the Roman empire, but mankind and societies don't really work that way, it was a number of big and small issues that made the Roman empire come to an end and every respectable historian during - at least - the last 2 decades as stopped trying to pinpoint just one motive.

RobertoG 11y ago
"but mankind and societies don't really work that way" Nothing works like that, but we are only human and we need heuristics and narratives that help us to deal with a very complex reality. That shouldn't be a problem if we are aware or our limitations. No need to toss books aside because of that. I find the grandparent comment both, very interesting and relevant to the discussion at hand.