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The topic is the end of a civilization, not the world. Plenty of civilizations have collapsed in the last 20 centuries, but it depends on how you define a colla
by muzani 5y ago
The topic is the end of a civilization, not the world. Plenty of civilizations have collapsed in the last 20 centuries, but it depends on how you define a collapse.
The fall of the Roman and Aztec empires would be the benchmarks. Would we also consider the more recent Nazi Germany or Ottoman Empire falls as collapses?
- Swizec 5y agoThe Habsburg Empire also fell in 1918. British Empire collapsed over the 20th century, and what happened to the Holy Roman Empire? Oh and don’t forget the French Empire fell in the 1700’s. But does that count or did thet just evolve into a new form?
- smnplk 5y agoThat's just the collapse of social structures, not civilizations.
- muzani 5y agoTo quote from Wikipedia, > Civilizations are organized densely-populated settlements divided into hierarchical social classes with a ruling elite and subordinate urban and rural populations, which engage in intensive agriculture, mining, small-scale manufacture and trade. Arguably a social structure is a prerequisite for a civilization. For example, you can have a village of 50 intact and trading with another village and that's not a proper civilization. There has to be the idea of a state, governance, someone entrusted to pay taxes to and perhaps some form of currency.
- mellavora 5y agoOr the collapse of Russia in the 1990s? Anyone remember that? There is a really interesting talk on this: https://longnow.org/seminars/02009/feb/13/social-collapse-best-practices/ https://longnow.org/seminars/02009/feb/13/social-collapse-be...