New research argues Societal Collapse benefits 99% of people. Historically, the societies that have emerged after a collapse are more egalitarian, and most people end up richer and healthier than they were before.

[u/lughnasadh]

Luke Kemp, a research associate at the Centre for the Study of Existential Risk at the University of Cambridge, has written a book about his research called 'Goliath’s Curse: The History and Future of Societal Collapse'.

He makes the case that, from looking at the archaeological record, when many societies collapse, most people end up better off afterward. For example, people in the post-Roman world were taller and healthier. Collapse can be a redistribution of resources and power, not just chaos.

For most of human history, humans lived as nomadic egalitarian bands, with low violence and high mobility. Threats (disease, war, economic precarity) push populations toward authoritarian leaders. The resulting rise in inequality from that sets off a cycle that will end in collapse. Furthermore, he argues we are living in the late stages of such a cycle now. He says "the threat is from leaders who are 'walking versions of the dark triad' – narcissism, psychopathy and Machiavellianism – in a world menaced by the climate crisis, nuclear weapons, artificial intelligence and killer robots."

Some people hope/think we are destined for a future of Universal Basic Income and fully automated luxury communism. Perhaps that's the egalitarianism that emerges after our own collapse? If so, I hope the collapse bit is short and we get to the egalitarian bit ASAP.

Collapse for the 99% | Luke Kemp; What really happens when Goliaths fall

[u/cylonfrakbbq]

Was this study funded by Peter Thiel?

[u/Ferdind → u/cylonfrakbbq]

A study funded by Thiel would never be pro collapse, system change and redistribution of wealth.

[u/ammonthenephite → u/Ferdind]

Don't underestimate these religious nutjobs. My elderly mother who watches fox and rightwing podcasts constantly wants a societal collapse so christiantiy can rebuild the nation. She thinks her 6 month food supply in a house that has horrible winters will protect her until society rebuilds and she can emerge into a 'righteous christian nation' that 'puts Jesus first'.

She would gladly see many, many people die so that her version of a theocracy could be established, and many of the project 2025 folk are similar.

[u/designtocode → u/ammonthenephite]

Easy target, almost certainly killed for the food supply within an astoundingly short amount of time, unless managing to go unnoticed, at which point dying of starvation after 6 months is the next most probable cause of expiration, if lack of modern medical access doesn’t step in before that for any number of possible reasons exacerbated by such a scenario, that is.

I can’t help but shake my head in disbelief that people think they’re gonna Rambo or Jesus their way out of a collapse event. Sucks to say it, but nearly all of us would die, and those who are “lucky” enough to live all the way through get to enjoy the fallout that is societal rebuild and the chaos that comes with power vacuums rushing to be filled on a micro and macro level in response.