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 Posted: Sat Sep 04, 2010 10:09 pm
I read an interesting book about societal collapse for my Sustainable Societies course (taught by my favorite professor).
Jarred Diamond's: Collapse ; ...explained the geographic and environmental reasons why some human populations have flourished, Collapse uses the same factors to examine why ancient societies, including the Anasazi of the American Southwest and the Viking colonies of Greenland, as well as modern ones such as Rwanda, have fallen apart. Not every collapse has an environmental origin, but an eco-meltdown is often the main catalyst, he argues, particularly when combined with society's response to (or disregard for) the coming disaster. Still, right from the outset of Collapse, the author makes clear that this is not a mere environmentalist's diatribe. He begins by setting the book's main question in the small communities of present-day Montana as they face a decline in living standards and a depletion of natural resources. Once-vital mines now leak toxins into the soil, while prion diseases infect some deer and elk and older hydroelectric dams have become decrepit. On all these issues, and particularly with the hot-button topic of logging and wildfires, Diamond writes with equanimity.
I apologize if you thought I was making a compelling argument, but I'd like to welcome any theories!
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Posted: Sun Sep 05, 2010 4:24 am
*legasp* Sounds like a fascinating book!
But I also feel that governments tend to fall apart once the people really have enough of them being corrupt.
Then the people may lack the knowledge of how to build a new one and either create a very crappy one or wind up in a state of anarchy.
In a couple places, anarchy has worked and works great! However, I doubt it could work for a larger nation(i.e. the USA) unless small communities banded together and worked together for once and stopped being "its all about mememememe not US as a people!"
I'll have to check out that book sometime soon! biggrin
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Posted: Sun Sep 05, 2010 6:53 am
try reading on the fall of rome
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Posted: Sun Sep 05, 2010 8:47 am
Hoshioni try reading on the fall of rome If it was covered in the text it must have been one of the societies that we skipped over. The most interesting collapse to me must have been Easter Island and other small islands that were destroyed by the spirit of human competition. The book isn't only about how these societies fail, but it has modern examples and morals about societies that are succeeding or flopping.
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Posted: Sun Sep 05, 2010 4:07 pm
I read part of that book. I found the authors long sentences a bit tiring and then I had to give it back to the library. Will certainly pick it up again when I get an eReader. :3 Sounds like you got through the entire book? Rapa Nui (movie) is a interesting watch regarding Easter Island.
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Posted: Mon Sep 06, 2010 7:23 am
pirhan I read part of that book. I found the authors long sentences a bit tiring and then I had to give it back to the library. Will certainly pick it up again when I get an eReader. :3 Sounds like you got through the entire book? Rapa Nui (movie) is a interesting watch regarding Easter Island. I took a course called Sustainable Societies last semester and Collapse was the text book for it. Or more rather our main reading material. The course was more about understanding what is wrong, what has gone wrong, and what we can or cannot do.
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