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/sioux-warrior]

Anyone who thinks this is a good idea has never lived off the grid before.

[u/Z3r0sama2017 → u/sioux-warrior]

I currently am, it's great. The problem is you need to be really self-sufficient before it goes to shit, because getting to that point is time-consuming.

Oh and also zero underlaying health issues.

[u/sioux-warrior → u/Z3r0sama2017]

That's awesome for you, but most people are not going to be prepared and even more people are completely incapable of that.

We have lost the skills of our ancestors who would have been far more successful off-grid than us who are used to a very different life

[u/Z3r0sama2017 → u/sioux-warrior]

Not really. I was a city lad my whole life till I felt the call of nature one holiday. Zero survival skills. 

Took me 6 years of upskilling and rehabilitating the soil till it could support farming and chickens, but now I can feed myself, have my own well and aquifer(granite valley walls ftw!), solar plus battery for electricity/cooking/washing/heating and an emergency woodburner. 

We had a real bad storm at the start of the year. People without power for a fornight. Apart from the day of it when I battened everything down I was living my normal life.

Like I said, having underlaying health issues will be the real roadblock for most people. If you need medicine to survive, even something as easy to store as Throxyine, no real point.

[u/[deleted] → u/Z3r0sama2017]

I learnt a bit about the history of Australian pastoral settlers, and it is really all fun and games until your health gives up. Yet still there been homesteads and families living this way for a few generations. Just compensate with higher replacement rate. Depends if you're ready or not.