https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=glKe9njOB24John wrote: Sun Mar 07, 2021 9:48 am The material you've posted from Arthur Demarest is very interesting,
but there's another side to it -- the recovery.
Let's take a relatively modern example, the German civilization. The
German nation was formed in the 1860s, and it reached its peak in
the 1930s. But like the Maya civilization it collapsed quickly.
By 1945, the German civilization was in pieces -- literally, since the
German nation had been split into four pieces. In 1945, all of
Germany's large cities and many midsized cities lay in ruins and
ashes. The allied bombs had been directed at civilians as well as
factories. Incendiary bombs had been used to devour people in flames.
Dresden was a particular target. Tens of millions of people were in
chaos, without homes, and barely with any hope of survival. So that
certainly fits Demarest's description of a civilization that had
collapsed.
But look what happened afterwards. Germany went through a Recovery Era,
and within 20 years was an economic powerhouse again. In 1991, East
and West Germany were reunited, and so you could almost say that German
civilization didn't collapse after all.
What Demarest is describing fits very well into the Generational Dynamics
template. A society or nation reaches a peak during the Unraveling
era or the first part of the Crisis era. Then a Regeneracy occurs,
and the society or nation goes into a full-scale crisis war.
A crisis war typically lasts around five years, and the losing side
can be destroyed very quickly, as Demarest says. But then there's
a Recovery Era and an Awakening Era, and before you know it, everything's
back the way it was.
Roman Britain - The Work of Giants Crumbled
If you start watching around 49:00 (though the entire video is worth watching), you can see what true collapse looks like.
- central power collapse, the British people had to "look to their own defenses"
- taxes stopped being collected
- they stopped paying the administrators of the cities and trade routes
- the previous professional military started taxing the civilians directly for protection. These groups grew into the basis of early medieval society
- language was forgotten
- people stopped being able to write
- Britain's Roman cities fell into ruins. Cities abandoned.
- Roman swords were found abandoned, dropped and left there. In this time a sword was what a mobile phone is today it would never be discarded.
- "One day it seems, everyone just got up and left"
- Tribal warlords some of which were officers in the former Roman army, moved in to the ruins and used them as private castles
- trade at London's port stopped completely, suburbs were turned into farmland, people lacked the knowledge and will to rebuild.
- Londons population drifted to the countryside and lived in primitive houses
- Enclave of the ultra wealthy continued to live a Roman existence in a gated community. The decline was unstoppable and the rest of the city descended into chaos. People began to grow wheat in the middle of London. London was eventually deserted completely.