Table of Contents
Page
Table of Contents
List of Figures and Tables
Dedication
Acknowledgements
Introduction
PART I: Understanding History
Chapter One: Basic Concepts for Civilizational Analysis
Civilization Emerges
Trade and Comparative Advantage
A Civilizational Metric
Crisis Defined
Properties of Systems
Human Civilizations Have Trajectories
Postscript
Poem: Rise and Fall of Civilizations
PART II: Evaluating History
Chapter Two: The Earliest Civilizations: The Fourth Millennium B.C.E.
Chapter Three: The Flowering of Civilization: The Third and Second Millenniums B.C.E.
Chapter Four: The Classical Age: The First Millenniums B.C.E. & C.E.
Chapter Five: Civilization Continues: The Second Millennium C.E.
Chapter Six: Patterns of History
PART III: Learning From History
Chapter Seven: Modern Civilization
Chapter Eight: Indicators of Collapse
PART IV: Creating a Future
Chapter Nine: Knowledge is Power
Chapter Ten: What Must be Done
Index
Bibliography
List of Figures
and Tables.
Chapter 1: Basic Concepts for Civilizational Analysis.
Figure 1 Interrelationships of Production Cycle Variables.
Figure 2 Sample Trajectory of Human Civilization in a
Learning Space Matrix.
[Deletions]
Introduction.
First Words.
Our global civilization appears at this moment to be at the very summit of its power. No part of the planet lies outside of its scope and reach. The end of the Cold War appeared, initially, to usher in an era of peace, prosperity, and plenty, for ever larger percentages of the world’s population. And yet, it is increasingly obvious to increasingly larger numbers of people that something is terribly wrong.
Three factors are combining into a perfect storm to bring our seemingly invincible global civilization crashing down into ruins in the near future: Global warming and its associated climate change, rapid depletion of the hydrocarbon energy sources—oil and natural gas in particular—which our global civilization depends upon, and the takeover of government in America and across the world by multi-national corporations which are entirely focused upon maximizing short-term profits to the detriment of all else.
At this late date disaster cannot be averted—our trajectory through history is set for the near-term. This means that the collapse of modern civilization looms just ahead. This assertion may well sound hyperbolic however, in my previous book Infinity’s Rainbow, I have carefully documented why it is indeed factual.
This book is the second in a three volume series which seeks to understand the causes and consequences of our impending crises of global civilization. It builds upon my previous book Infinity’s Rainbow: The Politics of Energy, Climate and Globalization.
It will develop a uniform metric for evaluating past and present civilizations. This metric will be employed to successively evaluate the reasons why civilizations collapse. It will allow for direct comparison of the failure modes of one civilization with those of another. Ultimately, it will allow for a direct comparison and contrast of these past civilizational breakdowns, with the impending crises of our contemporary global civilization. This comparison will provide deep insights into both what is going wrong with our civilization in the here and now, along with understanding of what we must do, in the here and now, if civilization is to endure in the long ages yet to come.
In developing my metric for civilizational collapse I have been immensely helped by the research of both Joseph Tainter[1] and John Michael Greer[2]. I am indebted to both researchers for their pioneering work in this field. I also have found Ronald Wright’s[3] insights to be useful as well.
While this present volume can certainly be read as a stand alone work, I strongly encourage the reader who wishes to gain the most understanding from it to read, or at least be familiar with, the ideas found in the first volume, Infinity’s Rainbow. The first chapter of this present book will recapitulate key concepts from the first book, as well as explaining new concepts specific to this present work.
Following this, Foundations of Infinity’s Rainbow will analyze and evaluate why multiple past civilizations failed, with a view to understanding what the deep flaws of our own civilization are. It will then offer recommendations as to what we must do in the here and now if not only civilization itself, but more specifically a humane and democratic civilization is to emerge from the coming chaos.
I have also written this work with the intent of defending the very idea of civilization from its detractors on the one hand, while also defending the core ideals of the Enlightenment, from their numerous detractors, on the other. Time is short and there is much for us to learn and, based upon that learning, to make happen if there is to be an open-ended, humane, environmentally sustainable, knowledge-based, and democratic future, for the long ages which ages lie ahead. This is our one and only shot at bringing it about. If our technological civilization falls completely, it can never again be restarted. This is it. This is the supreme moment in which the future of civilization, of humanity, and of life on Earth, will be irrevocably determined for all of the ages yet to come. I write this book to help ensure that we rise to this challenge.
[Author’s Note: This will be amended to acknowledge the contributions of Will Catton’s insights (Overshoot: The Ecological Basis of Revolutionary Change) to my efforts.]
