Societal disease

Let us start with the proposition that all societies throughout history have failed. They'll rise to prominence then they'll start to decline. Some societies of old still remain through thousands of years, but these too have seen better days.

Perhaps the Chinese civilization will rise to greatness again. It sure appears that way. At one time, China was the preeminent civilization of its day. But that time passed, as it has with all other civilizations. China did not go away, however.

The West has seen various iterations of societies that have risen and fallen. The greatest of those in antiquity was the Roman and Byzantine Empires. These went away entirely, but they left vestiges of their greatness behind.

There have been others of course. But to go through them all would be more than I'd prefer to do at this time. It is part of the societal disease syndrome that I posited to begin this post.

You see, there are definite benefits in organizing large numbers of people into a coherent and stable society. The downside of it is that people become TOO dependent upon this, and the society weakens from within. The "easy life" is very seductive. The easy life makes people lazy, careless, and stupid.

Laziness and carelessness can fatal at the local form and also at the top of the society as well.

Yep, it is very seductive to let "George do it". But what about doing it ourselves? No, it is too hard. Too much work. Hence the syndrome, the illness. Or that is part of it.

A more primitive society could not tolerate the silliness we have in ours today. No Bruce Jenner types are going to be possible if life is a constant struggle for survival. You lose that in an advanced society. Life becomes too easy, and when it does, people lose their edge.

A civilization cannot afford it any more than a small tribe. If you don't have children, there's no more tribe. On a larger scale, a civilization cannot last either when people get stupid, silly, and lazy. Hence the societal disease.

Can anything be done about it? Maybe not. Maybe it is like getting old. Societies can get old and feeble. Those that are too feeble will die out, and that will be the end of them. Time will tell that tale about our own society. Right now, it certainly looks a bit more than feeble.