I‘ve always liked this definition of collapse: “a long economic malaise punctuated by a set of destabilizing conflicts . . . with economic upheaval mixing into warfare.” The destabilizing conflicts which are obviously here so far have come primarily from the interconnected realities of economic hardship and cultural and political alienation. The environmental collapse has been around as long but its effects have been harder to perceive, at least in the “developed” world.
To your point, this state of society has been around for a while even if it was not generally noticed or explicitly comprehended. The mass shootings of our era go back to 1999. The earlier of the two most recent cataclysmic financial breakdowns occurred in 2008. Donald Trump’s first election, after the rearguard Bernie Sanders campaign, was another watershed of social degeneration, in 2016.
I’ve believed since at least 2000 that people who issued rhetorical scare warnings about totalitarianism, a precursor to and an embodiment of collapse, in the U.S. had ignored the totalitarianism that had already been established, especially after 9/11, when the Constitution became the feckless husk everyone sees it is today. 9/11 itself, the first of the cataclysmic collapses on our 21st century event horizon, has never been adequately explained - another collapse, of media and democracy, along with the unrestrained continuous warfare unleashed afterwards that the world’s population has been subjected to mainly by the West since 2001.
I wrote in May 2015, because I saw and felt it then (I wasn’t alone), that any “general decency and amiability of yore has been supplanted by frothing discord, silent rage, and explosive volatility.”
In May 2018, Chris Hedges published “America: The Farewell Tour in which he “examined the social indicators of a nation in serious trouble.“ Several years later, he said, “life expectancy in the U.S. fell in 2021, for the second year in a row. There have been over 300 mass shootings this year. Close to a million people have died from drug overdoses since 1999. There are an average of 132 suicides every day. Nearly 42 percent of the country is classified as obese, with one in 11 adults considered severely obese.
These diseases of despair are rooted in the disconnect between a society’s expectations of a better future and the reality of a system that does not provide a meaningful place for its citizens. Loss of a sustainable income and social stagnation causes more than financial distress.”
All this is to say: I agree. Evidence of collapse has been there for anyone with eyes to see, but perhaps (I don’t mean this to sound elitist) there is only a minority of Cassandras or sensitive types who have the gift first for seeing, then for facing, “unpleasant facts”, as Orwell put it, unimpeded by denial - until it is too late.
This resonates deeply with me. “I’ve believed since at least 2000 that people who issued rhetorical scare warnings about totalitarianism, a precursor to and an embodiment of collapse, in the U.S. had ignored the totalitarianism that had already been established, especially after 9/11, when the Constitution became the feckless husk everyone sees it is today. 9/11 itself, the first of the cataclysmic collapses on our 21st century event horizon, has never been adequately explained - another collapse, of media and democracy, along with the unrestrained continuous warfare unleashed afterwards that the world’s population has been subjected to mainly by the West since 2001.” We were all expected to patriotically accept being treated like suspects for our own safety… allowing all manner of loss of individual rights….and we did. And so few talked about it. The acceptance of unwarranted policing and military intervention goes much further back and set up the conditions for quite easily separating each of us from our own humanity and rights.
Great piece. Reminds of Gil Scott-Heron’s “the revolution will not be televised.” Even after hearing it for decades, only eventually did I take it to mean that the revolution takes place in the mind before one will see it reflected in the world around them. IMO collapse hinges on a similar admission, with the same vulnerability of surrender. Given its gradual pace, despite isolated moments of grandeur, it’s only after we admit to ourselves that it’s happening that we begin to notice the macro trend.
I‘ve always liked this definition of collapse: “a long economic malaise punctuated by a set of destabilizing conflicts . . . with economic upheaval mixing into warfare.” The destabilizing conflicts which are obviously here so far have come primarily from the interconnected realities of economic hardship and cultural and political alienation. The environmental collapse has been around as long but its effects have been harder to perceive, at least in the “developed” world.
To your point, this state of society has been around for a while even if it was not generally noticed or explicitly comprehended. The mass shootings of our era go back to 1999. The earlier of the two most recent cataclysmic financial breakdowns occurred in 2008. Donald Trump’s first election, after the rearguard Bernie Sanders campaign, was another watershed of social degeneration, in 2016.
I’ve believed since at least 2000 that people who issued rhetorical scare warnings about totalitarianism, a precursor to and an embodiment of collapse, in the U.S. had ignored the totalitarianism that had already been established, especially after 9/11, when the Constitution became the feckless husk everyone sees it is today. 9/11 itself, the first of the cataclysmic collapses on our 21st century event horizon, has never been adequately explained - another collapse, of media and democracy, along with the unrestrained continuous warfare unleashed afterwards that the world’s population has been subjected to mainly by the West since 2001.
I wrote in May 2015, because I saw and felt it then (I wasn’t alone), that any “general decency and amiability of yore has been supplanted by frothing discord, silent rage, and explosive volatility.”
In May 2018, Chris Hedges published “America: The Farewell Tour in which he “examined the social indicators of a nation in serious trouble.“ Several years later, he said, “life expectancy in the U.S. fell in 2021, for the second year in a row. There have been over 300 mass shootings this year. Close to a million people have died from drug overdoses since 1999. There are an average of 132 suicides every day. Nearly 42 percent of the country is classified as obese, with one in 11 adults considered severely obese.
These diseases of despair are rooted in the disconnect between a society’s expectations of a better future and the reality of a system that does not provide a meaningful place for its citizens. Loss of a sustainable income and social stagnation causes more than financial distress.”
All this is to say: I agree. Evidence of collapse has been there for anyone with eyes to see, but perhaps (I don’t mean this to sound elitist) there is only a minority of Cassandras or sensitive types who have the gift first for seeing, then for facing, “unpleasant facts”, as Orwell put it, unimpeded by denial - until it is too late.
This resonates deeply with me. “I’ve believed since at least 2000 that people who issued rhetorical scare warnings about totalitarianism, a precursor to and an embodiment of collapse, in the U.S. had ignored the totalitarianism that had already been established, especially after 9/11, when the Constitution became the feckless husk everyone sees it is today. 9/11 itself, the first of the cataclysmic collapses on our 21st century event horizon, has never been adequately explained - another collapse, of media and democracy, along with the unrestrained continuous warfare unleashed afterwards that the world’s population has been subjected to mainly by the West since 2001.” We were all expected to patriotically accept being treated like suspects for our own safety… allowing all manner of loss of individual rights….and we did. And so few talked about it. The acceptance of unwarranted policing and military intervention goes much further back and set up the conditions for quite easily separating each of us from our own humanity and rights.
Great piece. Reminds of Gil Scott-Heron’s “the revolution will not be televised.” Even after hearing it for decades, only eventually did I take it to mean that the revolution takes place in the mind before one will see it reflected in the world around them. IMO collapse hinges on a similar admission, with the same vulnerability of surrender. Given its gradual pace, despite isolated moments of grandeur, it’s only after we admit to ourselves that it’s happening that we begin to notice the macro trend.
I feel like crying after reading this. Nice essay. Sad but true.
This is a well-written piece and a great reminder that disaster doesn't always look like the movies
Regarding the financial collapse: https://open.substack.com/pub/kingcambo812/p/sunday-screed-the-mother-of-all-crashes?r=bfraz&utm_medium=ios
A few things in this are not accurate I believe
Be specific. What things?
1: “They say at least 400,000 innocent civilians are missing.”
I did a fact check on this and found multiple articles debunking.
-Washington Post — Left-Center
https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2025/06/26/fact-check-harvard-study-gaza-missing-palestinians/15fcc18e-52c7-11f0-baaa-ba1025f321a8_story.html
-France 24 — Center?
https://www.france24.com/en/middle-east/20250625-harvard-report-gaza-missing-misinterpreted-number-israel
-Citizens Tribune — Center-Right?
https://www.citizentribune.com/news/national/fact-focus-posts-misrepresent-report-to-falsely-claim-nearly-400-000-palestinians-are-missing/article_862148f1-cef6-5842-aa6e-161138addf4d.html
-Times Union — Left-Center
https://www.timesunion.com/news/politics/article/fact-focus-posts-misrepresent-report-to-falsely-20395981.php
-L’Orient Today — Center?
https://today.lorientlejour.com/article/1466737/tracing-the-origins-of-the-400000-disappeared-figure-in-gaza-attributed-to-a-harvard-study.html
https://open.substack.com/pub/energysecurityfreedom/p/how-to-combat-the-lefts-climate-claptrap?r=ymxjf&utm_medium=ios