DEALING WITH THE DECLINE OF CIVILIZATION

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[Nyerges is the author of “Self-Sufficient Home,” “How To Survive Anywhere,” and other books. He does a weekly podcast at Preparedness Radio Network. To learn about his books and classes, he can be contacted at www.ChristopherNyerges.com, or Box 41834, Eagle Rock, CA 90041.]

Back in the mid-1970s, “survival food” and food storage systems were big, and there was the scare of a possible famine in America. Since then, there have been various hyped-up “ends of the world” including Y2K and the end of the Mayan calendar cycle.  Most are fed by the three horsemen of the Apocalypse: fear, greed, and It has been a long time since I have heard advertisements for “survival foods” for those folks who are worried about a world in which we descend into chaos and anarchy.

As I listened to an ad on the radio recently, it reminded me of my state of mind in the late 1960s and 1970s when I first began to study ethnobotany and survival skills in general. 

Back then, I was primarily motivated out of fear, and was concerned about my own personal physical survival.  It has been a long road to today, and though I still encourage folks to store “survival foods,” I am no longer motivated by fear.  Today, I have a completely different mindset about the very meaning of “survival.” 

            I know that to some people the word “survival” connotes images of some burly guy in a camo outfit and a gun who is just out for himself.  That’s survival, by the lowest definition.  But what about your children, your family, your pets?  What about the survival of your community, your environment, your city, your bank, your educational system?   Real survival is vastly more than keeping your own body alive.

Through the 1980s, I gave a series of lectures about the many cultures and civilizations that have entirely vanished.  Gone.  My focus was to look at what causes a culture to slip into decline, and even to vanish.  Then, more importantly, I attempted to see if we today in the U.S. are experiencing any of these same causes that lead to decline and extinction.  Of course, most members of my audiences listened politely, but felt that “this would never happen to us.”  In other words, the predictable response was denial. 

According to Morris Berman in the classic “The Twilight of American Culture,” there are four factors that define a declining civilization.

The first is an accelerating social and economic inequality.  Then there are “declining marginal returns with regard to investment in organizational solutions to socioeconomic problems.”  Another factor is the rapidly dropping levels of literacy, critical understanding, and general intellectual awareness.  As an example, the author shares with his readers some of the responses to questions that Jay Leno received during his “Jay Walking” routine.  Then, there is something called “Spiritual death”  - probably a major factor in the decline of all civilization. 

Interestingly, Berman adds that he doesn’t know if these four factors are causes, or effects. 

WHY CIVILIZATIONS FAIL

According to Jane Jacobs in her “Dark Ages Ahead,” there are definable reasons
why civilizations fall. Among her nine major factors, she lists resource depletion, catastrophes, insufficient response to circumstances, intruders, mismanagement, economic issues, and “cult thinking.”

I believe the last two are particularly relevant to us today, but they’re by no means our only concern.  As Jacobs states,  “Civilizations are expensive to keep going and require increasing amounts of labor and wealth to maintain themselves.  As civilizations grow, the upper classes grow – and so does their need for surplus wealth.  The overall costs of supporting the system with specialists, servants, soldiers, police, and so on grow at an increasing rate. The increasing effort to maintain them produce diminishing returns and leads to their collapse.”

As for cult thinking, that permeates each and every one of us in every facet of our life.  It is not just about religious things.  Cult thinking occurs whenever we blindly believe anyone.  This is why I have always strongly suggested you read Eric Hoffer’s “True Believer.”

THE ROMAN EMPIRE

     Jane Jacobs suggests that we are following the same cultural decline that occurred with the Roman Empire.  She identifies many of the weak spots in our contemporary lifestyle, such as: taxes, family, community, education, science, technology, the lack of self-policing, and moral/ethical insanity.  These weak areas are the foundation of all the other often-cited problems, such as the environment, crime, and the discrepancy between rich and poor.

          Modern families are “rigged to fail” due to rising housing prices, the suburban sprawl (with a reduced sense of community), and the automobile.  Automobile is the chief destroyer of communities, and the idea of community.

WHAT CAN  WE DO?

          The hopeful part of all of this is that dark ages are not inevitable.  For one thing, we all need to get involved, and be a part of the solution.  The millions of details of a complex, living culture are not transmitted via writing or pictorially, but by 1) living examples and 2) by word of mouth.  We need to think!  We need to model solutions (that is, given two options, we should choose what is “higher and better” in our daily life). And we need to teach, to lecture, and to write.

      There is always hope and there are always actions we can take.  If you’re watching TV, choose an educational show, not Family Guy. Constantly learn new skills and crafts, things that have intrinsic value, and that you can do with others. Grow some of  your own food!

     According to Boy Scout leader Francisco Loaiza, “Don’t make entertainment such an important thing in your life. Spend time with others and do things with people.  Get away from the TV and get off the internet.  Get to know other people directly.  We may have more knowledge today but we’ve become a colder society.”  He adds that our emotional intelligence has been lowered a few notches as well, and he cites as an example that when  people sneeze today, they rarely say “excuse me.”
     These are just a few of the many ways in which we can become a part of the solution and not be part of the decline of civilization.  This is why I wrote “Extreme Simplicity: Homesteading in the City,” and “How to Survive Anywhere.”  I include reading lists in those books which I feel are good for your physical, mental, and spiritual health.  

     Let me know if you have questions, or more suggestions.