Global civilisation is finished

For starters, literacy, a core aspect of any modern civilisation, is on a steep decline. The overall quality of books and articles is in marked decline ; mostly this is down to the obsession with profits, leading to cutting costs by sacking journalists or publishing only formulaic fiction, but the growing influence of what has been called 'political correctness' has not helped. In the past well written books on serious subjects by academics ensured a certain level of quality input, but these are increasingly rare. In large part thus is due to the moral and intellectual crisis in academic life because universities are now just another kind of business. They have increasingly ditched academic standards in both teaching and research in search of higher profits.

Other popular culture is also in decline. Popular music is in bad shape, almost entirely dull and formulaic. Popular music has been an important element of Western cultural experience, exemplified by the way youth and black music influenced mainstream society in the 1950s and 60s. Movies are similarly dominated by ever louder and ever more mindless action movies based on comics and toys, or flaccid romcoms set in some fantasy world without politics, economics or an environment. Television, now digitally based, has been a little more creative, but ultimately faces the same problems. As with music the main problem seems to be that movies and TV are dominated by corporate bean-counters after big profits. Decisions are made by committee, or increasingly by computer algorithms, whence any sign of originality or creativity are carefully expunged.

These trends both reflect and intensify a breakdown in confidence This general condition of growing popular fear and hopelessness is fertile ground for the rise of all kinds of social ills, such as mental illness, obesity, and addictions of all kinds.

In addition it has enabled the rise of vicious and incompetent leaders, like Trump, Johnson, Bolsonaro and Duterte. These men play on popular fears and generally act to further erode the processes of democracy and rational government. They tend to represent only their minority support base, ignoring any reference to a wider social responsibility, which guarantees ongoing instability. The rise of such populist leaders makes the chances of cooperation on a global level to address climate change, end the new arms race, and do a million other things to improve the chances of humanity, vanishingly small.

In particular, Donald Trump in only three short years has all but wrecked the American political system and any confidence in American leadership. Aided by a now hollow Republican Party and a fractured Democrat Party, confidence within the US and also globally in American leadership has disintegrated. Furthermore, there are no signs of an alternative global arrangement in sight: China, Russia, India and even Europe talk about a new world order, but without the US it can't go far.

The threats of environmental catastrophe, war and runaway digital systems are all ultimately caused by our reliance on increasingly powerful technology to solve age old problems. The Industrial Revolution was supposed to end famine and poverty, and to a degree it did, but it also gave us mass-industrial war and now climate change. The Information Revolution, or digitisation, was supposed to enable us to communicate better to solve our problems, and in a way it has but it has also given us cyber-bullying, online and neo-fascism. We are now utterly dependent on digital systems in almost all aspects of our lives, even though they constantly fail, and usually when we least want them to.

No doubt we will continue to look to new technology to solve our ever greater problems, but in a fundamental way technology is the main problem. We will endeavour to use new digital systems to live more efficiently, and in the process undermine the very bases of a satisfactory human life, such as meaningful work, recreation and even relationships. We will likely eventually try so-called geo-engineering to mitigate climate change, and just as likely make it worse.

And finally, one of the main drivers of post-war globalisation were the financial and industrial corporations from the US that then became transnationals. They pushed for globalisation because they wanted access to resources everywhere and the economies of scale that went with the largest markets. The problems of Boeing, Toyota, Volkswagen and a bunch of others suggests that they may have reached growing problems with complexity, in large part a function of size. Finance, perhaps the most global activity of all, came a cropper in 2007-8 and basically staggers along on the money given to them by governments.

There are some eerie parallels with the aforementioned fall of Rome here. As Rome tottered there were pressures from the borders, erosion of civil life, plague and environmental problems caused by global dimming brought on by a huge volcano explosion. The rich retreated to their huge slave-run farms and left public life, increasingly leaving civil life to foreign-born slaves and war to foreign-born mercenaries. The Roman Empire in decline staggered on for a few centuries before it completely fell apart, and Rome itself, once the biggest city in the world, became almost deserted.

No other great power filled the vacuum, instead the empire broke into many small units which made up the cores of later feudal states. What did also happen was something new, the rise of a completely new kind of society based around the Catholic Church and the belief in one, universal god. The most basic ideas of what life was about totally changed even as material conditions got much harder.

For humanity to survive the current predicament, and hopefully one day thrive again as a species, will require new thinking about how to best live as a human being in society. In particular, it will demand much greater courage on the part of the ordinary person, a new respect for nature, and the discovery, or recovery, of a truly profound set of values that enable us to face hardship, and even oblivion, and still live meaningful lives.