The Fate of Civilizations
Is “doom and gloom” justified? What history tells us.
Part 1 of 3 (Parts 2 and 3 coming soon; stay tuned).
“Frannie,” he said, and turned her around so he could look into her eyes.
“What, Stuart?”
“Do you think… do you think people ever learn anything?”
She opened her mouth to speak, hesitated, fell silent. The kerosene lamp flickered.
Her eyes seemed very blue.
“I don’t know,” she said at last. She seemed unpleased with her answer; she struggled to say something more; to illuminate her first response; and could only say it again:
I don’t know.
— Stephen King, The Stand (uncut version, 1990)
Introduction.
We know the old saw: the one thing we learn from history is that no one ever learns from history. If true, this would be unfortunate, because history offers gold mines of learning opportunities for those willing to study it.
Doom and gloom is in the air. There’s plenty of it on Medium. I don’t know if the authors realize: we’ve been here before, in one way or another. There are major differences this go round, but notable similarities. Civilizations rise and have a “high noon”…
