Immoderate greatness
Subtitle: why civilizations fail
By: William Ophuls
Publisher: CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform
Published: 2012
Place of publication: North Charleston, South Carolina
Language: eng
Number of pages: 106
ISBN-13: 9781479243143
Subjects: Regression (Civilization); Civilization; History
Description: "Immoderate Greatness* explains how a civilization's very magnitude conspires against it to cause downfall. Civilizations are hard-wired for self-destruction. They travel an arc from initial success to terminal decay and ultimate collapse due to intrinsic, inescapable biophysical limits combined with an inexorable trend toward moral decay and practical failure. Because our own civilization is global, its collapse will also be global, as well as uniquely devastating owing to the immensity of its population, complexity, and consumption. To avoid the common fate of all past civilizations will require a radical change in our ethos-to wit, the deliberate renunciation of greatness-lest we precipitate a dark age in which the arts and adornments of civilization are partially or completely lost"-- Publisher.
Notes: Includes bibliographical references (pages 77-103) and index.
Table of contents: title: Introduction : immoderate greatness; title: Biophysical limits (Ecological exhaustion ; Exponential growth ; Expedited entropy ; Excessive complexity); title: Human error (Moral decay ; Practical failure); title: Conclusion : trampled down, barren, and bare.