Reasons Behind the Fall of Rome, Nazi Germany, and The Indus Valley

“America’s ‘Oh Sh*t!’ Moment”, written by Niall Ferguson, a historian who teaches at Harvard University, in 2011, explores why civilizations collapse, and how America can avoid this. He does not focus only on America, but many civilizations in the past that have collapsed. Niall Ferguson is the author of Civilization: The West and The Rest. The article is creatively and cleverly written using the metaphor of modern technology to describe the way in which the societal collapse occurs. This shows that the article was written for adults who are highly educated and understand and relate to technology. The article discusses the possibilities of what complete collapse would look like in American society. I believe the author successfully

Unfortunately, corruption is government is a phenomenon far too prevalent in today’s world. In the movie V for Vendetta, V

As much as we citizens want to deny it, government corruption exists everywhere, whether it be a small group of greedy politicians or the system entirely. Is it shouted at the top of the mountains? Of course not, because it defeats the whole purpose of being corrupt, which is to quietly sweep away one’s imperfections and present themselves as honourable people. An appalling level of corruption and political power is described in the book 1984 written by George Orwell. Ingsoc, a political party, runs a totalitarian society, and with no resistance from their citizens, the government deceives them by changing the past and announcing fake news. Ultimately, they limit the thoughts and emotions of their citizens. Although 1984 tells a fictional

Jared Diamond is a world renowned scientist, author, Pulitzer Prize winner, and currently a geography professor at UCLA. Of his six books published, we will be looking at the last chapter of his fourth book, Collapse: How Societies Choose to Fail or Succeed. In this book Diamond utilizes the comparative method to find resemblance in past societal collapses with our current society. In the chapter entitled, "The World as Polder: What Does it Mean to Us Today," Diamond points out that there are indeed many parallels between past and present societies and that our modern day society is currently on a path of self destruction , through examples such as globalization and the interdependency of each country.

“When you see corruption being rewarded and honesty becoming a self-sacrifice–you may know that your society is doomed”(Rand). This was stated by Russian-American novelist Ayn Rand; the extract relates to the novel William Golding wrote called Lord of the Flies. Golding wrote about a group of schoolboys trapped on an island from a plane crash. The boys had to figure out how to survive without grownups. Trying to survive was difficult because they had to have common sense and order. They lose those traits throughout the book which resulted in selfishness and corrupt behaviors.

A society cannot survive when it is based on hate and power gain. I agree with Winston, that if a society was founded on hatred and complete control “It would commit suicide”. In order for a society to prosper it needs all of the things that are not present in the world of 1984. George Orwell shows his fear though his novel of how society could end up if the government became power thirsty and without a checks and balance system. In order for a Civilization to move forward, people need to have love, passion, and the ability to think for themselves because without the ability to think and feel emotions, the mind cannot produce new ideas if it is not allowed.

Imagine a world where there were no problems, and everyone is happy. Few societies have not even been close to being this perfect. Great societies fail due to weak security systems, poverty, and inequality. The failed societies of Ancient Rome, Africa, and the dystopian novel Divergent by Veronica Roth, are all examples of great societies failing because of these three reasons.

Although humans beings are flawed and make mistakes, in order for a government to ever be civilized, just, and effective, there needs to be a structured system of democracy that maintains a system of checks and balances. Also within the society there needs to be people, whether they are leaders or not, that have moral stability, and the knowledge and understanding to play the role they play in a government. In the Lord of the Flies by William Golding, and “The Lottery” by Shirley Jackson, it is clear that both Golding and Jackson do not agree with their stories’ government; rather Golding and Jackson express, through the failure of their stories’ government, that in order for a government to be civilized, just, and effective, there needs

By 200 BC, Rome was quickly becoming one of the world’s greatest empires with their excellent military conquering territory from modern day Scotland to Spain. After the Punic Wars and the defeat of Carthage, Rome had full control of the Mediterranean region, establishing colonies in North Africa, Egypt, the Middle East, and Asia Minor. Julius Caesar became Rome’s first emperor using his military influence. Under his reign, Rome shifted from a republic to an empire under the rule of an emperor and the military. Rome steadily increased in stability, power, and wealth, reaching Pax Romana (the time of Roman peace) under Emperor Augustus Caesar. Rome was forced to discover, as many other

The successful and what could have been successful societies in both Lord of the Flies and The Crucible eventually decayed and fell apart. There were struggles with good and evil in Salem and on the island that were the result of three main elements. Fear, misuse of power and fanatical religious beliefs were the cause of the two societies failure.

The leadership was corrupted. The society was not able to advance on an intellectual level because no one was

In addition, people are losing focus on the main importance of life and they only focus is technology and what benefits it brings them either bad or good.In ready player one, the author shows corruption through Nolan Sorrento, IOI's Head of

In “The end s of the world as we know them” article Jared Diamond looks at the collapse of several historical societies and the factors that caused their collapse. The factors are:

Tainter main argument is that the collapse of societies stemmed from the failure of problem-solving institutions. That once these issues arose in the empires, the ruling factions were unable to provide solutions or relief that would provide stability and support the citizens. Furthermore, the societies collapsed they couldn’t adapt the

Why Nations Fail takes an in depth look into why some countries flourish and become rich powerful nations while other countries are left in or reduced to poverty. Throughout this book review I will discuss major arguments and theories used by the authors and how they directly impact international development, keeping in mind that nations are only as strong as their political and economical systems.