The Fall of Great Societies

“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

Roth’s, Divergent has elements of a dystopian setting, and it is a possible warning for our society. Though the novel primary reveals to be dystopian, there were originally good intentions of a utopian society. Harmon describes a utopian society as, “a perfect political state that is an imaginary ideal world,” (Harmon 492). No society is created to become the epitome of destruction. The Abnegation government created the factions to act as each working part of a successful society. They must have had a utopian mindset before the society shifted by elements that led to dystopia. Harmon also examines a dystopian society as a, “bad place.” He continues by describing, “Imaginary worlds, usually in the future, in which present tendencies are carried out

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.

The American Society could currently be in what is considered a Golden Age with all of the advancements that are being made daily. America is the number one leader in advancements in the modern day. America has been making useful advancements since around the 40s, but in the past decade, americans have been creating so many different things that help out our society, many other countries have been struggling to keep up. America has made many educational, artistic, economic, political, medical, social, humanitarian, and technological advancements in the past decade.

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.

Great societies fail all around the world at anytime, is America in danger? How can we prevent our society from falling like others? Many past societies have fallen for various reasons, some reasons occur more than others and the three mains reasons that string through many of the societies are: political corruption, differing opinions in religion and excessive military spending. This information not only shows us information that caused powerful societies to fall but also shows what people right now can do to prevent the fail of societies today. The three main causes of the fall of great societies are political corruption, excessive military spending and differing opinions about religion.

Perfect societies, some last for a while and some don't, but all great things come to an end, and these did. Could you imagine something so put together fall in an instant? Well here you will learn about this."Perfect" societies fall for many reasons; corrupt leaders, Scarce Resources, and illnesses. Here, There are two Great societies, The City of Ember and Nazi germany, They both fell or will fall. And this is in the result of those three things.

The book, Collapse, by Jared Diamond, is composed of many different societies and places that were know to be great and to this day remembered in our history, but soon subsided with nothing left but a few walls. The chapters each expel absorbent information about a specific, now collapsed, society or place. Diamond successfully starts each chapter by introducing the subject, then continuing by providing detailed background information on how it has collapsed. He also is very personal within the essay by adding his own experiences and thoughts of the subject. Jared Diamond writes of how the collapse of societies is executed, it is said to be when the people demolish the environment, economy, and the population.

Collapse: How Societies Choose to Fail or Succeed shows Jared Diamond's five-point framework. Jared Diamond came up with five key elements that determine whether a civilization collapses or succeeds. Many factors help decide whether a society succeeds or not but Diamond narrowed it to five. The Mayans are the best example of Diamond’s framework because it clearly shows how environmental problems, failure to adapt to those environmental problems, climate change, essential trading partners, and neighbors caused this civilization to collapse. The first of Jared Diamond's five-point framework is climate change, this contributed to the Mayans collapsing.

Ever wondered what it would be like to live in a “perfect” society? Truth is, there are no “perfect” societies due to the many reasons that lead them to fall. So why do societies fall? Many great societies have fallen due to corrupt leaders, scarcity in necessary resources, and sickness. Germany, China, Sierra Leone, and the fictional society of Ember, are all examples of how once great societies fall. All of these societies fell due to corrupt leaders, resource scarcity, and sickness.

What happened to all of the great empires that we heard of? Why don't they exist any more? Three reasons why empires may have fallen are natural disasters, weak military, and internal rebellion. Many empires have fallen from these causes but here are three major empires that fell from them:

History did make the dominance of weird societies inevitable because of how the events leading up to this point have favored and strengthened these weird societies. Modern societies rely on their political and economic power, as anyone can see from industrialization and imperialism. However social power has a great impact on it as well. With a strong economy, political power and social enthusiasm, it is hard to find any flaws. It almost seems as though history has rigged the game in favor of WEIRD societies. Well that may be true, but like Martin Luther King Jr. said, “We are not makers of history, we are made my history”.

“No society can surely be flourishing and happy, of which the far greater part of the members are poor and miserable.” This quote explains how when the citizens of a society aren't happy because of unfair laws, corrupt leadership, poor interactions etc. can cause the societies to not meet their expectations to succeed. I am writing this essay to inform readers why societies fall. There are many reasons why they fall, but there are three specific reasons, I am writing about. These reasons have to do with their political decisions, and social interactions with other countries and themselves. Societies fall because of unfair laws, Poor interactions, with citizens and corrupt leaders.

In this book, the prime matter in discussion is why some nations fail and some succeed. Great writers and many economic theorists have argued that location of the nations on the globe, policies, economic systems and culture were the main reasons of success and failure of nations. But Acemoglu and Robinson believe and document those institutions, particularly the political institutions that determine the functionality of these institutions. The entire book bridges that gap between the best of economies, history and political theory to construct a simple but comprehensive model, single sided efficient explanation for success and failure of nations.

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.