What do you think the end of Western civilisation will look like?

[curiousabouttheaesthetics]

Am hopeful it won't be for a good while yet

But with the whole world being so uncertain at the moment, with climate change and resource wars and mass migration on the horizon, I guess who knows what the coming decades could be like?

Hopefully though human ingenuity can find ways of muddling along as long as possible. If we can't, and if in 100 years high wet bulb temperatures and flooding and antimicrobial resistance has pretty much whittled down half or more of the world's population - do you think then the remaining people would set aside geopolitical differences? To get their smartest people working together to solve environmental problems? And with the rich everywhere pitching in resources?

Or do you think rich countries will just continue to try to hog resources until the bitter end of humanity?

We’ll become utterly terrified of absolutely everything and everyone and completely forget how to cooperate with one another and spend all day watching stuff that terrifies us online and reading about things that terrifies us online and congratulating ourselves on our brilliant decision not to go outside that day or any other day until we drown under our own rubbish.

As for answering the OP, it looks like now, I believe this is the beginning, but it will play out for at least three or four decades so most of us won’t be here to see what it looks like. A commentator I respect on X disagrees though and says history shows that we will take a sharp turn back to sanity within a decade or two. I really hope so.

Oi @cardibach be sy'n bod gyda Castell Nedd????

Actually, I see what you mean though.

@vernatheraven I lived there for many years.

I recommend reading Emergency skin for an optimistic view of the future of humanity.

i highly recommend the Oryx and Crake series by Margaret Atwood

it is dystopian science fiction, but the class politics at the core are unsettling.

It ends as a result of climate breakdown. This will manifest as migration and food/resource shortage leading to societal breakdown.

The culture thing is interesting, have those mentioning it considered the roots, and the role of the global western order. Resource hogging, relentless exploitation and right now a refusal to deal with the climate and ecological emergency.

The wealthiest nations and corporations driving this crisis have been in the driving seat, they control the COP agenda, and for decades nothing! The role of carbon warming climate, discovered early 1900s. The "clean air" act only cleaned up what we could see, leaving out carbon despite our developing understanding. This is all a matter of public record. Now governments are complaining net zero by 2050 is unaffordable. This isn't Brexit, you can't negotiate any delay. The alternative isn't protecting what we have now, its a disaster beyond our comprehension

Just look around you.

Lots of crazy religions and going back to animal sacrifices and dancing around fires.

I think you are asking two different things. The end of Western civilisation is different to the end of civilisation due to climate catastrophe. I think the end of Western civilisation will just mean that something else takes over. I was having a very interesting conversation on another thread about BRICS and how some people think that they will form the New World Order. I suspect most of those countries are also primarily concerned with economic improvements and taking their people out of poverty more than climate change as a priority, so climate change will get worse. It remains to be seen whether this will happen, and, if it does, how they will hold it together when they have little in common apart from not liking Western dominance. I suspect whether they succeed or not, it won't be pretty for "Western civilisation' as the West demographically is in decline.

Trump, Boris, Braverman, Farage and their backers and supporters are working towards it.You may even see it although it may take a couple of generations. This is the end of Rome mark 2.

I agree. As an Asian person British born, it is worrying. Once you start giving peoples rights away the people who suffer first are the minority groups. We have British born Jews afraid to go out in heir own city. Who would be next? Not the White middle class Lefties but the Black and Brown people, women and gay people.

Wet. Riding sea levels are forecast to cove much of the UK and other countries by 2050.

I think there will be some kind of quasi-feudal system in which AI replaces the vast majority of what we consider ‘normal’ jobs and people like Jeff Bezos (or a future version) control access to everything and effectively own people. How this plays into culture wars and huge demographic shifts I don’t know - I especially don’t know enough about China.

in terms of religion I think militant/fundamentalist Islam is going through roughly what Christianity went through a few hundred years ago (holy war, massive power grabs and struggles) and will become more moderate and less important over time. But I guess a lot of that depends on where people are getting their money from.

i think humanity will die out before we really destroy our planet. I hope so anyway for all the organisms that remain/come after us!

as pp said though, in general this is a pretty good time to be alive.

What Vegetus said.

This is my view too.

Another +1 for Oryx and Crake!

We will be dumbed down through lack of decent education, rendered helpless by prescription drugs and their side effects, and disabled by poor diet and inactivity. Then the welfare state will be pulled from underneath us.

In Britain, anyway.

It will look like a y9 lesson on a Friday afternoon with a supply teacher.

Agreed, both on the future scenario and on the children.

hahaha, I grew up there, it definitely has a post apocalyptic feel

and if in 100 years high wet bulb temperatures

What does ‘high wet bulb temperatures’ mean?

I think within 100 years there will some sort of civil war. Whether it’s haves v. have-nots, or religious war or race war I don’t know.

The volcano in Yellowstone might explode and wipe all life out.
A meteor might do the same.
AI has the potential to make most people unemployed, but maybe will enhance lives too.
I think religious war a very real possibility in the next few years.

'Not with a bang, but a whimper.'