{"id":3348,"date":"2020-03-06T17:41:34","date_gmt":"2020-03-06T17:41:34","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.thetruthcounts.com\/blogtraducciones\/?p=3348"},"modified":"2020-03-06T17:41:34","modified_gmt":"2020-03-06T17:41:34","slug":"panicking-about-societal-collapse-plunder-the-bookshelves","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.thetruthcounts.com\/blogtraducciones\/2020\/03\/06\/panicking-about-societal-collapse-plunder-the-bookshelves\/","title":{"rendered":"Panicking about societal collapse? Plunder the bookshelves"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Panicking about societal collapse? Plunder the bookshelves<\/h1>\n
As civilization seems to be lurching towards a cliff edge, historical case studies are giving way to big data in authors\u2019 search for understanding. By Laura Spinney<\/div>\n<\/header>\n
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Laura Spinney<\/b><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/a><\/h3>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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Monuments to resilience or collapse? The 800-year-old statues of Easter Island.<\/span>Credit: Andia\/Universal Images Group via Getty<\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

In case you missed it, the end is nigh. Ever since Jared Diamond published his hugely popular 2005 work\u00a0Collapse<\/i>, books on the same theme have been arriving with the frequency of palace coups in the late Roman Empire. Clearly, their authors are responding to a universal preoccupation with climate change, as well as to growing financial and political instability and a sense that civilization is lurching towards a cliff edge. Mention is also made of how big-data tools are shedding new light on historical questions. But do these books have anything useful to share? Any actionable points besides that on my coffee mug: \u201cNow panic and freak out\u201d?<\/p>\n