At the turn of the year, I stumbled upon an intriguing article by the columnist John Harris in The Guardian . Harris, who builds upon the ideas of historian Joseph Tainter, suggested that the underlying factor of many societies which leads to their collapse is their overwhelming complexity: societies create complex systems for economic benefits, but they eventually become overstretched and end up offering little benefit to ordinary citizens. These citizens resent and attack the system, which inevitably leads to its collapse.
Harris, quoting Tainter’s work, lists examples of societies where complexity was a major factor in their downfall: ancient […]
Full Post at ideasfortoday.org.uk