As we contemplate the sunset of our own Western civilization, it becomes essential to see what's happening in perspective to understand where we are going.
We are not the first ones to reach this stage. Every single civilization has done the same, confronted the same obstacles and eventually crashed.
What is different this time is the scale. Our civilization is global and consequently the collapse will impact everyone. The similarities in history are the Bronze Age collapse in 1200 BCE and the Roman collapse in 400 CE. Note the 1600 years gap. It may not be by accident.
Most importantly, collapse doesn't mean the end. Egypt was in turmoil for two hundred years thereafter but it recovered. Likewise, Byzance or Byzantium if you prefer, survived the end of the Western Roman Empire and prospered later on.
We should expect something similar this time too. Initially. everyone will be impacted but eventually some "countries" will rise back from the ashes faster than others. The use if nuclear weapons would change little. Cities would be razed, populations would starve, but 10 years after the war, both Hiroshima and Nagasaki were on their way to being rebuilt.
Spengler's prism of Philosophy of Decline is an interesting way to approach the phenomenon.
Why Every Civilization Collapses the Same Stupid Way – Spengler's Philosophy of Decline
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