Ben Ehrenreich writes:

The current pandemic has already given many of us a taste of what happens when a society fails to meet the challenges that face it… The climate crisis, as it continues to unfold, will give us additional opportunities to panic and to grieve…

Here’s a posy of other opportunities mentioned:

… lack of “nimbleness” in governments
… lack of ability to migrate
… lack of collective action for common goals
… bloated bureaucracies
… bloated resourcing for military, prisons, and police
… inequality and popular immiseration

And a nosegay of specimens brought low:

Late Bronze Age
Minoa
Rome
Akkadians
Lowland Classic Maya
Chaco Canyon (New Mexico)

But maybe a few are wily, stubborn, and adaptable enough to keep crawling out from under our wreckage, Ehrenreich ventures.

… When one way doesn’t work, we try another. When one system fails, we build another. We struggle to do things differently, and we push on. As always, we have no other choice.

(Ben Ehrenreich, “How Do You Know When Society Is About to Fall Apart?” NYTimes, 11-4-20)

(c) 2020 JMN