Theses are just some thoughts on lessons for us Modern Day folks to be gleaned from the Bronze Age Collapse (c. 1200 – 1000 BC.)
(Knock on wood, we think Prof CJ might have finally found a method for recording decent-quality podcasts from the car without spending huge amounts of his largely nonexistent fortune.)
Join Prof CJ as he discusses:
- Leaders get undeserved credit during good times, but blamed during bad times.
- Specialization & division of labor are great, until trade is disrupted.
- There’s NEVER one single thing that causes a TEOTWAWKI collapse; it’s always a multifaceted clusterfuck
- Declines can happen slowly, but also relatively quickly (most of the Bronze Age Collapse unfolded over less than 50 years.)
- You have to be plugged in & paying attention, because in the Bronze Age Collapse, things seemed to be fine and normal right up till the point that the shit really hit the fan.
- You don’t want to be in big cities during a collapse.
- Bronze Age civilizations collapsed despite having pretty good stores of surplus food from good years; how would we fare, with little or no stores of food and other goods?
- You don’t want to be alone/isolated during a collapse.
- The ideal location would be a small town situated in a remote and/or rugged location
- You can’t count on the people & institutions who steered you into the collapse, so you shouldn’t count on them to steer you out (or even to effectively manage the symptoms)
- Dark Ages are pretty rough, but as the old dinosaur systems collapse, opportunities are created who are tough, clever, and willing to adapt; they (or perhaps their descendants) might end up freer and better off in the long run, as the society rebuilds.
- Final food for thought: Ponder: Are we already IN a collapse, but a slow-mo one? Prof CJ points out some parallel symptoms of the Bronze Age Collapse to our current situation.