Is Western Civilization coming to an end?

Question

Maybe I'm just depressed, but I definitely have a fin de siecle kind of feeling about the whole idea.

Answer 1

yes as soon as the Election is over !

Answer 2

No.  Buy low sell high. Recessions mean unemployment and that's when get-rich-quick schemes sell best.  Get in on the ground floor of one and scam your way to a life of leisure and personal contentment.

Answer 3

No, it's just that things go up and things go down.  Economies especially.  But you have to believe that things will get better. Otherwise what's the point?

Answer 4

ur crazy, thats why i love you

Answer 5

No I dont think so , got up vertical this morning.

Answer 6

in the next 50 yrs or so

Answer 7

If the extreme Muslims get their way it will

Answer 8

no, we still have a few more generations to go.  

Answer 9

In a sense. The world is definitely changing as we know it. And with many jobs getting exported overseas, India and China have a growing middle class. While I'm happy for them, that means that the $ and power of the US will likely continue to decline.  

Answer 10

If we keep spending all of our money on war, it may

Answer 11

Not really. I suspect that every civilization has always felt as though things were coming apart at the seams, on the way up and on the way down.

That said, we do have some  serious challenges ahead of us.

1. Energy, we are totally badly positioned both as a nation and as a planet with regard to how we use energy, but Western Civilization has dealt with this particular bottleneck before, (when Europe started to seriously run out of trees, in the 1400's).

2. Debt, The US in particular and many other nations as well, have a total incapacity to deal with some of the more sophisticated debt tools that have been available in the last 50 years. Mostly due to incompetence on the part of our political leadership who promise tax-cuts and lavish spending programs (a bad combination if ever there was one).

3. The demographic cycle - The "western" or first world is getting older on average,meanwhile the developing world is getting younger, demographically speaking and there is very little transition and we haven't got a good solution for keeping both groups in balance. It may not lead to war outright but I personally don't see it being a pretty situation.

But consider the possibilities

1. Machine intelligence, over the next 15-25 years you are going to see machines become increasingly capable of solving problems that were once insoluble to mankind. This means we are developing now and will increasingly have a dramatically improved capacity to solve some of the problems of famine, disease, misallocation of resources and overpopulation which have traditionally been problematic.

2. Moving towards a type 1 civilization - it will be slow and will take a determined effort, but if we're successful, our nation and then the rest of the world stands at the brink of transitioning to a much more sustainable situation and ultimately we must become more or less completely sustainable as a species. This is not so much an overpopulation problem but an ability to work less destructively problem.

Answer 12

Oh yes, extremists (u no who i'm talking about) will bring us down.

But only because the government in my country are wooses they don't take action, they let 'em all in plus 50 of the relatives live off out taxes and don't do a THING to give back. One day there will be no such thing as Western Civilisation.  

Answer 13

I agree, lets all move to Britain!

Answer 14

Yeah. It is the end of a cycle. When civilizations grow too decadent and liberal they succumb to the more primitive peoples around them.

Answer 15

No.  The world is getting better everyday, you just have to look hard to see it.

Answer 16

As a society we've been living in the end time since the Ancient civilizations ruled the Earth.   It is part of the general malaise that goes along with self cognition.