Journal Entry (Wednesday October 26, 2022)
How do civilizations decline? The biggest reason is the irrational propagation of fear. Whether the impetus is wielded by a self-serving minority of citizens from within, or a legitimate threat from without. The result is the same. Fear pushes a populous to authoritarianism. While I believe societal fear acts like a contagion, I’m not aware of any academic studies that empirically verify this. That said, when you see fear spreading through a population and there is no direct cause, it is difficult to look at it as anything other than a form of disease. Subversive forces can certainly take advantage of this situation and seek to encourage it, but I think such forces are rarely the root cause. I believe a good portion (but not all) of the root cause of our current phenomena goes back to the COVID Pandemic in 2020. There is little doubt in my mind that this event created unprecedented cultural upheaval, and opened the door for unscrupulous people to take advantage of a psychologically weakened population. Where you have upheaval, you have an opening for all sorts of change, both good and bad. Unfortunately for all of us, the change resulting from this particular upheaval has been mostly to our detriment.
I suppose you think I’m looking at current events through a negative lens, I wouldn’t blame you if you did. In truth, I’m just trying to make sense of a current phenomena that to me, and I think many others, makes very little sense.