Is your civilization collapsing?

A recording of Jared Diamond's lecture discussing the themes of his latest book: 'collapse', is well worth watching.

In particular I like his discussion of how the core values of a given society that have served it well may need revision when conditions change. He gives the examples of how Europeans began the gradual transition from thinking of themselves as separate nations to being 'European' after the second world war. And how the US's core values that are 'up for revision' are its isolationism and it's consumerism, due to changes in conditions: namely globalization and diminishing environmental resources.

Also interesting is his analysis of how social change takes place. A common scenario is that there is a major issue that benefits a small number of people greatly, and inconveniences a large number a little. Examples are rife, global climate change being one. Only at the point where the consequences of the issue either negatively impact that small group, or greatly effect the common majority, does change occur. This suggests some interesting possibilities for new media technology to increase our cultural reaction times to nascent issues, as mainstream thought is increasingly assailed by the long tail of ideas. Or put another way: reducing the inertia of the mainstream will accelerate the speed at which needed changes in cultural values can occur.

One wonders how his ideas might transfer to online social networks where 'cultural change' can shift and re-form orders of magnitude more rapidly that in traditional cultures.

Something for another post, but I do wonder whether social capital could be seen as one of his 'resources' that can provoke collapse if exhausted.