The death of a civilization is inevitable just as the death of an individual is inevitable. Just like individuals, civilizations have a life span - they’re born, then they live, then they die.
And there’s a significant fact about civilizations nearing collapse that the cited author apparently neglects to note, and that unfortunately completely negates the “we need dramatic social and technological changes” prescription: due to the concentration of wealth and power in a relatively few hands (which the author does note, though only in passing), the populations of terminally ill civilizations can be roughly divided into two groups - the poor and powerless many who would make changes but can’t, and the rich and powerful few who could make changes but won’t.
“Look on my works, ye mighty, and despair…”
I found that refreshing:
“In the last 10 years or so, people are asking did the Rapa Nui society collapse or did it reinvent itself?”
The society you think you know is already dead and gone. The place where you grew up is not what it was. By the time a culture is recognized it is already an artifact.
Change is inevitable. Categorization and identification are attempts to understand what is already past.
