Our present civilization has exhausted itself — what comes next?

Question from the Internet:

“Is the American Empire collapsing slowly? And, if the answer is “Yes,” what might be the stages of future collapse, such as will there be another revolution or a period of anarchy, and for how long?”

Yes, the American Empire is collapsing fast. We can draw comparisons between the collapse of the American hegemony and the fall of the British Empire or even the fall of the Roman Empire.

But America is not falling on its own, our whole, present, global human civilization is collapsing.

What all human civilizations have in common is that all are built by and for our inherently self-serving, self-justifying and exploitative human nature. And since this kind of lifestyle, behaviour — excessive overconsumption and ruthless competition with survival and success at the expense of others — is against the laws of integral Nature, where a fine balance and homeostasis are regulated by strict, unforgiving laws.

America symbolizes the peak of selfish, egocentric, narcissistic and exploitative human evolution. The statistics about energy expenditure, military spending and America’s overwhelming political and cultural influence and control over the world are astonishing and scary. But again, this is all against the laws of integral Nature and as a result, this “empire” has no right to exist as it happened with previous, similarly overwhelming civilizations.

Other countries will not fare any better. After all, we are all born with the same nature, and more or less we all aspired to emulate America or even to move there to be part of the “American Dream”. And it does not matter what other ideologies, philosophies or regions other nations try, at the end of the day all systems are egocentric and exploitative and as a result, they all collapse sooner or later.

What happens next?

If we continue blindly following our inherent nature we will end up in a world war, probably a nuclear one that will wipe out most of humanity. If it is not going to be war soon then our inability to cooperate and build a globally integrated humanity will cause our downfall as we won’t be able to comprehend, let alone solve our mounting global problems on multiple fronts.

And then, for the remaining few, intolerable suffering will initiate a new kind of thinking and lifestyle that can promise a different kind of human civilization — a few centuries later.

Of course, we can find another way out. We can recognize that it is our own inherent nature that is causing history’s helplessly recurring vicious cycles and the problems and threatening crisis situations of our times. Then we could proactively, consciously and methodically learn how to change ourselves and adapt to Nature’s integral template, building a “Nature-like” mutual integration in human society above and against our instincts.

So the future is still in our hands. One thing is certain, we cannot hold onto the system, the civilization we are living in now since it is “unnatural” and unsustainable. We are living at unique times when we can shift from our previous, self-destructive and instinctive development to a new, this time conscious and constructive one.