This is a small excerpt of the work.
Chapter 1 - Demise of a superpower
Egypt’s forgotten writing
It was the summer of 1799. French engineers
were constructing military earthworks near the
Egyptian coastal town of Rosetta. They belonged to
Napoleon’s expedition that had arrived in the
country a year before. Digging in the sand, one of
the soldiers struck something with his shovel. He
tried to work round and underneath it, but this was
no ordinary piece of rubble. He could not prise it
loose. The others came to his assistance, helping
him to clear away the sand from the massive
object. There was no excitement, just weary
annoyance at the unwelcome obstruction that only
made their labours more difficult in the unfamiliar
heat.
It turned out to be a slab of black basalt, about
the size of a table-top but more than 25 centimetres
thick. Several men were needed to lift the stone and
manhandle it out of the pit. An officer’s attention
was drawn to the slight commotion. He came over
to investigate and saw that the slab was covered in
writing. Realising its significance, he ensured that
it was removed intact to a safe place, then alerted
his superiors. With little delay, the stone was taken
to Cairo. Two specialists were sent over from Paris
to make rubbings, which were then returned to
France. The stone itself passed through a
succession of hands and eventually arrived in the
British Museum. There it remains, still in good
condition.
The exciting thing about the Rosetta stone was
that it contained three separate inscriptions. The
first was in Egyptian hieroglyphs. These were still
a mystery when the stone was discovered, despite
many attempts that had been made to decipher
them over the years. The second was in the equally
mysterious demotic script, a highly stylised form of
hieroglyphs suitable for ordinary handwriting.
Crucially, however, the third inscription was in
Greek; and Greek could be easily read and
translated. Since all three inscriptions undoubtedly
bore the same message, there opened up the
possibility of deciphering the hieroglyphic and
demotic texts. Within twenty years, Jean-François
Champollion had produced the outlines of an
Egyptian grammar. Others soon completed his
work.
The story of hieroglyphic decipherment, which
the Rosetta stone made possible, is one of immense
scholarship and ingenuity. However, there is
something else remarkable as well. This is that
Egyptian civilisation could have degenerated to the
point where it could no longer read its own writing.
At the time that the Rosetta stone was produced, in
196 BC, Champollion’s distant ancestors were mere
tribal people.1 They lived directly off the land and
fought frequently among themselves. The Egyptian
state, on the other hand, was a mighty and
venerable empire, among the most opulent and
sophisticated in the world. Its fame spread far.
Somehow, these terrific advantages of Egypt
seemed to have disappeared. The former tribal
peoples now had the superior military organisation
and equipment. They could enter the country with
impunity and take it effectively unresisted.
Napoleon’s forces were not barbarians but the
representatives of their own sophisticated
civilisation. They set about surveying and
interpreting the ruins that they found. By contrast,
the society of the ancient Egyptians had sunk as far
as could be imagined. Their former glories were
resoundingly over and done with. Their precious
documents and their magnificent buildings were all
broken and buried in the sand, to be dug up by the
French army and used as ballast. Their writing was
long forgotten and with it their history and their
culture. It had to await a painstaking decipherment
by the descendants of backward tribal cultivators
before it could be read again.
Pharaonic Egypt had been in decline before
France was even born. The Rosetta stone was
produced and erected in an Egypt that was already
dominated by foreigners. The ruling Ptolemaic
dynasty were Hellenes who had come to power
after Alexander the Great conquered Egypt in 332
BC. It was on their account that one of the Rosetta
inscriptions was in Greek in the first place; the
hieroglyphs were already out of fashion. The
Ptolemies had also been responsible for getting
demotic texts transliterated into the Greek alphabet,
which at least meant that the sounds and structure
of the ancient Egyptian language were known to
nineteenth century linguists.
Today pharaonic Egypt conjures up images of
empty tombs, silent statues and museum cases full
of chipped and dusty objects. It may seem only
natural that it should be no more. Yet for three
thousand years this civilisation was a living and
enduring reality. Today its demise is familiar and
unexceptional. Yet people living in the heyday of
the pharaohs would have found it inconceivable
that they could end up as a rather backward society,
living in a land of ruins. They had acquired a
phenomenal head start in the methods and benefits
of civilised living. It must have seemed inevitable
that their highly developed nation would forever
overshadow the obscure peoples of north-western
Europe. The fact that there was a massive
turnaround demands some attention.
PeakOil is You
The Death of Cities
Re: The Death of Cities
by theluckycountry » Fri 22 Sep 2023, 18:58:17
We're 17 years past the peak now and the 3rd World is going hungry and dark. We'll be next, we're well on the way in fact.
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Re: The Death of Cities
by EnergyUnlimited » Sat 23 Sep 2023, 14:34:34
$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('theluckycountry', 'H')e researched city state civilizations back to the dawn of time and one finding, aside from an average 400 year lifecycle, was that they eventually entered a decline, 100 years or so, then a rapid collapse taking about 10 years.
I believe it was the case with Mayans.
Romans however were declining slower and longer.
One can argue that the final great and successful Cesar was Mark Aurelius and imperial decline have started with arrival of his son Commodus, this idiot known from movie "Gladiator".
Then was a series of falls and incomplete recoveries going on for 300 years before final humiliating series of surrenders to Goths at 460-80.
Remnants were still existing for about 100 years longer before finally dissipating.
$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', 'O')ne salient aspect of the collapse was that the people of the empire just gave up on the lifestyle, lost interest in the empire, ceased to work.
IMO it will be the case with West.
Plumbers and electricians will no longer come to work, then there will be few days of looting in darkness and that is how it will all end.
Sure, they will call police and army to help but these people will rather join looters as well.
$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', 'T')he decline encompasses many aspects, social, financial, spiritual even. Today most people in the western world decry religion, they want nothing to do with it, but strong belief and adherence to the principals of a deity was always a hallmark of a strong civilization. England was very ardently protestant when it came into it's powerful stage, the USA too, very religious. Whether individual people believed in the doctrines or not is irrelevant, it was a unifying force in the empires, it helped hold them together.
Nearly always the case but there is a notable exception - China.
They replaced regular religions with Confucianism where all the faith is placed in government.
Sure, there are Gods and heaven out there but they are not relevant, you don't need to pray to them, they won't harm or help you but you should rather try to mimic their perfectly harmonious life here on Earth - of course with an aid and guidance of government who has famous heavenly mandate to rule.
Chinese Buddhism is known too but it is rather cultural implant from India adapted by Chinese over many centuries and practiced by say 15% of population.
There is Taoism as well where deities are of secondary relevance but more important are forces which you should somehow accept and allow them to flow smoothly through your body (Chi, Jin, Jang).
There are plenty of Gods out there but no one to whom you could pray nor worship him.
They won't listen, won't reward you and won't punish you.
You are earning points for your future fate, gods won't help or harm and you will find out in your next incarnation how well you were doing.
Religious practice is more like sorcery - and I know what I am talking about because my wife is Chinese and we are over 30 years together.
Amazingly whatever my wife is doing (and considerable number of superstitious rituals is practiced) it appear to work so well that sometimes I will join in.
Mind you - she is well educated and from their upper middle class (MSc in Chemistry, graduated in the UK).
But one way or another these are not believes useful in nation/empire building - with the exception of Confucian trust in government which is not a religion really.
Chinese beliefs: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Religion_in_China
$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', 'S')o today it's in the garbage bin, but so is honest business practices, the appropriate punishment of criminals, the family unit, the national money systems. They have all gone down together and the process has been underway for many many decades. I cold see Widdowson's collapse occurring at any time. They don't ring a bell, it just happens.
Today nearly everything of value is in a garbage bin and if something is not there then it is already in landfill site.
$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', 'H')mmm. The collapse of the USSR didn't result in the collapse of Russia, but if you were our age or older living through it wasn't a pleasant experience. I'm over 60 and starting from scratch isn't a scenario I would relish. I think it pays to have a plan B and plan C in these times.
I sailed through commie collapse in Poland and actually made nice money out of it (by doing things which were formally forbidden like western currency trading out of official system - but everyone clever was doing them anyway).
Piece of cake.
However IMO plans B-s and C-s are usually just illusions making us feeling to be in control, even if we have none.
Sure - I have such plans too but I try to be realistic about how much they are really worth.
We have in Poland one phrase:
If God knows your plans he is dying out of laughter.
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