Belated Midterm Report on The Collapse of Western Civilization (Alex Old)

The Collapse of Western Civilization 

      

So my report is on this book called The Collapse of Western Civilization: A View from the Future.  It, honestly, is pretty dry.  As far as plot goes, there is not one.  There are no traditional ‘characters’ and nothing “happens.”  The book is more like a thought experiment than a fiction novel.  However, it does have an interesting perspective.  It seems to take place around 2393 or soon after, and it is simply an account of how the way we treat the world today made their present the way it is.  Here are a few notes on it: 

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• -  The Prenumbral Period, as it is called, spans from 1988 to 2093. 
  
• -  The “historian” recounts events that led to what is called The Great    Collapse and Mass Migration, which presumably is why the background states that the historian is living in the “Second People’s Republic of China 

• -  There is a map in the beginning of each chapter.  It’s quite nice 
• -   It talks of an annual Earth day, saying in parenthesis, “As if every day were not Earth Day!” 
• -   Talks of Chinese population control, saying it was seen as immoral,  but by 2050, the impact would become evident by the fact that China’s emissions began to fall rapidly 
• -   Bhutanian Gross National Happiness used to show the archaic nature of GDP 
• -   In 2023, “year of perpetual summer”  

• -   Feet are long abandoned as a form of measurement 

Quiz part 

1. 1.  In what year does the book take place? 

2. 2.  What was notable about 2023, what was it dubbed? 

3. 3.  What day is criticized for not being every day? 

4. 4.  What is the period called between the years 1988 and 2093? 

5. 5.  What form of measurement had long been abandoned by this accounting of the future’s history? 

Discussion Questions 

1. 1.   Does any of this stuff seem plausible? 

2. 2.   Is GNH a better way to measure the growth of a nation than GDP, in theory at least?