We talked live this afternoon with economist Luke Kemp, the author of Goliath’s Curse: The History and Future of Societal Collapse, about what a civilization’s end really looks like for most people. We talked about what civilization actually is (and why it isn’t all it’s cracked up to be), why empires are so bad for the average person, and how “Goliaths” — the hierarchies of dominance that govern civilizations — are trapped in a doom loop of power that leads inexorably to collapse. But he also told us about how a civilization’s end might not be so bad for most people — regimes are fragile, but the places people live and the communities they build are much more enduring.
You won’t want to miss any of it. Just click on the video player above to watch the entire conversation.
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Join us for more Live conversation this week!
Tomorrow, Thursday, October 2, at 12:30 p.m. Eastern, we’ll be kicking off a series of conversations with people who are articulating real positions for the future of the Democratic Party with strategist Corbin Trent.
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