5 Comments
User's avatar
The Timeless Traveler's avatar

People love the idea of a single catastrophe because it lets everyone else off the hook. Slow decline is much more damning.

Joseph Pickett's avatar

One big event is easier to explain, too. A big complex multi-faceted decline over 400 years is harder to put into a sentence.

Kyle Chastain's avatar

If we know one thing, it's that history is a story written by the winner... or more accurately, people with an axe to grind. Great article, Joseph. I didn't know this.

Joseph Pickett's avatar

Thanks, Kyle! I appreciate that. I am trying. I really like to find these 'common knowledge' stories and the details are quite a bit more complicated! Fun!

Yorch Torch Games's avatar

"The Library of Alexandria didn’t die in a fire. It faded. Papyrus has an expiration date. Civilizations do too."

That hits hard... what can a civilization do to everlast?

Should it stick to its traditions or allow progressiveness?

What must never change?

What must change to survive?