Cultural decline due to overpopulation and governing elites demanding too much from the governed

by philg

Edwin Barnhart‘s 22nd lecture in Maya to Aztec: Ancient Mesoamerica Revealed explains that ancient cultures in Central America and Mexico collapsed due to overpopulation combined with governing elites demanding too much from the common people.

Teotihuacan (flourished from 100 BC through 550 AD; photographed 2003):

Also from 2003 (Mexico City), for young folks who think that they’re the first to wave the rainbow flag:

7 thoughts on “Cultural decline due to overpopulation and governing elites demanding too much from the governed”

  1. It is no wonder that civilizations fall if people have to waste a significant amount of time and energy to protest against oppressive governments. Austria has managed to get 40,000 protesters in two weekends each, which gives some hope.

    https://www.nytimes.com/2021/12/04/world/austria-vienna-covid-protest.html

    ‘The far-right Freedom Party, the third-largest group in Parliament, has led the opposition to the new pandemic measures. The party has amplified conspiracy theories about the vaccines, spreading doubt about their effectiveness, while promoting ivermectin, a drug typically used to deworm animals that has repeatedly failed against the coronavirus in clinical trials. People carried signs that read, “I will decide for myself,” and “Make Austria Great Again,” according to Reuters.’

    NYT interns lie about ivermectin (also typically used in humans!) and vague conspiracy theories and then wonder why freedom loving Austrians have their own version of MAGA.

    Of course “the curve” is already falling sharply in Austria.

  2. I’m not exactly a Spenglerian, but the thesis that several aspects of high culture (buildings, classical music, paintings, philosophy, individual geniuses) stopped after WWI and the rise of collectivism cannot be easily dismissed.

    • > several aspects of high culture … stopped
      > after WWI and the rise of collectivism

      Someone at the time seems to have agreed with that sentiment:

      “Lenin was bewildered by most modern art and literature and was appalled by the idea that the search for the new should destroy the old … ‘I am a barbarian in these matters because I neither understand nor enjoy the work of Futurists, Imagists, Cubists, Formalists – and other ists.'”

      At an exhibition of modern paintings, the dictator objected “In all these pictures I cannot find either eyes nor noses.”

      (Quotes are from Lenin the Dictator by Victor Sebestyen.)

  3. The trick is convincing the slaves they’re not really slaves. We have the tools today to make slaves believe anything.

  4. Ancient cultures in Central America and Mexico collapsed due to mass immigration to North America?

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