August 29, 2025
Culture
A “99% perspective” on history suggests that societal collapse often meant liberation, adaptation, and resilience for the majority.
Terracotta female figures, Mycenaean (c1400-1300 BCE). While the fall of the Mycenaean Greece palatial society at the end of the Bronze Age is traditionally described as a major “Dark Age” marked by destruction and chaos, archaeological evidence suggests that while states and elites suffered, the everyday life for many commoners may have continued or even improved, with greater equality and better health as oppressive systems dissolved. Photo via the Met Museum, New York
Here's a tough job. Luke Kemp researches the causes, dynamics, and consequences of societal collapse across history, along with today’s existential risks such as climate change and nuclear war. His latest book, Goliath’s Curse: The History and Future of Societal Collapse, traces collapse from ancient times to the present.
One of the counter-intuitive ideas he presents is that collapse was often less catastrophic than elite narratives claim. Archaeological evidence shows that while states and ruling classes suffered, everyday life for many common people sometimes improved—with greater equality and even better health once oppressive systems broke apart.
Kemp points out that much of what we know comes from “lamentation literature” written by the ruling 1%—scribes, priests, and rulers who exaggerated chaos to justify their power or to memorialize their lost empires. While collapse could bring violence and displacement, mortality was frequently overstated. More often, people migrated than died en masse. And the violence that did occur usually came from small groups—often military men—rather than from society as a whole.
"Whether it be in a fire, flood or hurricane, humans tend to respond with altruism, ingenuity and camaraderie during a crisis. Gun-toting loners also don’t tend to handle catastrophes very well: instead, the survivors of crises tend to be those with lots of social connections."
"Improved welfare after a state breaks down is not a purely ancient phenomenon either. That is clear when we look at the case of the collapse of Somalia in 1991. The Barre regime that had previously ruled the country fell apart; local warlords and traditional groups took the reins of governance. While there was increased conflict, it was not a nightmare for human wellbeing. Instead, almost every quality-of-life indicator in the country, from infant mortality to extreme poverty, improved. This wasn’t just Somalia experiencing a region-wide improvement due to better technology and aid. Its improvements significantly outstripped those of its intact, stable neighbours."
ARTICLE: The Rewards of Ruin
History
