Collapse Assignment #2

Every culture had its fuel, its driving force, and once it stopped or slowed, that society began to crumble. For ancient Rome, that fuel was imperialism, and once the empire could no longer expand, it began to deteriorate, and eventually collapse. The society on Easter island collapsed once they used up all of their natural resources for trial pursuits, such as moving statues with their lumber (instead of building ships or homes). In America, our fuel is oil and natural gas, i.e. fossil fuels. These fuels power just about every aspect of our lives and without them, it seems pretty clear that our society would crumble.

I feel like our society, much like the society of Easter island is trivial in its own way. We look only at the short term and refuse to look beyond what will ultimately be best for everyone. At some point we will run out of oil and we will need to find another source for power. Unfortunately we live in a country ruled by those who give the most money to the politicians that decide what we invest in and what energy we use to keep our country running. Because of that, we continue to rely on oil and gas because it is profitable for some, while in the scheme of things if we fail to find alternative energy, our society will collapse. I feel like we can only allow this to go on for so long before we decide that the value of our functioning society is greater than the profit of a few hundred people making billions off of the little oil that is left.

In class Andy told us about Entropy, a law of thermodynamics, which basically states that everything will eventually move towards a lower or equilibrium state of energy. I think that this can be applied to our society because once we have no more fuel for our society and no more momentum, society will crumble and reach a lower, equalized state. That is, if we allow it to. The theory of Entropy is only true when it is not being effected by outside variables, so if we put more energy into our society than no equilibrium state will occur, and our society will remain in tact.

The importance of the Easter island example goes far beyond the surface problem of waisting resorces, but deeper to; why they were waisted. The answer to that is also a parallel with our culture. The people of easter island cared so much about status (much like ourselves), that they used all of their resources up competing with each other to build the biggest and most wasteful statue. This is so similar to what we do today, its almost eerie.

To put this into simplified logic, a self destructive society cannot stand. If we continue to use Rolls Royce Phantoms (11/18 miles per gallon) and 35 room mansions (using immense amounts of power) to show and support our superior status levels, than we will eventually run out of the fuel to run anything at all. We have to make a choice, and quick; Social status, or society?