"Civilization has never in history been made according to a cookbook, never cooked according to a list of rules. On the contrary, most participants in any culture often break the internal rules, but it's about what values and motives bring people together."
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Every civilization in history has ceased to exist, and the events that have rocked the world in recent years suggest that contemporary global society is inevitably headed for transformation as well. In the new documentary Civilization, Egyptologist Miroslav Bárta and filmmaker Petr Horký argue this. In an interview with Aktuálně.cz, they insist that they do not want to scare anyone. Their film is subtitled Good News about the End of the World.
With the so-called collapse or crisis of complex societies, it is always important to understand that when they do come, it means first and foremost a sudden drop in complexity as a result of the failure of elite functionality, the social contract, or what we are now experiencing in full, i.e. a fundamental increase in the cost of resources. This may take a short period of time, and we all hope that this will be the case here, or it may take a longer period of time, in which case there are two main courses of action. Either we will find a new technical solution, new technologies will emerge that will take us to a whole new level of growth, or we will struggle on and the decline in living standards will inevitably continue. That is not good for any system in the long term.
Covid and the war are reflected in the film, but they haven't changed its essence. It might help in the sense that there are more people today who are willing to think about these issues and admit that this is not some end-of-the-world preacher's craze. They understand that we are developing a meaningful existential reflection on who we are, what we live and create.
Crises are won with the heart
the pressure to make these politicians the best of the best is not. They are to some extent the stewards of the system, but the moment the system hits its limits, when negative factors start to manifest themselves, whether because of the failure of the elites or because of the operation of Heracleitus' law (what lifts a society up leads to its downfall - ed.), then the demands on the quality of leadership are higher. Whether the leadership is political, technological or scientific, it makes no difference. The transition of a system from a relaxed state to a state where it faces stress tests takes time. But we also know reliably that in crises there are people who are able to take responsibility, have the courage to set goals with visions and simply motivate people to overcome the difficulties. Crises are not won with technology alone, but with the heart.
A typical collapse, in terms of cultures, societies and civilisations, usually takes the form of a dramatic decline in the complexity of that system, which no longer has the energy to maintain a given standard of living. If we are talking about a drastic decline, then one of the indicators of collapse for me would indeed be if petrol were to skyrocket to values of 90 to 100 crowns per litre. That would already be such a threat to the standard of living that we are used to, and it would affect everything from health care, education, social security to the maintenance and construction of communication systems, that it would lead to a dramatic fall. But that never usually means extinction, ruin, or the discharging of people, but simply "just" the fact that that society would become significantly poorer in a very short period of time.
By those irreversible changes I meant, for example, the slavish dependence on Russian gas that we are, thank goodness, emerging from. We must look for alternative ways of operating our society, we must fundamentally change the nature of our economy, because wasting twice as much energy on the production of products compared with the rest of Western Europe is madness. It is our only way. The Czech Republic does not have the resources to become a country where final products will be produced, whether they are products or ideas that will be translated into various software or intellectual property. The next thing that awaits us is the actual implementation of the Green Deal. It is a great idea in itself, and it reflects what is happening everywhere on the planet, but I think it needs a more credible path, which should be set out primarily by engineers who know what can be done in each step. It can't just be done by politicians, who I think are a bit casual about the real possibilities.
It is certainly a good thing that civilisation is connected in this way. It is not a flaw, but a weakness. I think the best preparation for those periods of emergency, because it doesn't have to be a collapse, is to have relationships in order, the community around you, and also the relationship with yourself. That's the equipment with which one is able to make decisions in those crucial moments when things are not quite easy. It may seem too vague to some, but civilization has never in history been made according to a cookbook, never cooked according to a list of rules. On the contrary, most participants in any culture often break the internal rules, but it's all about the values and motives that bring people together.
It's about not being afraid to take responsibility for your life, family and surroundings. It is important to remember that the more complex our world is, the more prone it is to fluctuations. We need to think about managing those short-term fluctuations. That is what we have a state for, which we are voluntarily building in our own interest, because we need roads, schools and hospitals. That is the story of every civilisation.
Rather, people should own up to their own responsibility and their own role. Never has the common man had more influence on the running of the world than today.
Perkins says this in a very sharp, dramatic and direct way, but the core message is not compromised. Admittedly, as a documentary filmmaker, I am a little worried that some misinformers might steal this passage, take it out of context, and start claiming that our film is anti-Western. On the contrary, I am convinced that the Western world has brought a lot of good to the planet and that it is good to be able to deal with it.
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