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I am ever more strongly of the opinion that "Western Civilisation" isn't dying, it's a zombie.
I'm pretty happy to call World War 1 as the point of death for the West. That was a catastrophic loss of human capital to a Civilisation which was already looking quite sick by that point.
It just so happened that certain fossil fuel technologies such as the internal combustion engine and the haber process came online in the interbellum, which were able to keep the Civilisation shambling along as a grotesque parody of its former self.
Thing is, those eldritch magics were only able to keep functioning so long as they are fed reagents, which are ultimately limited in supply.
All they've done is delay the inevitable collapse and greatly magnify its scope.
All they've done is delay the inevitable collapse and greatly magnify its scope.
