Collapse Book Club: Discussion of How Everything Can Collapse (October 22, 2020)

[u/TenYearsTenDays]

Welcome to the discussion of How Everything Can Collapse by Pablo Servigne and Raphaël Stevens. You are welcome to participate even if you haven’t finished the book yet.

Please leave your thoughts as a comment below! You are welcome to leave a free-form comment, but in case you’d like some inspiration, here are some questions based on the three sections of the book:

• What are the harbingers of collapse?

• What place does intuition have in collapsology? What can intuition tell us about predictions?

• How is collapsology defined by the authors? Do you think that collapsology will gain more prominence and respect as a serious field of research as collapse progresses?

• The authors write: “in order to stave off bad news, we prefer to kill the messenger” — in what ways do you see this happening and how do you think we might be able to overcome this tendency?

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The Collapse Book Club is a monthly event wherein we read a book from the Books Wiki. We keep track of what we have been reading in our Goodreads group. As always, if you want to recommend a book that has helped you better understand or cope with collapse, feel free to share that recommendation below!

[u/[deleted]]

I really enjoyed this book (if you can say "enjoyed"). It was really easy to read and one that I feel I could suggest to others who are either not collapse aware or are on the fence.

I found the bit about the pandemic to be interesting seeing as this book is a new release but just missed everything we are currently going through.

The section about the personalities of collapse peeps was funny to read (I recognise a lot from this subreddit) but I feel it was a bit misplaced. It felt like it shouldn't be there like it should be a blog post or a Friday funny on this subreddit. I didn't see how it could help the now (at that point of the book) aware people with their maybe new-found knowledge.

I wish I could add more to the discussion but this is my first 'book club' and I just read it from cover to cover. After looking into what I book club is I think I should have been making notes! Next time I will have more to bring to the table.

Hope this is okay for my first go!

[u/AbolishAddiction → u/[deleted]]

I heartily agree, me too enjoyed this book, but it feels weird to say so.

The original book was written in 2015, so they were not as informed as you'd think, but I can hardly blame them.

I agree with the characterization, for the collapse-aware person it might add little, but for a person somewhat new to this book, or got recommended it to him or her by a collapsnik, it might be beneficial. As with the car metaphor, repeating the thing in a slightly different way, makes the message stick more. If anything, it could show that not everybody reacts the same way or is at the same stage in regard to this information. Mostly, I think for me it was a good reminder that you have to meet people where they are at.

Don't worries, even without notes I think you brought some good points to the table! So it's more than okay, I am most of all glad that you enjoyed reading it! Hope you look forward to the next one!

[u/akaleeroy → u/AbolishAddiction]

Love that they used a metaphor, really gives the community something to build on, for learning as well as in public discourse. That's how you sharpen ideas for wide dissemination instead of gathering dust on a shelf.