When a society follows the triad of evil—ignorance, evil, and authoritarianism—it enters a repeating historical cycle of systemic collapse. This pattern isn’t just a metaphor; it’s a breakdown of the “social contract” that keeps a civilization stable.
The repeating pattern generally follows these succinct stages:
- The Saturation of Ignorance: Every great civilization eventually prioritizes comfort over inquiry. When wisdom becomes unfashionable and immediate gratification replaces long-term planning, the first stage of decay begins. This is the “amathia”—the dangerous ignorance armored with certainty.
- The Authoritarian Response: As the system begins to wobble from this lack of truth, it doesn’t correct; it rigidifies. Authoritarianism arises as a desperate attempt to “freeze” order in place. Leaders often manufacture threats to justify expanded powers and frame critics as “enemies of the state”.
- The Transition to Evil: Eventually, the centralized power morphs into tyranny. At this tipping point, the system no longer serves its people; it consumes them to stay in power. This is where “colors don’t matter”—the destruction is universal because the society has lost its moral and structural identity.
- The Final Release (Collapse): Accumulated resources and energy are released in a cascade of failures. Entrenched structures unravel under their own rigidity and contradictions, leading to a sudden shift or “Great Release”
Historically, this is the “March of Folly”—where nations consistently make decisions that are not in their own best interests.
Some of this is fueled by the phenomenon, sometimes called “Survival of the Richest,” which creates a dangerous feedback loop in the historical pattern:
- The Insulation Paradox: When the extremely wealthy feel the “wobble” of the system, they don’t use their resources to stabilize the center. Instead, they use them to insulate themselves—building bunkers, buying up land in remote areas like New Zealand, or funding space colonies.
- Prophecy as a Policy Tool: If a powerful group believes an “apocalypse” or “rapture” is inevitable—or even desirable—they stop investing in the future of the collective. They may actively tilt the economy or ignore environmental warnings because a total “reset” fits their ideological or “prophetic” framework.
- The “Event” Mentality: In modern history, this has shifted from religious rapture to secular “Events” like an AI uprising or total climate collapse. By viewing the world as a “game that can be reset,” they treat the suffering of the masses during the “sinusoidal” phase as an acceptable cost for their own transcendence or survival.
- The Failure of Separation: History shows this is a hallucination. In every major collapse (like the Late Bronze Age), the elites who thought they could outrun the “exhaust” of their own civilization usually vanished with it because they forgot that their power relied on the very system they allowed to break.