Civilization is doomed to self-destruction led by narcissistic leaders,

In his new book titled “The Curse of Goliath” researcher at the Center for the Study of Existential Risk in Cambridge Luke Kemp argues, that narcissistic political leaders move humanity towards self-destruction.

“We can’t name the date of the Day of Judgment, but looking at 5,000 years of our history, we can understand the trajectories we face today, and the most likely one is self-destruction”, — Luke Kemp states in his book.

Kemp notes, that the analysis of more than 400 social crises over the past 5,000 years, he concluded that humanity is not just vulnerable, but is following the path of many past civilizations that have failed.

Among the key threats of our time, Kemp identifies climate change, the threat of nuclear war, and the rapid and limitedly controlled development of artificial intelligence. However, in his opinion, a special threat is posed by leaders, with traits that in psychology constitute the dark triad: narcissism, psychopathy, and Machiavellianism.

Throughout human history, civilizations and great empires have collapsed for many reasons. It could be epidemics, military invasions, climate change, or economic decline. However, they mostly followed very similar paths. As wealth and power became concentrated in a few individuals, inequality worsened, social institutions degraded, and the bonds that held society together broke down.

Powerful and wealthy elites became increasingly isolated and focused mainly on themselves, while ordinary people faced significant difficulties and a decline in trust in the government. In many cases, the cause of a civilization’s decline seemed to be a mere shock that pushed a decaying system over the edge.

However, Kemp emphasizes, that the collapse of civilizations does not occur because people are naturally greedy or cruel. In fact, for most of our history, we have lived in small, egalitarian communities where we shared food, tools, and decisions.

The decline of a civilization begins, when a small group of people gains control over key resources: territories, food, weapons, information, and other material assets, and begins to use them to dominate others.

The researcher called these small groups of elites “goliaths” in honor of the biblical giant, killed by David. By the term “goliaths,” Kemp refers to imperialist states, or regimes, built on total control.

These power systems hierarchical, they are characterized by the extensive use of various resources and are, in fact, very vulnerable. Over time, elites in such systems accumulate more and more wealth and power. The rest of the people live in poverty, get sick, and mostly lose their independence. Elites usually destroy established state and social institutions and replace them with their own group of loyalists.

Ultimately, such systems are subject to complete destruction. Diseases begin to spread, people suffer from crop failures, and wars break out. The system collapses under the weight of its own inequality. Kemp also notes, that he is pessimistic about the prospects for improving the situation in the modern world.

“All Goliaths carry the seeds of their own destruction. The problem in our case is that we have allowed them to steer the ship for too long. We see rising inequality, excessive wealth and attempts by groups of oligarchs to seize power, and we certainly see more narcissistic leaders than before. We are dealing with a 5,000-year process that will be incredibly difficult to reverse as we have increasing levels of inequality and elite control over our politics”, — the researcher explains.

Among the contemporary political leaders with the traits of the Dark Triad, Kemp identifies US president Donald Trump, kremlin dictator Vladimir Putin, and chinese leader Xi Jinping. The scientist also points, out that corporations and imposed artificial algorithms are playing an increasingly important role in people’s lives, following the same logic of extracting profit at the expense of ordinary people.

“Our corporations, and increasingly our algorithms, also resemble such people. They are, in fact, amplifying the worst of us”, — Kemp emphasized.

The researcher states, that these are all “agents of death.” It is not a political struggle between the left and the right, but the very survival of our democracy and civilization. The antidote to collapse is not the development of technology or growth. And not innovation, but the reduction of dominance.

We need to radically rethink the way power is organized, limit the ways of excessive individual enrichment, break down monopolies, and create truly democratic societies. This is not just about holding elections every few years, and true participatory governance — for example, citizens’ assemblies and jury trials that are scalable with digital tools.

In one of the North American communities — Cahokia, which flourished in the eleventh century, declined further due to technological progress. They brought with them technologies for growing corn and beans, which led to the formation of a society, ruled by an elite of priests. This led to the emergence of unsustainable practices, that include human sacrifice.

The decline of the Roman Empire was partly due to cheap slave labor. Slaves took many jobs, previously held by Roman citizens, leading to mass unemployment and public discontent.

Kemp’s book is disturbing not because it predicts the end of the world, but because it shows, how predictable and preventable that end remains. Perhaps our civilization is threatened by a one-time “giant collapse,” but collapse is not fate. It is a choice.

Source: ZME Science

Civilization is doomed to self-destruction led by narcissistic leaders, — new book by Cambridge researcher