Civilizati on is built by barbarians who get tired of living like barbarians. Barbarism rises because civilians forget how to do the work of civilizing. I think we can generally lay the blame of all collapse on the boom side (lack of sales tax), but never while there's still faith in growth.

The initialization of our actual collapse is evident in the withdrawal of insurance business. Whether we blame climate, resources or competitive dumbassery, the manifestation is in the Carter quote: it's a loss of faith in the societal structure (perpetual colonialism/aggression).