Dark Age Ahead

Item was as described, better than I thought it'd be to honest. No issues at all. Recommend seller and would purchase from them again.

disliked the delivery, which happened more than a week late; Otherwise book is good which I knew before the purchasing it.

I agree with everything the previous reviewer stated, particularly that the book is surprisingly light and easy to read for such a potentially depressing subject. It is very disturbing that all the indications of a society's imminent collapse are so evident in ours, such as the abandonment of scientific thinking or unfair, dumbed-down taxes. It is appropriate that Jacobs refers to Jared Diamond in the text, because his 'Collapse' is the perfect companion to this book. Together, they form a formidable argument...that we are in deep trouble. The two weak areas are, yes, the lack of positive advice - but then the book is primarily a wake-up call - and also the lack of references. For example, the case of Ireland's cultural dark age having been thwarted by the power of song and art, is an interesting one; but when she refers to Ireland now surpassing the productivity of England, one questions what the source for that information could be. This is possibly one of the most important books around right now but should be read in conjunction with others such as 'Collapse' to get a more complete picture.

What thoughtful person hasn't lately wondered if American society & culture are in decline? And if so, is it an irreversible decline? In this short volume, Jane Jacobs articulates her fears of a coming Dark Age, choosing to focus on a few specific indicators. So this isn't an all-encompassing look at what's happening right now, buttressed with copious references & facts. It's more of a personal cri de coeur -- certainly drawing on a lifetime of study & knowledge, but ultimately speaking very much from the heart of old age, watching as the world eagerly marches closer to the edge of a cliff. What particularly struck me was the emphasis on how easily so much can be forgotten, how a culture can wither on the vine without anyone really noticing until it's too late. As Jacobs points out, there are places in America that already live a Dark Ages existence -- there always have been -- but the number of such places is growing. People who once thought themselves secure are now sliding into the dark. But how can so much be forgotten in the digital age? As Jacobs also points out, the digital library is an especially fragile thing, one that will deteriorate far more swiftly than an old-fashioned printed book. More than that, though, memory has begun to deteriorate at a frightening pace; supposedly educated people are ignorant of knowledge that a typical grade-schooler once knew. In addition, the changes in society, the glorification of profit & power above all, the disregard for what we now call the 99% by the 1%, are all having a nagative effect on the fabric of life. Basic survival is becoming precarious, even as the arts & wisdom that sustain a culture are ignored & discarded. No wonder Jacobs was so concerned as she approached the end of her own life! Again, a smaller book, but well worth reading -- recommended!

The author warns of potential disintegration of US society due to assault from within. She noticed that 5 important underpinnings of the society had been perverted, namely the family or household unit, scientific integrity, critical thought, professional ethics, and tax policy. She compared the dark ages that enveloped primitive nomadic hunting cultures when overcome by more advanced agricultural societies to that which could overtake a culture such as the USA whose food supply and unprecedented well-being are dependent on industrialization during an anti-industrial assault. Although her common sense and wisdom accumulated from a lengthy lifetime of experience and recognition of repeated and evolving patterns insulated her from sophomoric blunders, she may have been a bit naive in buying into the benign motives ascribed to those who were undermining her beloved institutions. The collapse of family and community life she attributed to housing costs outpacing personal income; denigration of the very concept of prevalent dense urban industrial settings and public transportation; inadequate, ill-conceived, and unpopular public-housing projects; and obsequious catering to private automobiles. She detected science fiction masquerading as rigorous trustworthy scientific inquiry. In fact the instruments and vocabulary of scientific progress have been deliberately distorted to cuckold as many unwitting pawns as possible into subverting and progressively reversing that very progress. The author branded higher education as efficient specialized assembly-line diploma mills serving as the costly first step in the process of applying for employment, subsidized by progressive business interests, rather than producing learned scholars, a function it is stretched too thin to perform. In fact this is one of the institutions whose mission has been perverted into obstructing the very culture it is supposed to be transmitting. The author recognized the conflict of interest inherent in expecting arcane professional organizations to police and investigate their own members. She viewed tax policy inherited from the outmoded supremacy of agriculture as shortchanging cities by subordinating their revenue collection and appropriation to the whims of distant superior authorities. Functioning of industrialized cities was her chief interest and expertise. She lived long enough to witness banishment of industrialization from her beloved Toronto, heralding the end of the diverse cohabitation she favored. She foresaw the eventual bursting of the US real-estate bubble similar to what had occurred in Japan. She hoped that her warnings would be taken to heart by active interested members of the decaying society and acted upon before the potential consequences came true and incrementally rooted out even the recollection of the distinctive and vigorous advanced civilization which will have been supplanted by a new dark age, during which the new overlords will inflict the grueling process of reinventing the wheel all over again.