Why Civilizations Fail 6

There is a HUGE book called "A Study of History" in twelve volumes and written by Sir Arnold Toynbee in 1987. In the fifth volume subtitled "The Disintegrations of Civilizations" he gives us six different reasons why civilizations throughout history have collapsed. Edmund Burke said "Those who don't know history are destined to repeat it." And so let us take a look at the six reasons civilization fails.

Reason Number 1: Cultural Suicide

Reason Number 2: Truancy or Escapism

Reason Number 3: A Sense of Promiscuity

Reason Number 4: A Sense of Drift

Reason Number 5: Abandon

Reason Number 6: Sense of Wrong

The final reason why civilizations fail according to Toynbee is that the society loses a sense of “wrong” or “sin”. Or, to put it another way; they have lost the sense of guild and self-loathing that comes when you do wrong.

This is the backwash of the previous abandon where lawlessness reigns and so BECAUSE there is so much law-less-ness the sense of guilt and shame from sinning is desensitized out of our consciousness.

The Canaanite Phoenician city of Carthage was a prime example. There is ample evidence of child sacrifice from the 9^th to 6^th centuries BC. Even Israel practiced it at that time (2 Kings16:3, 21:6, Jer. 19:5). The sense of guilt and shame that would come from killing your own children was stifled down by abandon and lawlessness. Guilt was assuaged because the gods demanded it and you could get ahead in society by offering your children to be sacrificed. It became a sign of honor and strength instead of a sign of wrong, evil, and sin.

Today in our society we see men and women going to extreme lengths to assuage their guilt and shame. The counselors they go to tell them that it is not sin, it is simply a choice. Our schools are now teaching that sin is an acceptable way of life and a choice and you should not feel guilty about it. The stigmas of life are gone … everything is acceptable and legitimate.

Where do we go from here? We have abandoned sin and rationalize away the guilt and sense of wrong that goes with it.

From these six indicators of a falling civilization we in America could feel a sense of doom. 

As I said at the beginning of this series I am not a total pessimist. I believe there are still ways in which we can pull ourselves out of this moral malaise. There is still hope for the United States and many Western Countries. But it will take a massive attitude and reasoning shift. The kind of shift that will take a bomb-like event to change it; and it would take something even bigger than 9/11 to do this. Scary thought.

Perhaps God will turn his face towards US again and bring us back to the shining light and savory salt we used to be. Perhaps.