This despite the facts.
Collapse as it is fetishized by Western historians is exceedingly rare, and usually a product of a ruling class that decides if they can't have civilization *nobody* can.
There are as many ways of organizing people and living together - many more successful than the West's, albeit less indifferent to death and suffering - as there are places that people have lived together;
The "present" is not necessarily "the best of all possible worlds" (thanks Candide!)
4/