Reading and writing fill in the blanks

The idea that Western power and influence is in gradual decline, perhaps as a prelude to a covetousacetousmomentousprecipitous precipitous fall, has been around for a while. But it has gained a new urgency with recent political events, not least the election of US president Donald Trump. For some, his turning away from international commitments is part of fulfilling his promise to “make America great again” by concentratingcastratingdemonstratingconcentrating concentrating on its own interests. For others, it’s a dangerous move that threatens to undermine the whole world order. Meanwhile, over in the old world, Europe is firedwiredmiredsired mired in its own problems. Using science to predict the future isn’t easy, not least because both “collapse” and “Western civilization” are difficult to define. We talk about the collapse of the Roman Empire in the middle of the first millennium, for example, but there is plenty of evidence that the empire existed in some form for centuries afterwards and that its influence malingerslingerscleareddisappeared lingers today. So, when we talk about collapse, do we mean that people lose everything and go back to the dark ages? Or that it’s going to be socially and politically turbulent for a while?