Radical Transformation: Is society set to collapse?

Mohawk professor’s book a warning that we need to take action now to avoid catastrophic fate

Is today’s society on the brink of collapse? Kevin MacKay thinks it’s a real possibility.

The Spectator spoke to the Mohawk College professor and executive director of the Sky Dragon Cooperative about his new book — “Radical Transformation” — where he argues big changes are needed to avoid this fate. Q — Where did the idea for your book come from?

A — I’ve been working for quite a few years on issues of the environment, politics and economics, looking at various crises in the world — whether it’s continuing war in the Middle East or whether it’s global climate change. Over time, you start to wonder at the viability and the health of the globalized industrial capitalist system. It led me to start doing some research on why society has collapsed, and if it’s happened in the past. It doesn’t take much research to realize it’s happened several times. There’s a seminal book written by a man named Joseph Painter who looked at why societies collapse, and sort of said that you think of a civilization or a society as a decision-making organization. If they make the right decision, they succeed; if they make the wrong decision, they fail. I really started thinking about our society in those terms. Are we making the right decisions in the face of really catastrophic threats like climate change? It became clear that I don’t think we are. Q — Do you think industrial civilization will soon collapse?

A— I think it’s highly likely. When would this happen? I think we’re looking at maybe 20-30 years, which is not tomorrow morning but it’s pretty damn soon. When you look at the intensity of climate change, and when you also look at, I think, even more importantly resource depletion, there are so many different ecosystems that are at the brink of collapse within the next literally five to 10 years. When a society is as complex as ours, there are tipping points that can occur, which means that a change can occur that may seem rather small — but because of the complex interconnections, that can all of a sudden ripple out from the system in a catastrophic way and lead the whole thing to grind to a halt. Q — What is the solution to stop this from happening?

A — If we think about the challenges we’ve faced today — whether it is ongoing wars, whether if it is climate change or freshwater depletion — are these things technically impossible to solve? You realize quite quickly they’re not and, in fact, we have the solutions readily available to almost any serious threat to our society. To me, the problem is actually that we’re unable to implement those solutions because society’s decision- making systems are captive really to a very small, self-interested elite. We need to change the way we make decisions in our society. We need the information from scientists, from activists, from indigenous communities — all of these groups that have very powerful and important things to say. And I think that more than anything else is going to be what determines whether we make it through this period of crisis or whether we fail.

This interview has been edited and condensed.