A Review of Immoderate Greatness: Why Civilizations Fail

The first 3 forces are mathematical in that they are limits imposed by the physical universe. A building can only be built so tall before it becomes exponentially more difficult to go higher. Whereas forces four through six are human-contrived. It is in our nature and our nature has evolved over millennia and therefore is not bound to change easily. Ophuls writes “It seems to take a mere ten generations for a civilization to traverse the arc from elan to decadence. Hence they tend to have a lifespan of roughly 250 years that human action can do little to extend.” Ray Dalio confirms this statement in a recent work that parallels the conclusions Ophuls makes. In the #1 bestselling book: <a href="https://amzn.to/3IHuAtD" rel="noopener ugc nofollow" target="_blank">The Changing World Order</a> he writes “I looked at the rises and declines of all of the major empires and their currencies over the last 500 years . . .” and concludes “From examining all these cases across empires and across time, I saw that the great empires typically lasted roughly 250 years, give or take 150 years . . .” <a href="https://medium.com/@byronkay/a-review-of-immoderate-greatness-why-civilizations-fail-841f025973a5">Learn More</a>