Every civilisation so far, except for our own, has been absorbed or collapsed. And unless aliens turn up, our global civilisation isn’t going to be absorbed.
Consider our society in terms of the working life of an individual person. Up until the late 1800s we were in school. We were learning the processes we would need later – sharing of knowledge and capitalism. Since then we have been at work, hard at work, and with every decade lives (in general) have improved all around the world.
And now we are exhausted. We have exhausted ways of extracting wealth from nature. We have run out of ways to improve lives, unless you count buying more clothes than you could ever wear. And we have reached the end of what capitalism can provide for us.
It is widely documented that we are entering the age of leisure. While we will still work substantial hours to afford that leisure, because of silly-old capitalism, leisure is where the growth in jobs and revenue is. Entertainment, travel, experiences, hobbies and well-being. We are becoming retired people, and we simply need to get rid of the pesky need to pay for things.
Providing equality is not too different to being that grandparent who gives their granddaughter a $20 note and whispers “don’t tell your Mum”.
It is much easier to give, as many well-off retired people will attest, when you have everything you need.
And also fitting the retirement analogy in a way is feeling frail and vulnerable. Since the last world war and last pandemic, we have been worried about nuclear war and climate change but nothing massively bad happened on the scale of the Spanish Flu and World War Two. But now, with the coronavirus and increasingly unstable weather, it is time again to feel that bad outcomes do actually happen. So while an individual retiree might buy a Volvo for safety reasons, as a civilisation expect that some of our retirement savings will be spent on protecting us from nature.
It is time for our civilisation to retire and enjoy the fruits of our labours. It is time to give generously to our extended family and favourite charities. It is time work less, and enjoy life more. It is time to downsize our homes and invest in protecting ourselves from harm. We should all be spending more time gardening, literally and metaphorically.