Thanks for asking ;-) I think the American Way of Life is doomed - it can't and won't reform itslef. A through Z alternatives won't make a bit of difference and anything other than A or B are impossible in the American winner/loser mindset anyway. I think that the US will gradually (or not so gradually) collapse from its own contradictions and mistakes. Western Europe is a kinder and gentler form of late imperialist capitalism, and allows A,B,C,D choice politically, but just look at its own messes. It will collapse too.
What will replace these systems is the Great Unknown. How can any of us know? But looking at the "alternatives", such as Chinese authoritarianism with its 19th century Dickensian economics and faux communist government, or kleptocracies around the rest of the globe in Eastern Europe and Russia, Latin America and Africa etc etc ... not a lot to look forward to. Mankind sure has fucked it all up, hasn't it?
What I would like to see happen after the economic collapse and ecological disaster in our near future, is a technological and political collapse that would disable nuclear weapons just as America's world hegemony becomes irrelevant. After that people around the world could re-form (in both senses of the word) into smaller communities or nation states. Of course they will invade and conquer each other - it's the nature of man to fight and kill his fellow man. Maybe the remnants of a nuclear Iran will nuke Israel and Pakistan will nuke India, who knows? But man has this strange tendency to survive himself.
So a new Dark Ages might be just the thing, another chance just like the Western World had after the Roman Empire fell. Hopefully Kol will set aside a little refuge for his friends to hide out...I'll run the scriptorium.
But chances are, we'll all likely be gone or done in.
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What will replace these systems is the Great Unknown. How can any of us know? But looking at the "alternatives", such as Chinese authoritarianism with its 19th century Dickensian economics and faux communist government, or kleptocracies around the rest of the globe in Eastern Europe and Russia, Latin America and Africa etc etc ... not a lot to look forward to. Mankind sure has fucked it all up, hasn't it?
What I would like to see happen after the economic collapse and ecological disaster in our near future, is a technological and political collapse that would disable nuclear weapons just as America's world hegemony becomes irrelevant. After that people around the world could re-form (in both senses of the word) into smaller communities or nation states. Of course they will invade and conquer each other - it's the nature of man to fight and kill his fellow man. Maybe the remnants of a nuclear Iran will nuke Israel and Pakistan will nuke India, who knows? But man has this strange tendency to survive himself.
So a new Dark Ages might be just the thing, another chance just like the Western World had after the Roman Empire fell. Hopefully Kol will set aside a little refuge for his friends to hide out...I'll run the scriptorium.
But chances are, we'll all likely be gone or done in.
Well, you asked for a "wild guess"...