Luke Kemp explores the historical patterns and future risks of societal collapse, tracing the evolution of human societies from egalitarian hunter-gatherers to hierarchical empires dominated by extractive elites. He argues that large, centralised systems, “Goliaths”, become increasingly fragile as inequality and concentrations of power grow, ultimately hollowing them out before external shocks bring them down. Today, we live under a single global Goliath shaped by fossil fuel industries, big tech, and military-industrial complexes. With systems now so fast, complex, and interconnected, Kemp warns that a future collapse could be global, swift, and irreversible. He calls for democratic reform to prevent such a breakdown.
