>>Tainter defines "collapse" as a "rapid transformation to a lower degree of
>>complexity, typically involving significantly less energy consumption
>>(Tainter 1988)". This may or may not include widespread violence. In
fact
>>"collapse" could look a lot like the kind of society some people are
>>advocating.
>
>Well, perhaps. But in Russia and the Balkans, things seem to be getting
>more complicated rather than less. In both cases it is doubtful that they
>will shake themselves down to a lower level of complexity.
It depends on the definitions again. What WAS Yugoslavia is simpler and
uses less energy -- it's gone. Same with the Soviet Union. Both of the
structures disintegrated.
Jay
