How do societies collapse?

I read a book called Collapse by Jared Diamond, thanks to the thoughtfulness of my friend who decided to gift it to me.

Diamond is talking about how societies commit ‘ecocide’ and about external factors that contribute to its collapse…and I thought it would be interesting to discuss the possible ways societies we live in can collapse if we don’t give attention to certain changes happening around us and the possible ways we can counter the ill effects.

For example in Mumbai, the rapid urbanization is more or less done without keeping in mind the ecological balance. Aren’t we literally digging our own graves by being negligent of the fragile environment we live in?Basic things like separating the waste into recyclables and the disposables are not being enforced into practice.

What about the human aspect? When I read Goldsmith’s 'National Prejudics some six years back ,I thought we might all be moving towards the idea of a global citizenship. But the more we move ‘ahead’ we are falling for claustrophobic ideas of nationality, regionalism, and religious fundamentalism.

Still , I want to be optimistic. I like to count the good things ….and yes there are a lot of positive things happening in this world. But don’t know why…I think the bitterness is more newsworthy and hence our news channels exclusively focus on it…so watching news gives me a headache most of the time…A communal riot is one thing which never fails to shock me. The same people we grow up , one day, try to harm us. What is it that drives such madness? The reasons may be economic, psychological, political or combination of it in brainwashing. But are the people who engage in such crimes even aware of what they are doing? Do they repent later?