Point of interest: declining or imperilled societies nearly always become more authoritarian, yet the current decline is being accompanied by major contrary activities (South America removing its alternating juntas of long standing, Obama replacing Bush, anti-free-market Chinese dissent during (& ever since) Tiennamen Square, the Internets dissolving away the one-way control of the ever-increasingly monolithic mass-media, et al).
My 2¢ Worth?
Either humanity will return to an olde-tyme-religionistic Dark Ages farce once enough of our folly comes back to chew us all a new one ... OR ... the aforementioned chewing hits right when we pack in the cock-wagging Machiavellian Realpolitik jive & finally fully get our societal act together.
2 for 2 on the lulzometer!
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PS: There is only one documented case of a naturally occurring 3 out of 2 reading on the lulzometer.