Earlier quoted context omitted.
There is a diffeerence between modes of threat. A visible threat vs. an invisible one, an undirected threat vs. a directed one. Some years ago I realised that there are in fact two uses of the term "invisible* in Adam Smith's Wealth of Nations . Among oths I find the significance of the more well-known one to be greatly overstated. But the other seems notable on several counts: "Regularity, order, and prompt obedienc…
I don't disagree with any of that. But I also don't see what it has to do with my point that our response to any threat is often a matter of policy choices, rather than something predestined. (and of course, sometimes it isn't). You can see this even with the case of sars-cov-2, where different policy decisions about the response have contributed to (or resulted in?) different impacts around the world. I imagine we w…
But to address it: There's a strong argument tp be made that how soccieties choose to address their challenges has a major impact on outcomes. That's the major premise and subtitle of Jared Diamond's Collapse8. Others disagree seeing that outcome as inevitable (Tainter, on whom aDiamond draws extensively).
A more interesting approach tries to understand what the dynamics at play are. William Ophuls, though decidedly pessimistic, holds out hope and draws no final conclusions, though he explores the question(s) in detail, particularly in Plato's Revenge, though also in earlier works, notably Ecology and the politics of scarcity.
Why* certain political responses (including thatre, denial, scapegoating, and distraction) are frequently recurrent can prove illuminating.