Unfathomable

There are a few things so large and unwieldy that I cannot understand circumstances in which they can happen. Even when it has happened in the past and is a largely study-able event. In the workplace I cannot fathom how to move a small company from a word-of-mouth based communication to a largely written based form of communication. They each have their pros and cons, neither is better or worse. But I cannot fathom how to do it, neither quickly or slowly. Yet entire Civilizations have done the same thing over the course of hundreds of years (slowly).

This idea of civilizations stopping is equally strange to me. I cannot fathom a way in which an entire Civilization loses its marbles and goes from first to last, to non-existent over another couple hundred of years (again slowly).

Perhaps I can’t fathom it because it moves so slow, and there are so many factors, none of which are uniquely responsible. You can take a number of factors out and still get the same result. But ultimately the mash-up of them all spells doom. I guess I cannot hold such complex factors into my mind at one time to dream up just how a Civilization can fall.

Ironically, Civ4 is one of my favorite games, so of course I can playfully imagine how it happens. But I do sympathize with the notion that perhaps America has stopped trying to be a real Civilization, and is only trying to get by on past success.