Guardian-Interview mit Luke Kemp (Carrington, 2025) zu dessen Weltgeschichte der Ungleichheit Goliath’s Curse (Kemp, 2025). Die Folgen extremer Ungleichheit führen fast immer zum gesellschaftlichen Kollaps. Zwei Zitate aus dem Interview:
“History is best told as a story of organised crime,” Kemp says. “It is one group creating a monopoly on resources through the use of violence over a certain territory and population.”
Kemp says his argument that Goliaths require rulers who are strong in the triad of dark traits is borne out today. “The three most powerful men in the world are a walking version of the dark triad: Trump is a textbook narcissist, Putin is a cold psychopath, and Xi Jinping came to rule [China] by being a master Machiavellian manipulator.”
Die zitierten Sätze sind plausibel, als historischer Rundschlag könnte das Buch allerdings etwas oberflächlich sein. Überhaupt nicht oberflächlich, sondern subtil wirken auf mich die Überlegungen Kemps zum ökologischen Zusammenbruch und dem Risiko des Aussterbens der Menschheit in dem Band The Era of Global Risk (Kemp, 2023, Gratis-PDF).
Carrington, D. (2025, August 2).
“Self-termination is most likely”: the history and future of societal collapse.
The Guardian.
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2025/aug/02/self-termination-history-and-future-of-societal-collapse
Kemp, L. (2023). Ecological Breakdown and Human Extinction. In S. J. Beard, M. Rees, C. Richards, & C. Rios Rojas (Eds.),
The era of global risk: an introduction to existential risk studies (pp. 147–172). Open Book Publishers.
https://books.openbookpublishers.com/10.11647/obp.0336.07.pdf
Kemp, L. (2025). Goliath’s Curse: a deep history of societal collapse and what it means for our future. Viking.