Not as shown in hack director Roland Emmerich’s forthcoming film 2012:
But in a much more serious and historically consistent way. The Mexica people predicted their own demise in the beginning of the sixteenth century, this came true not through brimstone and floods but through an alien invasion that rocked society and brought everything crumbling down.
The world of the Mexica
Today the world is united under one power, just as the world of the Mexica was united under one power residing in Tenochtitlan, that rules without consent of most who live under its power. Any country that tries to resist this rule will either end up like Iraq or in most cases like Zimbabwe.
Any disturbance to the power structure will unleash pent up pressure, just as the arrival of aliens to the world of the Mexica unleashed rebellion:
“Cortés, with up to 500 Spaniards, did not fight alone but with as many as 150,000 or 200,000 allies from Tlaxcala, and eventually other Aztec tributary states. It was not difficult for Cortes to find allies to fight with him, the Aztecs were not generally liked by the neighbouring city-states.”
History of the Aztecs, Wikipedia.
So what could disturb the structure of power in the world? Neither aliens nor religion will do it. Environmental collapse or natural causes have some probability on the long term, but we should not concentrate on either. Let us see if we can learn from history and ask why did the world of the Soviet Union collapse? The answer is economic collapse.
“It is apparent that the quantities of money are increasing in an accelerating fashion. In 1990, the total amount of currency in circulation passed US$1 trillion. Twelve years later, the total amount exceeded US$2 trillion. This doubled again less than six years later in early 2008.”
How Much Money is There?, DollarDaze.org
Doubling in half the time is a characteristic of exponential growth. The next step is a doubling in three years, which means by 2012 the total amount of currency in circulation will pass $8 trillion.
Trillions more is being ‘printed’ by central banks. That money, for now, is being horded by the bank but sooner or later the dam will burst and the money will engulf the whole economy, then there will be no escape from hyperinflation.
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Still reading, still good sensei.