The final sign of a coming collapse is the emergence of a Philosopher King,.. in whatever form it might take: a person, a corporation, people with PhD’s, or even a computer A.I..

Plato was a mystic. He believed that there was a far away ethereal place where everything was true and perfect. Like Heaven. He called this place “The Good”. Human consciousness is naturally far away from this perfect place, thus our perception is innately imperfect which makes our world imperfect. However, if a person trained their mind, like a philosopher, they could access The Good and report back to the blind plebs in an effort to make this world better. Kind of like stealing perfection from the Gods. Thus, Plato’s ideal society would be governed by what he called a Philosopher King. A supreme ruler who had access to The Good. Really not any different than believing a King to be connected to God.

According to Plato’s vision, the Philosopher King would make all the decisions for everyone. Including what they did for a living, who they married and how many children they had, what they ate, and even what music they listened to and how much they slept. Later in his life he was given the opportunity to be the Philosopher King of a town as an experiment. It failed miserably, lasting only a couple months. To be honest, the Philosopher King is a despot, and Plato’s vision of a perfect society is just a rationalization to justify the existence of despots. Even if there was a perfect place like The Good and a person were able to access it without bias or presumption, his perfect society would still be impossible… People don’t like to be micromanaged.

There is a very simple scientific reason why people don’t like to be micromanaged… We evolved to value individuality and independence, because nature values our individuality and independence. The survival of our species depends on a person’s ability to adapt to their environment. (Even if that adaptation is to be subservient for a while.) Because the environment is highly varied, extremely complex, and constantly changing, our ability to adapt comes from the freedom to connect to our environments as independent individuals.

Evolution is measured by the cycle of feast and famine. It is a natural cycle; day and night, the tides coming in and going out, or summer and winter. During the feast we discover and create all sorts of new and interesting things that might be used during the next famine. We use the benefits of one to prepare for the harshness of the other. However, just as we tend to spend the dog days of late summer with our feet dangling off the dock and relaxing too much, towards the end of the feast we tend to become disconnected from reality and create useless things of vanity.

The funny thing is, despite all of the distractions, we all feel it coming. It is instinctive… intuitive. Whether we are aware of it or not, or acknowledge the oddness of our behaviors or not. There is no way to stop a coming famine. We might be able to delay it, but the more we delay it the worse it will be.

As we start to descend into the famine, no one wants to be responsible; no one is willing to face the reality. We all, in one way or another, look for a way to avoid the situation all together. We begin to isolate ourselves and project blame away from us. As time goes by, this effort escalates. Enter the Philosopher King. 

The Philosopher King usually makes a name for themselves during the second half of the feast, in a manner that really appeals to people’s vanity. This Philosopher King comes forward and claims to have the answer… a fool proof way to ease people’s anxiety and avoid the coming famine. Their solution involves all of the fanciest of new creations; shiny and impressive. Since no one wants to be responsible… they all quickly agree. All they need to do is allow the Philosopher King to have complete control over every aspect of their lives.

Naturally, it does not work. The famine comes anyway and brutally sifts through all that has been achieved during the feast and destroys that which nature considers useless. The true cause of the famine remains unknown until well after the tidal wave of carnage passes; even after people reconnect and accept responsibility for their own behavior. It is at that point, when everyone is reconnected and responsible, that people can start working together again to build their way into the next feast.

The nature of each famine is something that can only be understood through first hand experience. The environment is far too complex, far too intricate for even the largest supercomputer to understand logically. By the time the Philosopher King emerges, the coming famine is already woven into the fabric of the future. No amount of reasoning or logic can avoid it. Thus, the Philosopher King can only ever be a charlatan.

The truth of every famine is that they are only shortened by the freedom and responsibility of all people. Freedom allows for the statistics of the matter to do its thing; there is a bell shaped curve of individual success, and over time people mimic and learn from the successful and build communities around the lessons. Despots, dictators, tyrants, and Philosopher Kings can only delay this from happening.

I am not of the opinion that the best way to prepare for the coming collapse is to hoard and build walls. The best way to prepare is to simply be ready and willing to take full responsibility for ourselves. To make our own choices in the moment and take nothing for granted. The Philosopher King wants us to follow their edicts, their rules, their formulas for success, and by doing that they promise we will achieve salvation. Unfortunately, most people will have to experience the error first hand.