This is one part of an 8 part video which everyone should see. If you want to really understand it, your best bet is to start at the beginning here. You might find it boring to start with, but the information is invaluable. I watched it a few years back and just rediscovered it last night and the 2nd watch was even more rewarding.
Hat tip TAEC.

Ibn Khaldūn (1332-1406 C.E.) –  was a North African polymath — an astronomer, economist, historian, Islamic scholar, Islamic theologian, hafiz, jurist, lawyer, mathematician, military strategist, nutritionist, philosopher, social scientist and statesman (!!!!!!!) —born in North Africa in present-day Tunisia. He retreated into the desert in 1375 and emerged four years later having written one of the most important ever studies of the workings of history.

This volume, commonly known as Muqaddimah or ‘Prolegomena’, became a masterpiece in literature on philosophy of history and sociology. The chief concern of this monumental work was to identify psychological, economic, environmental and social facts that contribute to the advancement of human civilization and the currents of history. In this context, he analysed the dynamics of group relationships and showed how group-feelings, al-’Asabiyya, give rise to the ascent of a new civilisation and political power and how, later on, its diffusion into a more general civilization invites the advent of a still new ‘Asabiyya in its pristine form. He identified an almost rhythmic repetition of rise and fall in human civilization, and analysed factors contributing to it.

Ibn Khaldun’s writings seem particularly relevant today after reading this:
Endgame

I’ve mentioned more than once in these essays the foreshortening effect that textbook history can have on our understanding of the historical events going on around us. The stark chronologies most of us get fed in school can make it hard to remember that even the most drastic social changes happen over time, amid the fabric of everyday life and a flurry of events that can seem more important at the time.

The twilight years of Rome offer a good object lesson; so many people were convinced that the Second Coming might occur at any moment that the collapse of classical civilization went almost unnoticed; only a tiny handful of writers from those years show any recognition that something out of the ordinary was happening at all.

Reflections of this sort have been much on my mind lately, and there’s a reason for that. Scattered among the statistical noise that makes up most of today’s news are data points that suggest to me that business as usual is quietly coming to an end around us, launching us into a new world for which very few of us have made any preparations at all.

Stopped by recently for a walk around the British museum and although there is some really great stuff there the section I went specifically to see containing the ancient Sumerian relics was closed for renovation. Boo!

Read more

In the early 1960’s, the previous owner of our family house started collecting beer mats, and nailing them up on the wall in an outbuilding. When we sold the house years later, I painstakingly removed all 391 of them from the wall, thinking they might be worth something one day.

They have been in storage for the last 12 years gathering a lot of dust and very little value.

As I am going to be moving out of London soon, I decided to document them before they go back to gathering dust…

Here’s a few…

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