i dispute the premise of the article “The middle class is known, condemned actually, for carrying out violence with the efficiency of an industrial project where bloody destruction at any scale is not only in play, it’s a metric. Remorse is left for the next generation, they’ll have the leisure for it. We’d like to believe this is merely dark speculation. History says it isn’t”. This may no longer be the case. Societies fail when the engine quits! i think the engine has been removed.
You don’t seem to “dispute” it one bit. :)
I’ll add that the only difference between failed and removed would be the efficiency of rebuilding something without all the detritus in the way.