Victor Davis Hanson: Signs of a ‘Total Systems Collapse’ Are Everywhere—Are You Paying Attention?

The Daily Signal

News, Government, Politics, Daily News

4.6 • 1.2K Ratings

🗓️ 24 September 2025

⏱️ 10 minutes

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Summary

There is no margin of error for the success of American society. On today’s episode of “Victor Davis Hanson: In His Own Words,” Hanson explains the phenomenon known as a “total systems collapse,” in which a society metaphorically implodes when it casts aside values like common sense and meritocracy and replaces them with diversity, equity, and inclusion as the base for society. “ We are a very sophisticated society. We require meritocracy, empiricism, credentials. And we have very sophisticated transportation, education, health care, etc., etc. And if we don't follow the norms that gave us that prosperity, security, and freedom, then the system starts to break down. And we've seen the indices of that. “ We saw that same systems collapse with the tragic killing of Iryna Zarutska. And everything went wrong. First of all, why would you enter a light-rail car without having to have a ticket? This was an honor system. It encouraged people to abuse the system—to think that you really don't have to pay anything for a free ride. It said you couldn't have a concealed weapon, but what does that mean when you don't even have security to check people? You can't stop and frisk people, apparently, anymore. She came in there and there were four people around her, including the assailant. He killed her. But what kind of society is it where the four people adjacent, behind her just walk by her—watch the killer commit this horrific act of cutting her throat. And then after he leaves and he mutters, “Got the white girl,” then they don't do anything. They didn't do anything to stop it. They didn't do anything, just to walk a few feet over, a foot over, and try to help her in her death throes. What ideology is that that allows that to happen? 👉Don’t miss out on Victor’s latest videos by subscribing to The Daily Signal today. You’ll be notified every time a new piece of content drops: https://www.youtube.com/dailysignal?sub_confirmation=1 👉If you can’t get enough of Victor Davis Hanson from The Daily Signal, subscribe to his official YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/@victordavishanson7273 👉He’s also the host of “The Victor Davis Hanson Show,” available wherever you prefer to watch or listen. Links to the show and exclusive content are available on his website: https://victorhanson.com The Daily Signal cannot continue to tell stories, like this one, without the support of our viewers: https://secured.dailysignal.com/ (0:00) Total Systems Collapse (2:14) Modern Indicators (2:47) Case Studies (5:43) The Role of Ideology (8:01) Conclusion Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:30.0	When complex societies of sophistication and intricacy, bureaucracies become very vulnerable
0:36.1	if some little quirk appears and the society no
0:40.3	longer operates on empiricism, meritocracy, but it's governed by ideology or superstition.
0:46.5	In a sophisticated society like the United States, where we have complexities of travel and power
0:52.7	and we have a diverse population from all over the world.
0:56.0	If you don't have a margin of air, and if we don't follow the norms that gave us that prosperity, security, and freedom, then the system starts to break down.
1:06.0	When you operate on anti-mericratic DEI orthodoxies and you have ideologies that overrule common sense and
1:13.7	tradition, then you get something like a total systems collapse.
1:31.4	Hello, this is Victor Davis Hansen for The Daily Signal. I'd like to talk about a concept called systems collapse.
1:35.2	Anthropologists use it, historians use it.
1:37.4	It refers to complex societies that suddenly implode because the level of sophistication and
1:43.6	intricacy, intricacy, bureaucracies become such
1:47.5	that it's very vulnerable if some little quirk appears and the society no longer operates on
1:55.9	empiricism, meritocracy, but it's governed by ideology or superstition.
2:01.7	We usually look at systems collapse in terms of, oh, the Mycenaean Greeks, to take one example.
2:08.1	Very sophisticated, linear B tablets, palatial culture, and yet something went wrong
2:13.3	in that concentrated structure of the palace and the entire society collapse.
	...

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