The machine has been slowing down for a long time now, it is stopping. You can tell, every time you turn the key and the engine doesn’t start, or when the car is running but the traffic is gridlocked. You can tell when you push the button and nothing happens, when you log on and you see a blue screen, when your bank statement doesn’t jibe with your records, when your credit card isn’t accepted. You can’t control your only connection with the Machine because someone else controls your SS number or has hacked your pin number. And you can’t call for help because there is no dial tone, or if there is, there is no phone option that corresponds to your problem.

It’s not the first time the machine has stopped. Rome collapsed when its machine stopped. The Egypt of the Pharaohs collapsed when its machine stopped. When the bureaucracy that administers the system (the biggest, most complex machine of all) can’t be controlled, or becomes too expensive or corrupt or complicated to maintain, the civilization becomes unmanageable and unable to meet other, more mundane challenges and risks. Its not mechanical malfunction that kills the beast, its ambition, greed and paperwork, its mistaking one’s role in management with one’s work and duty.

It always stops, eventually. Sometimes it manages to recover in part, but it is painful and a lot of people get hurt. And sometimes you have to start all over from scratch. Sometimes it is barbarians with swords, or with suicide bombs, And sometimes, you can’t even tell what went wrong.

Full text at The Machine Stops