An amazing interesting post about crisis and society collapse from Ugo Bardi on the oildrum.

According to the author the complexity of a society is both a cost and a benefit, but after a certain point is only a cost which will bring the society down.
The “homeostasis” is the process which the complex society use to compensate forces which destabilize the society. This analysis is applied to the Roman Empire, but analogy with our societies are also drawn.

The crisis is very close and we are swimming in it, but we are not able to see the water.