The subtle and deadly change of heart that might occur in you would be involved with the realization that a civilization is not destroyed by wicked people; it is not necessary that people be wicked but only that they be spineless.
“Three immense forces, Heilbroner contends, transformed the Distant Past into Yesterday — science, capitalism and the revolutionary belief that people might become masters of their own fates. For the first time, mankind saw the future as a beckoning prospect. The growth of technology and science, in particular, rapidly transformed the world for the better — a process that everyone assumed would stretch forever into the future.”
J. G. Ballard | “Anything Could Happen”