Cursed by inequality
The history and future of societal collapse
Lecture Theatre 4.04, Bush House, Central London (and livestreamed online)
18.15 to 19.30, Monday 20 October 2025
For the first 300,000 years of human history, hunter-gathering Homo sapiens lived in fluid, egalitarian civilizations that thwarted any individual or group from ruling permanently. Then, around 12,000 years ago, that began to change. As we congregated in the first cities, began to rely on lootable resources and developed more powerful weapons, small groups began to seize control of valuable commodities. This inequality in resources soon tipped over into inequality in power, and we started to adopt more primal, hierarchical forms of organization. Power was concentrated in masters, kings, pharaohs and emperors (and ideologies were born to justify their rule). Goliath-like states and empires – with vast bureaucracies and militaries – carved up and dominated the globe.
Dr Luke Kemp’s new book, Goliath’s Curse: The History and Future of Societal Collapse, looks at what brought down the empires of Egypt, Rome, China and other Goliaths, and finds that they were hollowed out by increasing inequality and concentrations of power before an external shock dealt the final blow.
Now we live in a single global Goliath. Growth obsessed, extractive institutions like the fossil fuel industry, big tech and military-industrial complexes rule our world and produce new ways of annihilating our species, from climate change to nuclear war. Our systems are now so fast, complex and interconnected that a future collapse will likely be global, swift and irreversible. All of us now face a choice: we must learn to democratically control Goliath, or the next collapse may be our last.
What lessons can we learn from this radical retelling of history for our current, fragile political moment, in the UK and beyond? Join us for a thought-provoking (and hopefully not entirely pessimistic) conversation about the risks posed by inequality in Britain today to our society, democracy, economy and environment and what we can do about them to avert disaster. Luke will be joined by Dr Danny Sriskandarajah, CEO of the New Economics Foundation, in a conversation hosted by Dr Jeni Mitchell, director of the KCL Future Threats Lab, and Will Snell, CEO of the Fairness Foundation.
Schedule
18:15 – Welcome and introductions (Jeni Mitchell)
18:25 – Goliath’s Curse (Luke Kemp)
18:45 – Discussion with Danny Sriskandarajah (Will Snell)
19:05 – Audience Q&A
19:30 – Event ends
Speakers
Dr Luke Kemp is a research associate at the Centre for the Study of Existential Risk at the University of Cambridge, and the author of Goliath’s Curse: The History and Future of Societal Collapse. Luke looks at the past (civilization collapses) and future (climate change and emerging technologies) to guide policy in the present. He has a background in human geography, international relations and economics, all of which he tutored or lectured in at the Australian National University (ANU). He holds a PhD in international relations from the ANU and was previously a senior economist at Vivid Economics. His research has been covered by media outlets such as the New York Times, the BBC and the New Yorker.
Dr Dhananjayan Sriskandarajah has been Chief Executive of NEF since January 2024. His previous roles include CEO of Oxfam GB, Secretary General of CIVICUS, Director of the Royal Commonwealth Society, Interim Director of the Commonwealth Foundation and various posts at the Institute for Public Policy Research. He is a Trustee of the Guy’s & St Thomas’ Foundation, a member of the UN’s High Level Advisory Board on Economic and Social Affairs, and a member of Quadrature Climate Foundation’s Advisory Board. Danny holds a Masters and Doctorate from Oxford University, and an undergraduate degree from the University of Sydney, and is the author of "Power to the People" (Headline Press, 2024).
Dr Jeni Mitchell is a lecturer in the Department of War Studies at King’s College London, specialising in future war studies, space studies and the evolution of rebellion. She is founder and co-director of the Future Threats Lab, a King’s research group that takes a human-centric approach to the most dire threats facing humanity and its habitats. She is also an associate of the Freeman Air and Space Institute and the King’s Wargaming Network. Jeni’s current research focuses on future threat perceptions, futures research methods, and the evolution of the ‘apocalyptic imaginary’. Her most recent publication is ‘War in Ukraine and the Apocalyptic Imaginary’ in Beyond Ukraine: Debating the Future of War (Hurst, 2024). Jeni holds an MA and PhD from the Department of War Studies, King’s College London.
Will Snell is Chief Executive of the Fairness Foundation. After working in the civil service and for a range of non-profits in the international development sector, he set up Tax Justice UK in 2017 and then launched the Fairness Foundation in collaboration with Julian Richer in 2021, becoming its founding Chief Executive. At the Fairness Foundation, Will leads a small team, and works with a broad range of partners and experts, to persuade politicians to treat inequality in the UK as a policy priority, making the moral, political and policy arguments for action to tackle inequality in all its forms. Will was elected as a Fellow of the Academy of Social Sciences in October 2023.