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Today, pandemics and climate play a crucial role, and that is not the first time in our history. In an excellent book, Kyle Harper discusses their role in the fall of the Western Roman Empire and shows how they exposed Rome’s loss of resilience. From this example, we indulge in free reflections in these uncertain times. That brings us to reflect on the loss of resilience and the fall of the American Empire as well as the shift of the center of the world and the rise of Asia. This also leads us to consider that we are currently experiencing a crisis of civilization which will be long. It places the overcoming of capitalism as the horizon, but the mode of production that will succeed it is not determined and could also be inegalitarian and destructive. This crisis leads us to come back to understanding the transitions between civilizations and to re-situate the collapse, which is not the end of history, as a passage towards the emergence of new civilizations.