So Parisians are plunging into canals while London dispatches ‘emergency heat teams’. One might mistake this for a scene from a dystopian novel, were it not for the grim reality of our present. The continent that once conquered the globe now gasps under a blistering sun, and our collective response is a pathetic mix of hedonism and bureaucratic triage.
This is what happens when a civilisation loses its nerve: it turns to canal-dipping and clipboard-waving instead of building infrastructure that might actually withstand the elements. The Victorian era understood the importance of robust systems; we, in our decadence, prefer to photograph our suffering for Instagram. The fall of Rome began with similar theatrics, I suspect, though they at least had the decency to do it in better togas.
