On Sun, 27 May 2018 08:25:47 -0600, Chris L Peterson
wrote:
On Sun, 27 May 2018 10:48:15 +0200, Paul Schlyter
wrote:

No human civilization has yer endured more than some 5000 years.
150
years is some 3% of that, which is definitely more than an
instant.

That's more like civilization itself. Most major civilizations only
existed a few hundred years. Plenty of important ones were only
dominant for something on the order of 150 years. (Taking
"civilization" to mean any single cohesive culture.) What about the
U.S.? Well, it began to be powerful on the world scene around the
mid
1800s. It's currently in decline, unlikely to survive in its current
form. It could easily be a fairly typical 200 to 250 year
civilization
when viewed by future historians.

Very true. Europe is a bit older but may meet the same fate - after
all, most Americans are descendants from emigrated Europeans. Europe
is really several mutually competing civilisations which of course
adds to the instability of Europe.