Unaligned Hero Systems and the Dynamics of Civilizational Stability

This paper presents a unified theoretical framework for understanding civilizational stability and collapse based on the interaction between production, extraction, existential meaning, and legitimacy. Drawing on economic payoff models, feedback dynamics, Beckerian hero-system theory, and historical isomorphisms ranging from the Late Bronze Age collapse to modern cybersecurity, it demonstrates that instability begins when extraction becomes both materially profitable and existentially meaningful, while maintenance loses narrative legitimacy. The model formalizes legitimacy inertia, meaning-augmented utility, and positive feedback loops that generate tipping points prior to material deprivation. Rather than offering empirical prediction, the paper provides a reusable structural framework, diagnostic indicators, and control inequalities intended for critique, extension, and application across historical and modern contexts.