Francis Fukuyama in The end of history and the last man asks
How do we know that an apparent lack of "contradictions" in the apparently victorious social system-here, liberal democracy-is not illusory, and that the progress of time will not reveal new contradictions requiring a further stage of human historical evolution?
and provides the answer that
Without an underlying concept of human nature that posited a hierarchy of essential and non-essential human characteristics, it would be impossible to know whether an apparent social peace represented true satisfaction of human longings, rather than the work of a particularly efficient police apparatus, or merely the calm before a revolutionary storm.
This recent paper of mine, I hope that it contributes a bit more to our knowledge of sustainability and collapse.