There is a limit to how much stress can be put on something before it is finally and irreversibly destroyed.  It goes by several different names.  Critical mass, tipping point, and system overload are but a few.  In each case, the term refers to an event that finally breaks the camel's back (to use yet another term for the same thing). 

Society is not merely reaching its critical mass; it is reaching it so swiftly that predictably, there will be an abrupt and catastrophic breakdown of historic proportions, eclipsing even the fall of the Roman Empire.

This is not hyperbole.  In modern times, humanity has witnessed such catastrophes.  The French Revolution with its resultant Reign of Terror was followed in later years by the Communist Revolution in Russia and even later by the rise of fascism in Germany and Japan.  Each of these events unleashed apocalyptic death and destruction.  Nor were they the end of it.

Today, however, the event is taking place in a form both more subtle and more explosive than ever before.  It is not merely the political, economic, and military structures being overturned, but the very core and foundation of humanity itself: the human psyche.

There is no need to list the examples of that.  The litany of social upheavals eroding family, morals, and education in America and Europe is well known to those who follow such things.  Likewise, the accelerating advance of technology has affected us all in its breathtaking speed.  Beyond that, radical Islamist terrorism has become destructive not merely in terms of its death toll, but also in the fact that it has become the hate that dare not mention its name.

And therein is encapsulated the nature of the catastrophe about to engulf us.  We are faced not with an enemy we cannot defeat, but with one we dare not offend.  Almost literally, we have met the enemy, and he is us.

The modern American fascists do not wave swastika banners; they go to court to force ordinary citizens to (for example) participate in same-sex wedding ceremonies by providing services to them, whether bakery or photography.  Merely to quote the Bible can bring about civil, even in some cases criminal penalties.  Students on college campuses are not free to state their political preference if that preference is Donald Trump.  Why?  Because some of their fellow students feel "threatened."

The backlash has up until recently been silent.  That is changing.  The Sanders and Trump candidacies are merely the rumblings of a volcano preparing to erupt.  People are fed up.

No one can predict exactly what the spark will be that sets off the powder keg.  All we can say with certainty is that there is a powder keg, and there is a lit fuse.

Boom.