I agree that an EMP is a risk, along with other risks like an influenza pandemic, the eruption of a supervolcano, and the start of another Ice Age.
I just lived through a flood that destroyed much of my home town. Everyone was affected somehow, but some had little damage, and some had catastrophic damage. Everyone lost something. The water level was the highest ever recorded here. My point is that an EMP will affect things in the same way - hit and miss damage, with some extreme devastation, and some folks just cleaning up. There would be death and chaos, but not on the level of “One Second After.” Furthermore, the rest of the world would remain intact, and they’d respond somehow - again, probably some friendly intervention, and probably some aggressive actions against us. In any case, we would get assistance, or intervention.
My gut feeling is that an EMP attack on the United States would initially be destructive, but then the country would rebuild and respond. Everyone would have a story of pain and hardship, and that would translate politically into revenge. It might take 10 or 20 years, but the rebuilt country would retaliate against whoever launched the attack, and then continue against those who supported the attackers. The American Empire would emerge, with the motto “We’ll Kick Your Ass” and the slogan “You F*ck With Us, We Will Kill You.” In other words, a militarized state, probably with traditional authoritarian elements, wrapped in an ideology of a republic. Then, like Rome, we would continue in one form or another for another millennium and a half.
Hey, it’s just as probable as the “we’re all going to die” scenario. All I really know is that I don’t want to be here if it happens.
Rome was built by its army and social system. The social system produced marginalization and impoverishment, and the army provided a way to work off personal resentments against people who lived far away. The more Italian rural society decayed, driving people off the land and into the towns, the bigger the recruitment pool grew.
Already, by the time of the Scipios and Hannibal, Rome was regularly fielding as many as 20+ legions at one time. Each legion numbering (in those days) about 3600-4200 men, you can imagine what the size of that army was. Hannibal was a hurting puppy from the git-go.
The driver and beneficiary of the depopulation of rural Italy by the accumulation of broad estates (latifundia, which operated like our own agribusinesses) was the Roman senatorial class -- which made all policy. Funny coincidence.
Concentration of wealth to the breaking point finally vassalized what was left of Roman, Italian, and provincial freehold farmers. It also impoverished the imperial government as well, which was never able to break the senatorial class to the indignity of paying taxes. Their tax-avoidance legerity made them the masters of those who lacked such skills (the middle class and farmers), creating the social system of feudalism and the Dark Age.