Choice for Thought
Over lunch with Otterman, Dachsie and Mr. Budak earlier this dreary day, Dachsie gave us a highlight about the book she was currently reading.Collapse, by Jared Diamond, was the same title I had recommended to Professor Benito Tan weeks earlier. I ran into him at Borders and for want of a brain-shredding and insomnia-inducing title, I pulled this book from the shelf and placed it in his hands. Enthralled, Benito promptly bought it.
So there we were, over sumptious Indian food, talking about the books we were currently reading. Diamond had used four salient points that contributed to the collapse of ancient civilizations. Factors such as external threats, social expectation, environment factors to cultural evolution. Though not purely dependent on any single one of these factors, all civilizations are affected by a combination of these with various degrees of influcence.
Otterman had pointed out Diamond's earlier book, which led me to think of another by Victor Davis Hanson. Hanson wrote that the disparity in the prosecution of warfare by Western societies, effectively bulldozed lesser or native ones. Western society, he wrote, had a great knack for organized killing despite military technology being the force-leveler during conflicts.
One other that I've read is written by David S. Landes. Written years ago, Landes presents the economic perspective as to why some societies succeed while others remain basket cases. And that, he argued, had to do with social attitudes, geographical location and infrastructure. Translated into the will to succeed, resources to mine and utilize, to the tools on hand for a society to not only thrive, but to attain immeasurable wealth.
posted by Teutoburg @ 7:57 PM
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