Re: The reason for the US' success, he said, is that it allowed a whole host of citizens to experiment and innovate, do-it-youself style,...
I agree. I think that Europe is suffering from the Maya Syndrome, that is, economic sclerosis stemming from its rabid corporacism... Again, it's a natural phenomenon for a society that puts the sociological status quo above everything else. The Maya people actually did know about the wheel (as toy carts for children attest to); yet, they never put it into practice because their whole political fabric rested upon a delicate division of labor: thousands of carriers and runners (tlameme *) were employed to dispatch foodstuff, ore, jewelry and messages all across the country... Even if Central/South America was deprived of beasts of burden, the Mayas could at least have emulated Ancient Egypt and turn their carriers into "yoke men". After all, a dozen men pulling a four-wheel cart surely can transport a heavier load on a longer distance than each of them parcelled out with the same burden.... But since the discarding of so many docile workers would have disrupted the Mayan society, the elites just prohibited any productive usage of the wheel. Europe is facing a similar challenge today: computerized production, e-commerce, internet free speech, Indian computer geeks, China's mobile boom, frustrated immigrants, etc. are all threatening its centuries-old worldview...
Gus.
(*) history.ucsb.edu |
