And the Wind-Up...
stoutfellow: "Anyway, neither Dawkins nor Mandelbrot are gonna be much help in trying to prevent the coming Dark Age."
But they will be useful in describing it, yes?
The concept of a failed state implies the idea of a successful state, which in turn implies the presence of a competitive paradigm and selective process.
The Anthropic Principle states that everything that came before 'now' was necessary for us to be here, at this place. If you are an American, look around you at the prosperity, happiness, and wealth. These did not simply appear out of air, they were bought and paid for through the falsification process of our ideals.
Now let's suppose you are an Arab. All the poverty and failure around you also happened for a reason. Claiming that the West oppressed and manipulated your people is just another way of saying you were powerless to resist, which is another way of saying you lost the game. History is varied, and many causes can be determinative, but nothing can scrub away the fact that for the last 600 years your society has failed, miserably. After that long of a slump, you probably want to stop complaining about the pitching, and maybe change your swing.
The competitive value of any one state is co-dependant on the value and properties of all others, and all these are co-dependant on the properties of the system in which they interact. If the only way to compete globally is through resource aquisition (power) and world trade (production and wealth), it makes little sense to build a state paradigm on Greenpeace and the AFL-CIO. Now imagine how harmful it is to build a paradigm on something even more contradictory, and you will see why states fail the way they do.
When discussing a dynamic system where many different players can become dominant, the focal point and overall strategic objective for a state becomes the very act of competing and winning; if states lose sight of this imperative, like Europe has done, when they come out of their stupor they will find themselves much further back than they were before.
When a society chooses to structure its ideology in direct contra-distinction to reality, it will fail. And, much like in business, its resources will be cannabilized by a more fit player.
But they will be useful in describing it, yes?
The concept of a failed state implies the idea of a successful state, which in turn implies the presence of a competitive paradigm and selective process.
The Anthropic Principle states that everything that came before 'now' was necessary for us to be here, at this place. If you are an American, look around you at the prosperity, happiness, and wealth. These did not simply appear out of air, they were bought and paid for through the falsification process of our ideals.
Now let's suppose you are an Arab. All the poverty and failure around you also happened for a reason. Claiming that the West oppressed and manipulated your people is just another way of saying you were powerless to resist, which is another way of saying you lost the game. History is varied, and many causes can be determinative, but nothing can scrub away the fact that for the last 600 years your society has failed, miserably. After that long of a slump, you probably want to stop complaining about the pitching, and maybe change your swing.
The competitive value of any one state is co-dependant on the value and properties of all others, and all these are co-dependant on the properties of the system in which they interact. If the only way to compete globally is through resource aquisition (power) and world trade (production and wealth), it makes little sense to build a state paradigm on Greenpeace and the AFL-CIO. Now imagine how harmful it is to build a paradigm on something even more contradictory, and you will see why states fail the way they do.
When discussing a dynamic system where many different players can become dominant, the focal point and overall strategic objective for a state becomes the very act of competing and winning; if states lose sight of this imperative, like Europe has done, when they come out of their stupor they will find themselves much further back than they were before.
When a society chooses to structure its ideology in direct contra-distinction to reality, it will fail. And, much like in business, its resources will be cannabilized by a more fit player.
posted by John Aristides at 7:35 PM
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