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October 30, 2024
Six 'Killer Apps' That Let the West Dominate the East
1. Representative government
2. The consumer society
3. Protestant work ethic
4. Market capitalism
5. Modern medicine
6. Scientific method
[via historian Niall Ferguson]
October 30, 2024 at 12:01 PM | Permalink
Comments
Thank you, antares, for taking the time to write this.
Without really thinking it through, most of this list seemed misplaced or just silly to me.
Posted by: Luke | Nov 1, 2024 9:16:11 AM
Half a century ago, I entertained a dream of becoming a professional historian; that is, someone who gets paid to read and write history. In pursuit of that dream, I attended the national convention of the American Historical Society. I listened to panel discussions and lectures and drank and ate dainties with professional historians at their parties.
I was shocked at the amount of ignorance and arrogance I encountered.
One example: A panelist on ancient military history criticized Julius Caesar for his lack of a general staff. I stood and pointed out that his criticism was anachronistic. The Prussian Army invented the general staff in 1866. His criticism of Caesar sprung from his ignorance of that fact.
Did Caesar's lack of a general staff mean that the functions of a general staff were not performed? Of course not. The needs of the Roman Legions in 66 BCE were echoed in the needs of the Prussian Army in 1866 CE. What did Caesar do? He relegated those tasks to his Council of War. The Prussians applied German organization to these tasks, documented them, and made their fulfillment efficient.
This overeducated moron had no idea that the general staff was such a recent invention. He made an assumption and acted upon it. Now, it is all right to make assumptions. We all do. But the next step is to validate the assumption. Half a day at any competent library would have revealed the flaw in his assumption. His ignorance was proof that he did not spend that half a day. He was lazy. And stupid.
He was not alone in his ignorance. My impression was that these historians knew a great deal about their dissertation topic and damned near nothing about anything else. I went away disabused of my dream to become a professional historian.
That is the preface to my opinion on Niall Ferguson.
I confess that I had not heard of Niall Ferguson before. So I did some research. If I choose to believe Wikipedia and Niall Ferguson's website, Ferguson appears to be motivated to produce unconventional and provocative histories to garner attention. To say that Ferguson's history of WW1 is flawed is to give it more credence than it deserves.
Ferguson's "Six 'Killer Apps' That Let the West Dominate the East" looks to me like something struck on a napkin at a cocktail party after the third round of drinks. They are superficially attractive, but they lack depth. Where is the urban supply of clean drinking water? Where is urban sewage removal and treatment? Where is urban refuse collection and disposal? You cannot have cities without those three things. Once you have those, you have to have firefighting systems, communication networks, and transportation networks. All of these and each of these is far more important than 'Modern Medicine'.
Posted by: antares | Oct 31, 2024 3:07:17 AM
