--- RulingNations@aol.com wrote: > In a message dated 11/29/03 6:28:33 PM Mountain Standard Time, > andrewdj54701@yahoo.com writes: > > > One other point: The author's evaluation of cultural "success" or > > "failure" is not a moral judgement, it's more of a Darwinian > judgement. > > Successful societies spread their ways of doing things around the > > globe, while failing societies must either change or implode. > > However you (and he) are assuming that "success" is a quality > irrespective of > environment. This cannot be supported. As an entity's (whether > individual, > species, or nation) environment changes different factors define it's > success. > Thus "success" is not a matter of innate qualities but of > relationships, and > we cannot predict future "success" based on current conditions. Actually I don't think that success is a quality that can be separated from the environment. In my original post, IIRC, I posed the question of whether or not any of the signposts could be applied outside the context of the late 20th/early 21st Centuries. My own opinion is that the only thing in the article that may be universally true is the author's contention that cultures that do not value broad education and do not value hard work will eventually fail to compete with their neighbors, resulting marginalization, absorption, or a societal shift of values. Most of the other signposts are too tied to factors that relate to the 20th/21st Centuries. I do think that the author's signposts of failing states are valid for the world as it now is. Will they always hold true? I highly doubt it. Humans change the world too much for the existence of absolutes in the social sciences. Andrew Janssen > > You can agree with the article's opinion or not, but *don't* do > the > > author the disservice of dismissing him without finishing reading > his > > work. > > OK, out of respect to you I've read the entire article. I still > consider it > garbage. > Jefferson > http://www.picotech.net/~jeff_wilson63/rpg/ > ---------------------------------------------------------------- > To unsubscribe, send mail to celandra-off@phoenyx.net. __________________________________ Do you Yahoo!? Protect your identity with Yahoo! Mail AddressGuard http://antispam.yahoo.com/whatsnewfree ---------------------------------------------------------------- To unsubscribe, send mail to celandra-off@phoenyx.net.
