From: Lawrence DeBivort (debivort@umd5.umd.edu)
Date: Mon Nov 18 2002 - 17:59:21 GMT
A few days ago, Platt asked a question that prompted me to write the
following. But it hasn't been posted yet, so I send it again, but don't
still have Platt's material to include. Apologies. I also changed the
subject line.
Lawry
--------------------
I think that it is one of those 'why do empires rise and fall' type
questions. For a long period of European and Middle Eastern history, Muslim
entities were indeed preeminent politically, administratively
intellectually, technologically and scientifically. Now, these same areas
are, in the views of their own populations, struggling to survive against a
resurgent and essentially Christian West. Several observers have asked this
same question, and we are still in the process of figuring out the answer.
My thought, centrally, is this: that within the strengths that create empire
and preeminence, often lie the seeds of eventual weakness and failure. To
simplify: those who build and run empires come to believe their own
propaganda: they come to believe that they are intrinsically superior to all
others, and that their preeminence is theirs by right. They develop an
overweening arrogance and growing ignorance, ignorance based on their
assumption that they have nothing left to learn. Their power, they believe,
will be sufficient to keep them in power. In the meantime, those that the
empire dominates fret. It may take them centuries, but they eventually
figure out some way of developing their capabilities to achieve some redress
in the balance of power, and if they do so successfully enough, they can
even overtake the empire and achieve even greater power. The rise of the
former underdogs is, it seems, often abetted by the growth of self-seeking
by individuals in the empire who are in positions of responsibility and
power.
So some of those who were weak, driven by resentment of their subjugation,
find through hard work and some luck ways to become strong. Those who are
strong, complacent in their strength, find through their intellectual
laziness and inability to adjust effectively to a world in which change is
continuous, ways to lose that strength.
Yesterday, the Muslims created those empires. Today, it is America.
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