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This was long before the civil war. And my objection was to the idea that advanced countries somehow subscribe less to process - I don’t see compelling evidence
by cal5k 8y ago
This was long before the civil war. And my objection was to the idea that advanced countries somehow subscribe less to process - I don’t see compelling evidence that this is true.
- selimthegrim 8y agoYou meant the Articles of Confederation period - he mistook your use of Confederacy for the civil war period, most Americans will.
- cal5k 8y agoFair enough :) The Articles of Confederation obviously resulted in a (smaller) Confederacy in the 18th century, but as a Canadian I’m less familiar with the popular parlance that would be taught in American schools.
- lkrubner 8y agoSorry, I did misunderstand your use of "Confederacy" although you are right that the USA started off as a Confederacy. But the point still holds. The notion that a loose collection of small states could survive had been brought into contempt when Britain defeated the Dutch states. Many people argued that the North American colonies were making a mistake by imitating the loose structure that had already failed in the Netherlands. And it also failed in North America. A better organized Britain was able to defeat the Dutch. A badly organized Confederacy almost collapsed because it was unable to manage its debt. A better organized nation under the Constitution was able to pay its debts and start the process of building a cohesive society. I'm generally critical of anyone who wants to generalize much from history, since history is full of so many contradictory trends, which play out simultaneously, and what actually happens tends to be like the waves we see at the surface of the ocean, which are always the coincidence of several waves crossing the same point at the same time, and often going in opposite directions. But that process-oriented societies have tended to beat less organized societies seems to be a thesis that can withstand a lot of scrutiny.
- cal5k 8y agoI agree with most of what you're saying. I think I actually may have misinterpreted this line: "We tend to associate the early civilizations with great monuments, but they key difference between early societies and advanced ones is the willingness to commit to process." I initially misread that as "earlier societies were more process-abiding than advanced ones", but on reflection you were likely stating the opposite. I shouldn't comment before I've had a cup of coffee in the morning ;-)
- lkrubner 8y agoSorry, that might have been badly written. When I write on my blog I normally hire an editor to catch those kinds of sentences, which can be misunderstood. Maybe the safety net of having an editor has made me lazy. When I write a comment on a place like Hacker News, I should really re-read it to make sure it is clear.