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If you ignore the millions of ways the world has changed since the 12th century, and focus only on one superficial broad-brushed similarity, then this article i

by Umalu 16y ago

If you ignore the millions of ways the world has changed since the 12th century, and focus only on one superficial broad-brushed similarity, then this article is persuasive. Otherwise, not.

jdp23 16y ago
The similarity he's talking about is a lot more than superficial: "You have to go back a thousand years to find a time when the world was genuinely western and eastern at the same time.... Now, globalisation is again doing much the same, diffusing power away from the west in particular, but also from states and towards cities, companies, religious groups, humanitarian non-governmental organisations and super-empowered individuals, from terrorists to philanthropists."
- Umalu 16y ago
  Admittedly, my comment itself was superficial and broad-brushed, but I still have a hard time seeing our world, even accepting the truth of the author's premises, becoming anything evenly remoting resembling the 12th century world. So much else is so different.
  - jeangenie 16y ago
    you're so right. now that we have american idol nothing like that can ever happen again.
lukeschlather 16y ago
It's a good article, with a nice analysis of the 12th century Eurasian system. Yes, this is clearly not the 12th century, but the parallels can give a good deal of insight into our present world-system. I think the most interesting thing about looking at the parallels is how similar the models are between 12th century and present. Yes, we move and communicate a lot faster, and there are a lot more of us, but at the core you can still see the same sorts of organizational units showing up, and the relationships between those organizational units function very similarly. That said, you can see some fundamental shifts in the nature of organizations. Slavery is almost universally shunned, which marks one institution that has shifted radically in social importance. Democracies are consequently very different from their historical predecessors. There's a lot of interesting stuff here. Your post, on the other hand, is reductive and boring.
- junkbit 16y ago
  Actually, it is said that there are more slaves today than at any point in history http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=859770 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=859770
- bsk 16y ago
  >> Your post, on the other hand, is reductive and boring. So mean and bad mannered ;) This guy, Parag Khanna, have been shown in school and Hollywood movies an extremely simplified model of the 19th and 20th centuries world. A model where all events are explained through the state politics and big business is ignored. Based on that stupid assumption he is saying that now the world is different, because there are powers outside the states.

by Umalu 16y ago

If you ignore the millions of ways the world has changed since the 12th century, and focus only on one superficial broad-brushed similarity, then this article is persuasive. Otherwise, not.

jdp23 16y ago

The similarity he's talking about is a lot more than superficial: "You have to go back a thousand years to find a time when the world was genuinely western and eastern at the same time.... Now, globalisation is again doing much the same, diffusing power away from the west in particular, but also from states and towards cities, companies, religious groups, humanitarian non-governmental organisations and super-empowered individuals, from terrorists to philanthropists."

Umalu 16y ago
Admittedly, my comment itself was superficial and broad-brushed, but I still have a hard time seeing our world, even accepting the truth of the author's premises, becoming anything evenly remoting resembling the 12th century world. So much else is so different.
- jeangenie 16y ago
  you're so right. now that we have american idol nothing like that can ever happen again.

lukeschlather 16y ago

It's a good article, with a nice analysis of the 12th century Eurasian system. Yes, this is clearly not the 12th century, but the parallels can give a good deal of insight into our present world-system. I think the most interesting thing about looking at the parallels is how similar the models are between 12th century and present. Yes, we move and communicate a lot faster, and there are a lot more of us, but at the core you can still see the same sorts of organizational units showing up, and the relationships between those organizational units function very similarly. That said, you can see some fundamental shifts in the nature of organizations. Slavery is almost universally shunned, which marks one institution that has shifted radically in social importance. Democracies are consequently very different from their historical predecessors. There's a lot of interesting stuff here. Your post, on the other hand, is reductive and boring.

junkbit 16y ago
Actually, it is said that there are more slaves today than at any point in history http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=859770 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=859770
bsk 16y ago
>> Your post, on the other hand, is reductive and boring. So mean and bad mannered ;) This guy, Parag Khanna, have been shown in school and Hollywood movies an extremely simplified model of the 19th and 20th centuries world. A model where all events are explained through the state politics and big business is ignored. Based on that stupid assumption he is saying that now the world is different, because there are powers outside the states.