I’ve been thinking about why civilizations quit trying. After the Renaissance, Western Europe went on to dominate the world, especially if we consider the U.S. as an offshoot of Europe. One reason for this is that the two major potential competitor civilizations, China and the Islamic world, seemed to leave the field at about the same time. Having both been ahead of Europe in science, arts, engineering, and business for the previous millennium they both more or less just stopped in their tracks.
Gavin Menzies’ popular books 1421 and 1424 tell of the huge Chinese fleets that traveled the world until the Emperor ordered them destroyed. In The Man Who Loved China, Simon Winchester talks about the “Needham Question” which is, “Why, after centuries of innovation and discovery, didn’t modern science continue to develop in China along with the West?”
In What Went Wrong? Bernard Lewis describes the glory of the Islamic empires and their decline. Again, they were far ahead of Christiandom in practically every field, but around the 1600s they became insular, stopped innovating, and fell behind.
In Dark Age Ahead Jane Jacobs worried that we might be headed down the same path with the devaluation of science and education. So looking at the current economic disaster, environmental catastrophe, etc., is this the beginning of the end? Have we gotten ourselves into a corner where we give up? And, if so, is it just America or world civilization that’s at risk?