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The West May Collapse Very Suddenly. Complex Civilizations Do That, Because They Operate, Most Of The Time, On The Edge Of Chaos.

-Niall Ferguson

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The West May Collapse

Niall Ferguson

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The West May Collapse Very Suddenly. Complex Civilizations Do That, Because They Operate, Most Of The Time, On The Edge Of Chaos.

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It's All Very Well For Us To Sit Here In The West With Our High Incomes And Cushy Lives, And Say It's Immoral To Violate The Sovereignty Of Another State. But If The Effect Of That Is To Bring People In That Country Economic And Political Freedom, To Raise Their Standard Of Living, To Increase Their Life Expectancy, Then Don't Rule It Out.

My Arguments For Liberal Empire Or Whatever You Want To Call It - Hegemony, Primacy, You Name It - Are Really Activated By A Sense That The Alternatives Involve More Violence, More Repression, More Hardship.

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I Think That It Is Important To Be Gregarious, And That Friendships Are Not Just A Leisure Pursuit, That They Are An Integral Part Of What It Is To Be Human, And One Does Better Work If One Has A Circle Of Friends That Is Active.

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The Japanese Co-prosperity Zone Began As A Racist Utopia And Ended As A Cross Between An Abbatoir, A Plantation And A Brothel.

I Think The Condition Of Imperial Denial Is A Handicap Because If You Do Not Recognize That You Are Essentially Performing The Functions Of An Empire, You Are Incapable Of Learning From The Mistakes Of Past Empires.

For 500 Years The West Patented Six Killer Applications That Set It Apart. The First To Download Them Was Japan. Over The Last Century, One Asian Country After Another Has Downloaded These Killer Apps- Competition, Modern Science, The Rule Of Law And Private Property Rights, Modern Medicine, The Consumer Society And The Work Ethic. Those Six Things Are The Secret Sauce Of Western Civilization.

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The West May Collapse Very Suddenly. Complex Civilizations Do That, Because They Operate, Most Of The Time, On The Edge Of Chaos.

Oral History Is A Recipe For Complete Misrepresentation Because Almost No One Tells The Truth, Even When They Intend To.

Telling The Truth

Misrepresentation

In Stalin's Russia Racial Persecution Was Often Disguised As Class Warfare. More Than 1.5 Million Members Of Ethnic Minorities Died As A Result Of Forced Resettlement.

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Finding Yourself

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In The Old Days It Would Have Been A Relatively Simple Matter To Have Checked Hitler's Territorial Ambitions. All You'd Have Needed Would Have Been The 1914 Combination Of Britain, France And Russia. Indeed, If Such An Alliance Had Acted Decisively To Defend Czechoslovakia In 1938, Hitler Might Even Have Been Overthrown By His Own Military. But It Was Not To Be.

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