We need new earths ; A matter of geography BOOK REVIEW: A matter of geography —by Dr Irfan Zafar Why the West Rules — For Now By Ian Morris Farrar, Straus and Girous; Pp 768 Ian Matthew Morris is a British-born archaeologist, classicist and historian. He did his PhD at Cambridge University. At present, he is the Willard Professor of Classics and Professor of History at Stanford University. Professor Morris has published extensively on the history and archaeology of ancient Mediterranean and world history. He is the author of 11 books, Why the West Rules — For Now being his latest. The book compares the East and West over the last 15,000 years, from ancient history to neuroscience, arguing that physical geography rather than culture, religion, politics, genetics or great men explains western domination of the globe (A BRILLIANT, PERCEPTIVE AND ACTUALLY QUITE OBVIOUS PERCEPTION). This idea is a total shift from the established norm of learning from history: “The farther backward you can look, the farther forward you are likely to see.” The power of the book lies not only in the fact that it explains why the West came to rule the world but also to predict what the future will bring in the next 100 years: “Patterns established in the past suggest that the shift of wealth and power from West to East is inexorable (NOT SO FOR THE EAST IS FAR MORE OVERPOPULATED AND RESOURCE DECLINING).” The shift in power from West to East is predicted by many but to reach this point we need to look closely into the deepest force of all — geography. The writer has divided the world into ‘eastern’ and ‘western’ cores of civilisation, thus pitting the Mediterranean core (encompassing the Assyrian, Persian, Roman, British and American empires) against the Chinese core (encompassing China, Japan, Korea and other powers). 15,000 years ago, there were only a few regions on the planet: the western end of Eurasia, where societies could develop because only very few regions had the kind of climate and landscape that allowed for the evolution of wild plants and animals that could be domesticated, hence farming could only take place in these pockets. Around 9,000 BC, farming began spreading outward across Europe thus making western Eurasia the richest part of the world compared to other parts of the planet. After this favourable beginning, the West has retained its small technological lead over the East. By analysing and quantifying massive amounts of archaeological evidence, Morris is able to estimate the relative size, resource base and military capacity of each core at regular intervals throughout post ice-age history. The book explains how the shadowy East-West divide came about, why it really does matter and how one day it might end up. Here arises the question of the future: what will a new distribution bring. Will the rise of China, based on thousands of years of world history, bring about a change? Will this be the beginning of a challenge to the West’s supremacy? And, more importantly, how long can it retain its power? China, with its authoritarian form of capitalism, has stolen up behind the developed world to threaten its supremacy and sits at the centre of the book. “We are approaching the greatest discontinuity in history,” and Morris believes that “the next 40 years will be the most important in history”. He portrays the rise and fall of empires as movements in which individuals have little long-term influence. Geography, he argues, is the main reason why the West rules. The future that is anticipated by the writer is not conventional or reassuring. The scope of the book is massive, covering over 10 millennia of human history through the analysis of archaeological records. That is a lot of history — a bold crack at explaining the vast sweep of human progress. This is a formidable engrossing effort to determine why western institutions dominate the world by integrating hundreds of pages of the latest information dealing with every aspect of change and finally dealing with the questions of the future. Morris, a lucid thinker and a fine writer, has produced a deeply thought provoking work. The reviewer is a social activist. He can be reached at drirfanzafar@gmail 10-6-10**We need new earths (855 VIEWS AS OF 11-10-13) jewsyonkersislam # 722E4 US&Law : We need new earths jyi # 722E4 US&Law : We need new earths We need new earths All the articles noted below have been edited by me in accordance with my blog, jewsyonkersislamiii-tc.blogspot. Our problems on earth stem from overpopulation : the planet can no longer sustain human life. To survive, we NEED new earths to expand upon. The articles below convey some of our problems (including with China...) and some of the solutions (including working with other countries to develop the techniques to find and move to other planets...in space). (SEE MY BLOG, jewsyonkersislamiii-tc.blogspot, FOR THE REST)
Posted on: Tue, 12 Nov 2013 03:00:51 +0000
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