A study in history
I love History (sans dates and names) especially how common people actually lived. Sometimes I get angry at movies or books (particularly period drama and 'semi-fiction' like Da Vinci Code) which get their history fundamentals wrong.
One thing I have noticed is that when it comes to innovation/pioneering, communities/cultures seem to have a pattern.
First is the turmoil situation. A period with lot of 'gaps' in people's thinking. This is the time of churning of ideas when some painful fundamental questions are asked.
Next comes the pioneering/curiosity stage. People are willing to risk everything to satisfy curiosity .This is when some radical ideas emerge. Many of the risks pay off. The answers which are obtained,profit the seeker. The community prospers(wealth + happiness).People are amazed and attracted.
Now follows the last stage which I do not like. As the community prospers it becomes robust and less dynamic. So many individual enterprises have diminished effect. The time is ripe for the entry of the mercenary .Dormant during the first two stages,(except while cribbing about the situation)prosperity makes him/her active. This stage is also the snob stage ,when hierarchy gets rigid. 'Trench mentality' is rampant. The mercenaries start sucking the value out of the community. The intellectuals gets sidelined or ejected.
This of course leads to decadence. In the days of old, the culture would get over run or implode into disorder. Now usually, it becomes a sad or painful or horrible place to live.
As an example is the New England area in US of A. The birth place of Thoreau and Franklin now competes for the position of “snobbiest city in the world”.
The novel Lord of the Flies by William Golding puts this observation in an interesting and elucidated manner. These observations are seen by us all.
This knowledge pains me when I think of my home town Bangalore.
PS: Even organizations are said to have this plush office theory. If the chief works in a cramped office, with people getting in and out, the company is supposed to be working. If he however, is in a big luxuriously furnished one, without any disturbance, the company is in a bad state.
One thing I have noticed is that when it comes to innovation/pioneering, communities/cultures seem to have a pattern.
First is the turmoil situation. A period with lot of 'gaps' in people's thinking. This is the time of churning of ideas when some painful fundamental questions are asked.
Next comes the pioneering/curiosity stage. People are willing to risk everything to satisfy curiosity .This is when some radical ideas emerge. Many of the risks pay off. The answers which are obtained,profit the seeker. The community prospers(wealth + happiness).People are amazed and attracted.
Now follows the last stage which I do not like. As the community prospers it becomes robust and less dynamic. So many individual enterprises have diminished effect. The time is ripe for the entry of the mercenary .Dormant during the first two stages,(except while cribbing about the situation)prosperity makes him/her active. This stage is also the snob stage ,when hierarchy gets rigid. 'Trench mentality' is rampant. The mercenaries start sucking the value out of the community. The intellectuals gets sidelined or ejected.
This of course leads to decadence. In the days of old, the culture would get over run or implode into disorder. Now usually, it becomes a sad or painful or horrible place to live.
As an example is the New England area in US of A. The birth place of Thoreau and Franklin now competes for the position of “snobbiest city in the world”.
The novel Lord of the Flies by William Golding puts this observation in an interesting and elucidated manner. These observations are seen by us all.
This knowledge pains me when I think of my home town Bangalore.
PS: Even organizations are said to have this plush office theory. If the chief works in a cramped office, with people getting in and out, the company is supposed to be working. If he however, is in a big luxuriously furnished one, without any disturbance, the company is in a bad state.
Comments