This is like the first TST post I've felt like I could make much of a contribution to. ;) There are certain wings of the peak-oil school of thought that have said similar things to the bit about bureaucracies coming into existence to "effect a planned extraction of energy surpluses". The same is true of credit and compound interest, which you also alluded to, and the emergence of those last two marks an interesting point where optimism about the future -- or at least, optimism about future energy supplies -- becomes to some extent _institutionalized_, when decisions about resource allocation become predicated on the continual growth of the system's surplus energy. That assumption is now rather deeply embedded in our institutions and our social relationships, and is a major reason why we're having trouble planning for even a temporary energy decline. The very idea of same is "news from Neptune". And bad news, which is never popular.
I've found all your posts from this class interesting, but I have to admit that I'm particularly piqued by this one. The fault-tolerance of the European political system is another great line; am I correct in thinking China had a political structure more like the Ottoman Empire than like Europe?
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regna
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Date: 2010-09-14 08:58 pm (UTC)I've found all your posts from this class interesting, but I have to admit that I'm particularly piqued by this one. The fault-tolerance of the European political system is another great line; am I correct in thinking China had a political structure more like the Ottoman Empire than like Europe?