(September 15, 2012 at 11:09 am)whateverist Wrote: Necessity can be quite a mother I guess. It makes some sense that individuals who are most adept making their living in the prescribed way wouldn't need to find another way. Those with the least access to the easy meal would have more reason to mess around sifting grain from the sand.
This is why I don't like theories of Strong men being in charge, as if we select for those that are driven by position and to set their sights on an objective that is the way they are going to view things. This way of thinking is great to carry the individual to the top, but they are going to be less observant of their surroundings. This is a large part of what to my mind happened in the banking crisis, that all the individual traders set their sights on sort term goals, but very few were looking at the larger picture, and to question the short term goals was seen to be undermining the system, so banking set its sights on a goal and the whole lot fell down the hole.
I can remember when IBM were going to change the world, nobody thought a few teenagers in a shed, would be the ones who actually did, with apple and windows.
To me what makes a progressive society is not how strong its leaders are, but how easy is it for lowly individuals to access capital.
