The Lessons of History - Breaking Patterns

I was recently forwarded an article written by Al Depman titled "Breaking Patterns." I have included an excerpt here. Is America intelligent enough to learn from history, or will we too be unable to change what we know must be changed?


The events of the past few months have been unsettling, to say the least. The credit crisis, portfolio declines across the board, job losses, high profile Ponzi schemes, and big government mixing it up with ostensibly free enterprise have me believing that America is on the cusp of a transition.

The transition may be to a second-rate world power or to the dawning of a new age of greatness. It's our choice. I'm reminded of a quote from C. P.Snow's The Two Cultures and the Scientific Revolution (1959):

"More often than I like, I am saddened by a historical myth. I can't help thinking of the Venetian Republic in their last half-century. Like us, they had become fabulously rich as we did... They knew, just as clearly as we know, that the current of history had begun to flow against them. Many of them gave their minds to working out ways to keep going. It would have meant breaking the pattern into which they had crystallized. They were fond of the pattern, just as we are fond of ours. They never found the will to break it."

The Venetian Republic was established in about 800 AD and reached its primacy from 1100-1650. Once the major trade routes began to flow away from the Mediterranean and into the Atlantic to the new world, Venice had the choice to adapt to this global reality or stick with what they did best: feud with the Ottoman Empire and the Turks in local territorial battles. By the 1700's, the period referred to by Snow in the quote, their influence and power had essentially evaporated in the wake of this early "globalization."

Snow's piece refers to the two cultures of science and the humanities and, allegorically, a warning to Britain. At the time, their post-WWII international significance had been diminishing as the United States' was rising. The British inability to recapture their greatness is summed up in the last two sentences. Snow writes: "They were fond of the pattern, just as we are fond of ours. They never found the will to break it."

So we're facing the latest "current of history"--arguably as significant as the Great Depression. Let's hope we can escape this one without a World War of either the weapons-of-mass-destruction or economic kind. Will our leadership rise to the occasion or sink into partisan bickering? Are we Americans too "fond of our pattern" to care? If so, then we've already become a fat, dumb, and happy constituency.


I believe this came from the MitchAnthony Web site.