The Three Stages of Empire
Though Edward Luttwak’s The Grand Strategy of the Roman Empire: From the First Century CE to the Third is not specifically on the rise and fall of empires, it does sketch out the three stages of Empire. Here is the…
Tag: bureaucracy
Why Nothing Progresses (Except Dissatisfaction): Institutionalized Powerlessness
Most people working within dysfunctional institutions do their best to keep the institution operating, and they naturally resent their institution being labeled dysfunctional, as it calls into question the value of their work. Their role in the institution is the…
When Collapse Is Cheaper and More Effective Than Reform
We all know why reforms fail: everyone whose share of the power and money is being crimped by reforms fights back with everything they’ve got. Reforms that can’t be stopped by the outright purchase of politicos are watered down in…
Voting With Your Feet
When do we finally accept the hopelessness of reforming a self-serving machine bent on destruction? My recent conversation with Max Keiser on Summer Solutions (25:45) included three bits of advice: 1. Stop financializing the human experience 2. Acquire skills, not…
Collapse, Part 2: The Nine Dynamics of Decay
While collapse may be sudden, the decay that generated the collapse had been rotting away the foundation for years or decades. In distilling the vast literature on collapse into nine dynamics, I am drawing upon many other authors’ work, including:…
Collapse, Part 2: The Nine Dynamics of Decay
While collapse may be sudden, the decay that generated the collapse had been rotting away the foundation for years or decades. In distilling the vast literature on collapse into nine dynamics, I am drawing upon many other authors’ work, including:…
Collapse, Part 2: The Nine Dynamics of Decay
While collapse may be sudden, the decay that generated the collapse had been rotting away the foundation for years or decades. In distilling the vast literature on collapse into nine dynamics, I am drawing upon many other authors’ work, including:…
The College Bureaucracy: How Education Forgot the Students and Became A Business
‘Students attend college to pursue their interests, broaden their intellectual horizons and make headway toward a career. While this is made difficult due to the amount of debt that many must saddle in order to […]