Civilization: The West and the Rest
Niall Ferguson, the current partner of Ayaan Hirsi Ali and father of her expected child, has written a new book about the reasons why the west rules the rest for the last 400 years. He identified 6 reasons, which he calls killer apps (a software metaphor that everybody understands, as he hopes):
- competition
- science
- private property connected with political representation
- medicine
- consumerism
- (protestant) work ethic
As an adherent of virtual history [see his book], he compares the West with the most likely winner of the time. To illustrate how the killer apps were an advantage, he compares the West
- for competition with China (e.g. the spice race),
- for science with the Ottomans,
- for private property and democracy with South America (including the original sin of racial discrimination and slavery)
- for medicine with Africa (including the pseudoscience of eugenics)
- for consumerism with the East Block (Jeans conquered communism)
- for the work ethic referring to Protestant Christianity (and mentions its current manifestation in China).
Channel 4 created a six part series based on the book.
Interesting analysis and sharp definition of the “killer apps”. Very insightful series, with a remaining question: is “ruling the world” still possible or even desirable in our time?
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