The parable of the blind men and the elephant, each describing the part of the elephant he feels and drawing a conclusion, warns us failing to see the whole would lead us to a false assumption. If you feel just one part of that animal, no matter how impressive it might seem (think the trunk) it would never give a true description of the whole. For this reason we ask our readers to look at the 10 actions in our “Now they expect More” post 12/26/15 to create “More” as a whole. Doing one without the others likely would fail to produce sustained increase in “More.” Take the first education. We have been endlessly told that education is the path to having “More.” The idea of one magic bullet bringing untold “More” is a fantasy. Even education fails to do the job alone. Continue reading
The Long Journey to “More”
Now we actually expect “More”
No matter where in the world you look, China, Brazil, Europe, the U.S. or virtually anywhere else, the question from the people to their leaders is the same. What are you doing to get us “more”? For 10,000 years the average person hoped for enough just to stay alive. Getting “more” let alone a lot “more” was mostly a dream. Now we loudly voice our displeasure if there isn’t a constant increase in our “more.” What has been attained in “More” for those lower in the power pyramid in the last 400 years dwarfs what was accomplished in all those years before. Average people have gone from despair to our present expectations. It didn’t happen all at once. Even at the turn of the Nineteenth century, the vast majority of humanity was engaged in agriculture under some form of bondage. It may come as a surprise to some that at the founding of the United States ordinary people with any rights were rare while involuntary servitude was widespread. Starting in Western Civilization “More” had begun its journey down the pyramid. Like a rock tossed in a lake the ripples initially covered a small area but moving ever larger. Was this to become the norm for the next 10,00 years or an aberration?
The 15th Century came and nothing would ever be the same
Three innovations came to pass in the 15th century that forever changed the world and we are still coming to terms with what they wrought. It isn’t that we hadn’t used ships for trade, read books or loaned or borrowed money before, what changed was the volume. Before this century we could trade only a small fraction of what was possible by its end. Books were rare but after 1500 it was possible for families to own their own bibles. Commercial ventures could be financed with a worldwide outlook.
An Ordered World with just a little “More”
From the time 10 thousand years ago mankind developed agrarian settled societies, a general form of organization came into being. A pyramid with a relatively small ruling class at the top and the masses at the bottom. Royalty, military and religious leaders backed by their staffs and bureaucracies directed the lives of those below. Needed Artisans often had a special rung. The wild card were the merchants who facilitated the exchange of goods within the society and with others. Altogether they constituted a relativity small minority, supported by a base of the multitudes that provided the basic substance of life. Whatever we gained “more” through trade, increased labor or innovation the “more” mostly went to to those toward the top of the pyramid. The upper classes gained in better food & drink, shelter, clothing and adornment and maybe most important time. From 10,000BC to 1,500 AD, the masses across the world lived relatively short lives with the barest of necessities while providing the basics for mankind. Continue reading
The Long Journey to “More”
In the Musical “Oliver” the title urchin asks simply for “More”. Over our long history the vast majority of humanity, having “More” than the bare basics of food, clothing and shelter was a dream. Sometimes they didn’t even have even those and failed survive. Anatomically modern homo sapiens appeared in Africa about 200,000 years ago. If we go by the introduction of The Big Bang Theory, we think mankind’s progress was pretty straight line march from there. Actually it wasn’t till 12,000 year ago that we got around to domesticating plants and animals to have agrarian societies. It it is only in the last few centuries a good part of humanity has risen beyond subsistence. Given the history of mankind, is this real and sustainable progress or just an aberration. If we use as a baseline our earliest forebears we can determine what constitutes “More.” Even though being blessed with a better brain and opposable thumbs, they spent their time much like the rest of the animal kingdom, finding food and shelter, resting and procreating. All they had to work with was their own physical abilities. In order to actually have more required first of all was taking time from there basic pursuits and investing it thinking of new ways to improve and physically putting it into practice. Better hunting and gathering tools and practices, fire, domesticating dogs and then other animals and finally agriculture to name some milestones on the way to “More”.
Unfortunately, it took enormous amounts of time to achieve to these breakthroughs. Even though our ancestors had some tools 2.6 million years ago, it took another 800,000 years just to get to fire or 400 times the the birth of Christ to the present. Given this timeline major innovation was a rare occurrence. Even when it happened it often was lost and had to be reinvented again and again. Just because something was discovered or invented in one place didn’t mean was duplicated elsewhere. Innovation was hardly early on the path to more. Continue reading
Detour on the Road 