Decline and Fall

NRO ^ | May 20, 2005, 8:37 a.m. | By Victor Davis Hanson

[.cnI redruM]

T>>>>his is not history: It is modern alchemy

A lot of what Guns, Germs and Really Crappy Thinking has to say seems almost argued on its own merits, rather than on evidence. In his chapter on how supposedly Asia and Europe got better agriculturally because they tended to migrate from East to West, I finished it thinking to myself.

"He can't be stupid enough to argue this. Between the Appalachian Mtns in the Southern US and The Mississippi River, you've got more arable land than the entire country of Germany. This chapter explains absolutely nothing. The Natives could easily have gone West for 300 miles before they would even have had to invent the canoe."

His chapter on agricultural animals was even more vapid. This man has obviously never broken a Mustang or talked to anyone who had before he wrote. No member of the equine specious is naturally calm and gentle. Zebras are much like the old horses in North America in temperament. The book is twaddle.

[CasearianDaoist]

Yes, I have this fantasy where there is a real societal breakdown and where all of the technological underpinnings of the last hundred years are swept away. In this the good farmers of the Midwest lean against their fence rows, shot guns at the ready, as they watch dsirty, rag clothed herds of these sorts stumble down the broken interstate highways, and encourage them down the road with a friendly but instant gesture of the hands.

Coming from a red state,and having worked as an academic, I happen to know that these sorts could not make it as a hired hand of a 10 pig farm.

Too funny.

What is sad is that many read this drivel and actually think that these people are capable of critical thought.

Until we start taking legal action against the academy to get other voices in there, we will never see this challenged.

[dennisw]

Was a good book. Not a perfect one.

[GOP_1900AD]

My profile is my counterpoint to the entire genre of "civilizational environmentalism." The most extreme example to refute it is the mere existance of places such as Australia. Even the US, to a great degree, as alluded to above via the San Diego - Tijuana juxtaposition, refutes it. Both the US and Australia had "underdeveloped" and "primitive" characteristics prior to European settlement. And now? They are shining cities on hills within the context of the 2500 year thread of Western Civilization. We are as such IN SPITE of the environment, and BECAUSE of overt participation in the greatest thread of Civilization ever the grace God's Earth!

[Valin]

But I still want to see our book ranked ahead of his!

Well I've done my part.

The problem with the Jared Diamond's of the world is they keep looking for the ONE reason why empires fail, or something happened, when (IMO) it's usually several things going wrong at the same time combined with someone (or a group of someones) screwing up.

[lainde]

btt

[FastCoyote]

"resources doesn't generate advancement. That requires a cultural orientation capable of using them effectively."

Look at Mexico, the same or better resources as the US, but because of a third world culture, performs as a third world economy.

[grey_whiskers]

These people haven't th faintest clue about what a civilization is or what it is for. They think it is about tastes in coffees.

I may need to borrow that for a supplemental tagline. It is worthy of VDH or G.K. Chesterton.

Cheers!

[CasearianDaoist]

I am not joking here.

[grey_whiskers]

I am not joking here. Yes, I understand that you are not joking.

The comparison to VDH and Chesterton was just about the highest literary praise I could think of.

[CasearianDaoist]

Well then, thank you.