Douglas Carswell's Blog

Progress comes when the parasitical elite are reined in

Writing this on my laptop, it is easy to think of human history as a story of people discovering new technology and new ways of doing things.

Perhaps the really interesting question is not how humans progress, but why, for most of human history, there was no progress.  Why, until very recently, did most people live with the same know-how that their great great great great grandparents had?

And why, having painstakingly discovered new ways of doing things, did human societies often regress, swiftly and suddenly?

The key, I suspect, lies in not the discovery of new processes and invention, but rather in their application.  There have been bright sparks thinking bright thoughts in every society in history.  Only rarely is there a society that allows the application of invention.  Why?

For most of human history, most human societies were dominated by a parasitical elite that lived off the productive output of the rest.  Only very rarely, either be accident or design, did a few societies exist that reined in - sort of - the power of the parasites.

First in certain Greek city states, then in the early Roman republic, the parasites were held in check.  Once they were no longer restrained, the dark ages returned.

Then eventually Venice escaped the clutches of the Holy Roman Empire and Byzantium.  What had once been a mud bank, began to blossom.  Then a few city states.  Then the Dutch republic.  Then England, the United States, and then the wider West .... 

Each in turn rose to pre-eminence as they discovered the knack of reining in the parasites.  Each in turn began to lose their pre-eminence as power grew concentrated and corporate interests began to take over the body politic. 

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