Why the West Rules for Now by Ian Morris Fascinating!! 10 out of 10

 Why the West Rules for Now by Ian Morris

Fascinating!! 10 out of 10

-              Why the West rules - for now?

-              There are quite a few answers to this question, but it might be geography that played the most important role

Nevertheless, The Economist has on the cover of the issue of October 12th-19th the photo of the Chinese president with the tittle:

-              The Most Powerful Man in the World

In other words, the Rule of the West has already ended and it must be said that for many centuries, the West lagged behind the East.

Outliers by Malcolm Gladwell, which explains the Eastern culture and its emphasis on work, required by the cultivation of rice, which was at the basis of that civilization for millennia, could serve as another argument for the end of the Western supremacy.

Ian Morris explains with amazing talent history, evolutions and the fact that it could have well been the Chinese who conquered countries, populations in South and Central America, instead of the conquistadores.

The magnificent author uses materials from various domains, including literature, with references to Tolstoy and others and cinema:

                -“Reg: All right, but apart from the sanitation, the medicine, education, wine, public order, irrigation, roads, the fresh-water system, and public health, what have the Romans ever done for us?

                - PFJ Member: Brought peace?

                - Reg: Oh, peace? SHUT UP!”

This excerpt from what could very well be the best comedy ever, Monty Python’s Life of Brian, is used to underline the importance, influence of the Roman Empire, with the impressive and funny in the context of the film list, and especially the essential Roman peace.

The end of the book deals with what will happen, the chances of a thermo-nuclear war- which is a poignant reminder when we consider the so-far peaceful conflict between Little rocket man and his just as crazy nemesis in the White House.

Ian Morris writes about Climate Change and the effects he has seen, with seasonal fires increasing in intensity and the period during which they ravage parts of America increasing…and if we watch the news, we see the catastrophic effects of these changes in California and other states.

Technology might play an important role in the equation of climate change, especially if Singularity takes place.

The theory in that scenario would have all the intelligence of mankind transferred to computers, which will increase astronomically their ability to think and act like humans.

There is also the possibility of the border between East and West to disappear, even if this is in doubt, and there is a possibility for the West, faced with a rising, dominant china, to have to adopt Chinese values, learn that language, instead of English and pay homage to Chinese artists, historical figures, instead of the now celebrated Leonardo da Vinci, painters of Italian renaissance, impressionists …

There also jokes and funny situations detailed in this outstanding book, like the visit Nixon paid to Soviet Union and the presentation at a fair of achievements in household goods, like vacuum cleaners.

The soviet leader, Nikita Khrushchev replied that the place of the woman in their society is not that of housewife, but statistics showed that, even if the women of that cursed society worked more outside their homes, they still had to deal with household chores.

Finally, I saw this joke as de4scribing very well the situation in communist regimes, like the ones the Russians brought in my country, alas:

                - Three Russian presidents, actually called General Secretaries, are taking the train and this stops in its tracks…

                - Take the train mechanic and flog him, says Stalin, only to discover that they are still stuck on the train

                - Rehabilitate and re instate the mechanic, decrees Nikita Khrushchev, but without any positive effect…

                - You know what, let’s just pretend the train is moving, concludes the third…

I have finished reading this magnificent book today, for the second time and this is what I have written after the first encounter with the work:

This is one of the best books that I have read lately.

With about 700 pages, it looked like a long read, perhaps even a tedious perspective, cut short if it proved boring.

But it was the contrary, a sensational book that I loved so much that I am now reading through another work of the author.

Not only that, I took the advise upon another reference point- The Singularity book that I also read in this period.

Not at the same time, although Singularity argues that we would soon be able to perform operations much faster.

Why the West Rules is for the most part a book history that ends with a look towards the future and what it may look like.

This is where Singularity comes into play, with its optimistic version which predicts that with the help of extraordinary IT, we will be able to solve most of the problems.

There is a less positive outcome that can come true, if we neglect a few of the major issues that can easily derail mankind.

One of them is the weird weather, as the author calls the widespread phenomena of spreading hurricanes, forest fires and extremely unusual weather.

It can lead to the desertification of vast areas, which would then cause massive water shortages that can easily lead to wars.

Considering the title of the book by Ian Morris that I read now- War! What is it good for- we can maybe think about some good in the outcome.

A marvelous aspect of Why The West rules…is the fact that the author has a liberal, inventive way of looking at history.

The start is dazzling- with a history in which queen Victoria pays allegiance and tribute to the Chinese emperor.

Furthermore, Albert has to go and die in Peking in this alternative history tale, which could have happened.

Instead, a Pekinese dog arrived at Balmorals and around the middle of the 19^th century; the British became the dominant power of the world.

The Chinese and the East in general had a long period of ascendance over the West, sometime between the fall of the Roman Empire and the start of the Industrial Revolution.

Another theme of the book is the reason why progress took place-

-          It is because of fear, laziness or fear- I guess sometimes a combination is possible

From Singularity, a possible future where robots will eliminate the differences between West and East is also enticing- as Ian Morris says:

-          East and West are irrelevant to robots

I also loved the story of the great Chinese drive to sail the ocean, which was stopped too soon to make a difference.

But if it wasn’t for the decision to abandon the seas, when the Spanish went to the New World they could have been met by…a Chinese governor.

Very interesting is the point of view that leaders do not make much of a difference, since events would take their course anyway.

This is disputed though, and in Modern Times by the wonderful Paul Johnson, it is very well explained how Hitler and Stalin made a tremendous, terrible difference to the course of World War II and further beyond.

Geography explains a lot of the difference and the rule of the West, because of the Atlantic Ocean to take just this example.