I really need to research what 19th Century English liberals thought about "the end state of capitalism". Can the last politician to go out the revolving door please turn the lights off?
One theory that has been advanced is that the devastation caused by the Black Death in Florence (and elsewhere in Europe) resulted in a shift in the world view of people in 14th century Italy. Italy was particularly badly hit by the plague, and it has been speculated that the familiarity with death that this brought thinkers to dwell more on their lives on Earth, rather than on spirituality and the afterlife.[19] It has also been argued that the Black Death prompted a new wave of piety, manifested in the sponsorship of religious works of art.[20] However, this does not fully explain why the Renaissance occurred specifically in Italy in the 14th century. The Black Death was a pandemic that affected all of Europe in the ways described, not only Italy.
I think it's more likely that discovering that the Church didn't have a monopoly on thought or philosophical authority created a huge shock.
One of the things that seems to have changed is the move from small-scale warlords and petty monarchs to collective rather than individual city-state patriotism.
Italian city states somehow sublimated some of the war urge and turned it into a cultural status game. Wars didn't stop, but having a local set of pet artists and intellectuals became an alternative focus for competition.
It would be an interesting thing to try to make it happen again. If power devolves to more local representations, it might - although it's going to be hard to remove the Church of the Economy's monopoly on thought without an external influence, or an outright implosion.
Look at Wikipedia's 14th century timeline (a Eurocentric selection as I don't really understand the significance of the events from other continents):
The transition from the Medieval Warm Period to the Little Ice Age Beginning of the Ottoman Empire, early expansion into the Balkans The Avignon papacy transfers the seat of the Popes from Italy to France The Great Famine of 1315-1317 kills millions of people in Europe The Hundred Years' War begins when Edward III of England lays claim to the French throne in 1337. Black Death kills almost half of the population of Europe. (1347 - 1351) The heresy of Lollardy rises in England The Great Schism of the West begins in 1378, eventually leading to 3 simultaneous popes. An account of Buddha's life, translated earlier into Greek by St John of Damascus and widely circulated to Christians as the story of Barlaam and Josaphat, became so popular that Buddha (under the name Josaphat) was made a Catholic saint. Reunification of Poland under Ladislaus I of Poland Peasants' Revolt in England The poet Petrarch coins the term Dark Ages to describe the preceding 900 years in Europe, beginning with the fall of the Western Roman Empire in 410 through to the renewal embodied in the Renaissance. The Scots win the Scottish Wars of Independence. Union of Krewo between Poland and Lithuania. The English word "abacus" used to describe the calculating device from China. Wang Dayuan, the first Chinese to sail into the Mediterranean while visiting Egypt and North Africa from 1334-1339.
Could you tell us more about him? Or point to an english resource? Un roi sans divertissement est un homme plein de misères
as for wang dayuan, he claims to have actually visited all the places that he lists in the daoyi zhilue [geography of island barbarians], but his accounts of many places appear to crib from earlier geographies, so it's hard to tell if he personally went there (in a manner similar to marco polo, actually), but clearly he had access to people that did. lots of merchants going back and forth between china and southeast asia and india, probably less getting all the way into the mediterranean.
it's hard right now because of tectonic friction between paradigms, more heat than light being produced....reminds me of fran's comment on a thread lately about the left being mostly against stuff, not for anything.
as for the 'church of the economy', it's a ponzi scheme,as has been detailed here many times, not least by contrast with new models like LLP's, and will fall under its own weight, taking those too near to it's teats, and leving by default what you suggest, a decentralised, more local representation of power.
great comment, tbg, as usual. ~Government budget deficits are not nearly as dangerous as the deficits we have created in vital and complex natural systems.~ Naomi Klein.
