Member-only story
2025: The Coming Realignment
Before 1789 the world was ruled by the divine right of kings. The economy was driven by a feudal system of lords, vassals, and fiefs. Your economic prosperity and personal security were based on land ownership and personal loyalty. There was little you could do to change your lot in life, so you just had to accept your place in the world.
Yet 1789 would prove to be an inflection point. The American Constitution and the French Revolution would forever change how the world was governed. The Industrial Revolution, already underway since James Watt’s introduction of the steam engine in 1776, would begin to shift power to a new class of industrialists.
These events unleashed a series of countervailing forces as the European continent struggled to adapt to shifts in technology, economics and identity. These forces would build and clash until eventually things came to a head in the revolutionary year of 1848. Today, we seem to be in a similarly liminal space, as we decide what kind of future we want to live in.
Points Of Inflection And Convergence
The mathematician Benoit Mandelbrot saw the world through what he called Noah effects and Joseph effects. Joseph effects, as in the biblical story, support long periods of continuity. Noah effects, on the other hand, are like a big storm creating a massive…
