18 - A Permanent Revolution скачать в хорошем качестве

18 - A Permanent Revolution

The Industrial Revolution fundamentally transformed human society, creating permanent, accelerating change that replaced traditional structures with modern state and market systems. ECOLOGICAL AND SOCIAL DOMINANCE Industrialization liberated humans from ecosystem dependence, enabling unprecedented resource exploitation. Humanity now dominates the planet: 7 billion humans (300 million tons) plus domesticated animals (700 million tons) dwarf all remaining wild animals (100 million tons). Biodiversity collapsed catastrophically—giraffes (80,000 vs. 1.5 billion cattle), wolves (200,000 vs. 400 million dogs), chimpanzees (250,000 vs. billions of humans) approach extinction. Yet ecological degradation differs from resource scarcity: humans have growing resources but a shrinking natural world, creating existential threats through climate change, pollution, and cascading disasters. TIME STANDARDIZATION The most profound social transformation replaced agricultural rhythms with industrial precision. Traditional societies operated on natural time cycles needing no precise timekeeping. Industry imposed synchronized schedules. In 1847, British railways synchronized to Greenwich Observatory time; by 1880, Britain legislated national time. This spread globally, making precise timekeeping ubiquitous. Modern individuals unconsciously consult dozens of timepieces daily, surrendering autonomy to external schedules—radical departure from humanity's evolutionary history. FAMILY AND COMMUNITY COLLAPSE Before industrialization, human life centered on nuclear family, extended family, and intimate communities providing welfare, healthcare, education, employment, and security. Markets supplied less than 10% of needs. Industry empowered states and markets to replace these institutions, offering an irresistible bargain: "Become autonomous, marry whom you wish, choose any job. We'll provide everything." This was genuine—individuals could now survive outside traditional structures. Yet came at tremendous cost: while traditional structures provided deep emotional bonds, modern individuals are free but lonely, protected but dependent on impersonal institutions. Atomized individuals cannot resist state power like cohesive communities could. Women and children gained individual rights previously denied, yet intimate life became market-shaped through commercial dating venues, fashion-industry beauty standards, and engineered romantic preferences. IMAGINED COMMUNITIES States and markets filled emotional voids through "imagined communities"—millions of strangers imagining themselves unified despite never knowing each other. Nations and consumer tribes exemplify this. Nations are entirely constructed, emerging only post-industrialization (most Middle Eastern nations were arbitrarily drawn by European diplomats in 1918). Consumer tribes define identity through consumption: Madonna fans, sports supporters, vegetarians are modern equivalents of medieval communities. Yet imagined communities wield immense real power—as long as millions believe in nationhood and sacrifice for it, nations remain powerful. PERMANENT REVOLUTION Modern social order exists in permanent flux rather than premodern rigidity. Every year brings revolutionary transformation; a 30-year-old can truthfully tell teenagers the world was "completely different" in their youth. This first era treats "order" as constant change itself. Yet paradoxically, this era experienced history's least violence. Post-WWII became history's most peaceful period. Medieval Europe had 20-40 murders per 100,000 inhabitants annually; today's global average is 9 per 100,000 (1 in developed nations). FOUR PATHS TO PEACE Since 1945, no UN-recognized independent country has been conquered and annexed. Four factors explain unprecedented peace: 1) Nuclear weapons make great-power war collective suicide; 2) Modern wealth (human capital, knowledge, institutions) cannot be extracted through conquest; 3) Peace became more profitable than war—international trade and investment require stability; 4) Global elites genuinely view war as evil and avoidable. These create positive feedback loops where nuclear threat fosters pacifism, pacifism spreads, trade flourishes, and interdependence erodes war capacity. Modern humanity stands paradoxically at unprecedented peace yet harboring extinction-level threats from nuclear weapons and ecological destruction. History remains undecided whether humanity moves toward heaven or hell. We live between the gateway of one and the anteroom of the other.