All too often, changes in history come from one group trying to compensate for or repair the weaknesses of the system in their time.
Those repairs often enough just create the weaknesses of the system for the next generation. For example, our monoculture of industrialized food production developed as a way to feed the growing population. Pesticides, etc were used to solve that problem.
Now, we consider the consequences of those steps bad...and there are people trying to solve it instead.
Or, to take this back into a history/political science realm -
The Mamluks were originally slave boys raised to serve the Islamic caliphate (similar to the janissaries, I think). They eventually took over the caliphate, and I'm sure each step of the process was a natural reaction to the system at that time and weaknesses of the sultans.
Julius Caesar, whose murder by the Roman Senate is rather famous, took the steps he did in reaction to the system at that time. Actually, if I recall correctly one of the reasons he crossed the Rubicon was because he was about to lose the protection from prosecution that came with his proconsulship.
(After a bit of hunting I found my reference, from The Romans From Village to Empire) If Caesar became a private citizen, as per normal procedure, he expected his enemies would use that time to level so many legal charges against him that it would mean his political ruin. You could argue that too much political litigation drove the eventual destruction of the Roman Republic.
These sorts of patterns seem to happen over and over again, which is perhaps why I find it more interesting to see how various leaders surmount the challenges of their time in order to help prevent this (seemingly inevitable) slide into destruction.
And how, once you do find a way, can you get the support for your ideas in the face of all those other people who are so darn certain that they know better?
Or, to put it another way, how can we truly Make America Great Again when we've got Trump and Hillary and all these other wannabes promising to do so, and generally missing the mark.
Those repairs often enough just create the weaknesses of the system for the next generation. For example, our monoculture of industrialized food production developed as a way to feed the growing population. Pesticides, etc were used to solve that problem.
Now, we consider the consequences of those steps bad...and there are people trying to solve it instead.
Or, to take this back into a history/political science realm -
The Mamluks were originally slave boys raised to serve the Islamic caliphate (similar to the janissaries, I think). They eventually took over the caliphate, and I'm sure each step of the process was a natural reaction to the system at that time and weaknesses of the sultans.
Julius Caesar, whose murder by the Roman Senate is rather famous, took the steps he did in reaction to the system at that time. Actually, if I recall correctly one of the reasons he crossed the Rubicon was because he was about to lose the protection from prosecution that came with his proconsulship.
(After a bit of hunting I found my reference, from The Romans From Village to Empire) If Caesar became a private citizen, as per normal procedure, he expected his enemies would use that time to level so many legal charges against him that it would mean his political ruin. You could argue that too much political litigation drove the eventual destruction of the Roman Republic.
These sorts of patterns seem to happen over and over again, which is perhaps why I find it more interesting to see how various leaders surmount the challenges of their time in order to help prevent this (seemingly inevitable) slide into destruction.
And how, once you do find a way, can you get the support for your ideas in the face of all those other people who are so darn certain that they know better?
Or, to put it another way, how can we truly Make America Great Again when we've got Trump and Hillary and all these other wannabes promising to do so, and generally missing the mark.
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