To Make A Living Space,

I Think The Condition Of Imperial Denial Is A Handicap Because If You Do Not Recognize That You Are Essentially Performing The Functions Of An Empire, You Are Incapable Of Learning From The Mistakes Of Past Empires.

As A Teacher, My Strategy Is To Encourage Questioning. I'm The Least Authoritarian Professor You'll Ever Meet.

All Empires Have Depended On Local Legitimacy And Local Collaboration; They Are Not Based Primarily On Coercion. An Imperial Rule That Relies Wholly On Coercion Can't Endure. It's Too Expensive.

If The Financial System Has A Defect, It Is That It Reflects And Magnifies What We Human Beings Are Like. Money Amplifies Our Tendency To Overreact, To Swing From Exuberance When Things Are Going Well To Deep Depression When They Go Wrong. Booms And Busts Are Products, At Root, Of Our Emotional Volatility.

The West May Collapse Very Suddenly. Complex Civilizations Do That, Because They Operate, Most Of The Time, On The Edge Of Chaos.