Theme: Civilization

  • afghanistan is not Iran

    afghanistan is not Iran.


    Source date (UTC): 2026-02-23 01:16:08 UTC

    Original post: https://twitter.com/i/web/status/2025741429990097021

  • INDIA Been looking for this map. Truth is it’s more of a cline 70-30 both ways,

    INDIA
    Been looking for this map.
    Truth is it’s more of a cline 70-30 both ways, but this helps.


    Source date (UTC): 2026-02-20 04:53:42 UTC

    Original post: https://twitter.com/i/web/status/2024709019076874339

  • George Friedman Quotes on Europe vs USA Definition attack on “Europe”: Q1–Q6, Q2

    George Friedman Quotes on Europe vs USA

    • Definition attack on “Europe”: Q1–Q6, Q25
    • Historical diagnosis (why fragmentation persists): Q7–Q8
    • US–Europe bargain + expiration: Q10–Q14, Q18
    • Exit-option asymmetry: Q17
    • Narrative framing devices (divorce / allowance / politeness): Q15, Q24, Q26
    • Threat inflation / Russia framing: Q19–Q22
    Q1 — “No such place as Europe”
    Verbatim
    Tight
    Q2 — “Stop calling yourselves Europeans”
    Verbatim
    Tight
    Q3 — “The word Europe hides real differences”
    Verbatim
    Tight
    Q4 — “Europe is fragmented; there is no single European view”
    Verbatim
    Tight
    Q5 — “You don’t have an ambassador to Europe”
    Verbatim
    Tight
    Q6 — “NATO ≠ Europe”
    Verbatim
    Tight
    Q7 — Europe’s internal problem is Europe’s history
    Verbatim
    Tight
    Q8 — “No United Europe; only conquered Europe”
    Verbatim
    Tight
    Q9 — “Mutual betrayal”
    Verbatim
    Tight
    Q10 — The postwar bargain (why the United States did it)
    Verbatim
    Tight
    Q11 — “Europe can defend itself; doesn’t want to”
    Verbatim
    Tight
    Q12 — “Europe won’t spend; different military culture”
    Verbatim
    Tight
    Q13 — “We’ve spent 80 years defending Europe”
    Verbatim
    Tight
    Q14 — “Reasonable European desire; reasonable American disengagement”
    Verbatim
    Tight
    Q15 — Marriage/divorce analogy (repeatable framing)
    Verbatim
    Tight
    Q16 — “Europe wants the norm to persist; United States says no”
    Verbatim
    Tight
    Q17 — “The high card: United States can leave”
    Verbatim
    Tight
    Q18 — “Not a moral obligation; it was strategic”
    Verbatim
    Tight
    Q19 — “If they couldn’t take Ukraine, they won’t take NATO”
    Verbatim
    Tight
    Q20 — “Europe invents threats to keep United States obligated”
    Verbatim
    Tight
    Q21 — “Hybrid warfare = can’t fight real war”
    Verbatim
    Tight
    Q22 — “You’ve got 10 years—figure it out”
    Verbatim
    Tight
    Q23 — “Diplomatic is a European concept”
    Verbatim
    Tight
    Q24 — Politeness + savagery (Europe’s self-image vs record)
    Verbatim
    Tight
    Q25 — “Europe is a continent, not a country”
    Verbatim
    Tight
    Q26 — Father/son allowance analogy
    Verbatim
    Tight


    Source date (UTC): 2026-02-20 01:46:57 UTC

    Original post: https://x.com/i/articles/2024662022886207975

  • 1) The Yamnaya were a combination of majority eastern europeans and minority wes

    1) The Yamnaya were a combination of majority eastern europeans and minority west eurasian caucuses. The indo iranians (a linguistic category) are a branch (child of) the indo europeans, that are a secondary admixture as the technology and culture of the yamaya moved eastward by expansion and adoption.
    2) “Later steppe populations tied to the Indo-Iranian expansion are typically modeled as a Middle–Late Bronze Age steppe cluster that already includes dilution by substantial extra ancestry from European farmers.”
    3) ““Later Indo-Iranians” (after movement south) are steppe ancestry diluted by admixture with local populations. Once you move from “steppe source” to “Indo-Iranian–speaking populations in Iran / Afghanistan / Pakistan / India”, you’re no longer comparing two discrete groups; you’re comparing a cline created by repeated mixing.”


    Source date (UTC): 2026-02-18 19:00:05 UTC

    Original post: https://twitter.com/i/web/status/2024197243059028405

  • (Greece and rome built western civilization, and the rest was germania in genera

    (Greece and rome built western civilization, and the rest was germania in general (holy roman empire) and england in particular (the modern rule of law state).)


    Source date (UTC): 2026-02-18 01:52:31 UTC

    Original post: https://twitter.com/i/web/status/2023938648358744152

  • It’s neither false nor retarded. There is no reason we didn’t hit the industrial

    It’s neither false nor retarded.
    There is no reason we didn’t hit the industrial revolution well before the year 1000, and we didn’t recover from the christian destruction of the ancient world until the time of napoleon.
    I’m not hostile to the church. But the truth is what it is. The faith did in the ancient world what marxism did in the modern world, and for the same reason and by the same methods.


    Source date (UTC): 2026-02-18 01:51:43 UTC

    Original post: https://twitter.com/i/web/status/2023938446616920468

  • That’s false. Before christianity was imagined we had conquered the despotisms o

    That’s false. Before christianity was imagined we had conquered the despotisms of the middle east. It was our foolish tolernance of an effeminate superstition that prevented our recovery from invasion and plague. Christianity resulted in the dark ages of ignorance and superstition that only a reserve of northern germanic peoples were able to overcome, restore greco roman reason and empiricsm, birth science, and conquer the world.


    Source date (UTC): 2026-02-17 21:50:47 UTC

    Original post: https://twitter.com/i/web/status/2023877816207712300

  • Our Suggested Four-Year Undergraduate Program in Comparative Development Studies

    Our Suggested Four-Year Undergraduate Program in Comparative Development Studies

    • Introduction to Development Studies (survey course)
    • Microeconomics & Macroeconomics (foundations)
    • Introduction to Comparative Politics
    • Economic & Cultural Geography
    • Modern World History (1500-present, focusing on divergence)
    • Statistics & Research Methods I
    • Writing/Critical Analysis seminar
    • Comparative Political Economy
    • Development Economics
    • Economic History (Great Divergence, industrialization paths)
    • Demography & Development
    • Institutional Economics
    • Comparative Research Methods (case studies, process tracing, QCA)
    • Natural Resources & Development
    • Elective: Regional focus (Latin America, Sub-Saharan Africa, East Asia, etc.)
    • Natural Law of Cooperation and Evolutionary Computation (NEW – This is our first signature course.)
    • Knowledge, Information & Development (NEW – this is our second signature course)
    • World-Systems Theory & Global Political Economy
    • Informal Institutions & Social Capital
    • Geography of Development (spatial inequality, agglomeration, infrastructure)
    • State Capacity & Governance
    • Development & Environment
    • Comparative Field Research or Methods workshop
    • Varieties of Capitalism, Democratic Socialism, and Fascism
    • Development Failures & Success Stories (case-intensive)
    • Epistemic Institutions & Development (NEW)
    • Two advanced electives from:Urban Development & Megacities
      Technology & Development Trajectories
      Conflict, Fragility & Development
      Religion, Culture & Economic Life
      Migration & Remittances
      Colonial Legacies & Path Dependence
    • Senior Capstone: Comparative Development Research Project
    • Senior Thesis or Practicum
    • Not silo’d: Each year integrates multiple perspectives on same phenomena
    • Comparative by default: Every course uses cross-national/cross-regional comparison
    • Light on math: Stats/methods sufficient for research literacy, but not econ PhD prep
    • Case-intensive: Heavy use of historical cases, contemporary comparisons
    • Fieldwork option: Summer research or semester abroad with comparative research component
    Core Theoretical Work:
    Timur Kuran – “Private Truths, Public Lies” (preference falsification and how it affects institutional change) and his work on Islamic economic institutions and path dependence
    James Scott – “Seeing Like a State” (how state knowledge systems shape development, often destructively) and “The Art of Not Being Governed” (stateless societies’ knowledge systems)
    Michael Polanyi – “Personal Knowledge” and “The Tacit Dimension” (complements Hayek on tacit knowledge)
    Daron Acemoglu & James Robinson – Beyond “Why Nations Fail,” see their newer work on information and propaganda in “The Narrow Corridor”
    Nathan Nunn – Empirical work on trust, culture, and development (complements Fukuyama empirically)
    Alberto Alesina & collaborators – Work on cultural transmission, trust, and institutions
    Specific Epistemic/Knowledge Focus:
    Philip Tetlock – “Expert Political Judgment” and “Superforecasting” (quality of political/economic forecasting and institutional design)
    Donald MacKenzie – “An Engine, Not a Camera” (how economic models shape markets – performativity of economic knowledge)
    Daniel Kahneman & Amos Tversky – Heuristics and biases literature (how systematic errors affect economic decisions)
    Paul Seabright – “The Company of Strangers” (evolution of cooperation and trust in market societies)
    Avner Greif – “Institutions and the Path to the Modern Economy” (cultural beliefs, informal institutions, and merchant coalitions)
    Joel Mokyr – “A Culture of Growth” (Enlightenment knowledge systems enabled Industrial Revolution) and “The Gifts of Athena” (useful knowledge and economic growth)
    Robin Hanson – Work on prediction markets and information aggregation mechanisms
    Alvin Roth – Market design and matching markets (how information architecture affects market function)
    On Information Quality & Development:
    Yuen Yuen Ang – “How China Escaped the Poverty Trap” (adaptive governance and information feedback loops)
    Lant Pritchett & collaborators – Work on “isomorphic mimicry” (governments that look developed but lack real capability – form without function)
    Matt Andrews, Lant Pritchett, Michael Woolcock – “Building State Capability” (problem-driven iterative adaptation – learning systems in development)
    Epistemic Communities & Policy:
    Peter Haas – “Epistemic communities” literature in international relations
    Sheila Jasanoff – “States of Knowledge” and work on co-production of science and social order
    Recent/Emerging:
    Hugo Mercier & Dan Sperber – “The Enigma of Reason” (argumentative theory of reasoning – implications for institutional design)
    Jennifer London – Work on information intermediaries in development
    The “credibility revolution” literature in development economics (Banerjee, Duflo, et al.) – though note the critique that RCTs can be epistemically limiting
    Tyler Cowen & collaborators – Work on cultural/informational factors in development (his blog also surfaces interesting work)
    Would you want me to develop either the curriculum in more detail (specific syllabi, readings, capstone structures) or create an annotated reading list on the epistemic dimensions? I’m particularly curious about your “informational capital (truth and falsehoods)” work – that seems like fertile ground for a unique contribution to development studies.


    Source date (UTC): 2026-02-16 19:31:40 UTC

    Original post: https://x.com/i/articles/2023480414908916020

  • Sr Fellow Luke Weinhagen on the West: –“The West is a responsibility engine con

    Sr Fellow Luke Weinhagen on the West:
    –“The West is a responsibility engine confused as a freedom engine. It’s an understandable confusion, as responsibility spread a widely as possible across a population facilitates the greatest freedom for that population. But the existence of this confusion enables all manner of exploitation. It’s tragic.”–
    @LukeWeinhagen

    Brilliant. True.


    Source date (UTC): 2026-02-15 02:21:30 UTC

    Original post: https://twitter.com/i/web/status/2022858777884823740

  • Long time friend Simon Strong posts one of his insights with a video on the West

    Long time friend Simon Strong posts one of his insights with a video on the West Eurasian Holocene

    https://substack.com/@simonstrom/note/c-199480163?utm_source=notes-share-action&r=e1rgj…


    Source date (UTC): 2026-02-09 19:13:19 UTC

    Original post: https://twitter.com/i/web/status/2020939085003866551