Kenneth Clark lamented that civilization was a fragile thing.
He observed three “enemies” that could topple even the mightiest cultures—what are they?🧵
The first enemy is fear:
“fear of war, fear of invasion, fear of plague and famine, that make it simply not worthwhile constructing things, or planting trees or even planning next year’s crops. And fear of the supernatural, which means that you daren’t question anything.”
Fear paralyzes a people and stifles adventure, invention, and grand building projects.
Fear leads to stagnation.
The second enemy is a lack of self confidence. Clark saw the late Roman empire as a prime example of a culture that didn’t believe in itself anymore:
“The late antique world was full of meaningless rituals, mystery religions, that destroyed self-confidence.”
When traditions and rituals lose their connection to what inspired them in the first place, they become the performance art of a dying civilization.
Cultures need to believe in something.
Finally, a civilization dies with exhaustion—the “feeling of hopelessness which can overtake people even with a high degree of material prosperity.”
Decadence, moral degradation, and lack of belief in something greater leave a society questioning the point of it all.
An aimlessness pervades society that is often only quenched by civilizational suicide.
Clark tells a story by Greek poet Cavafy, in which he imagines an antique town that waits for barbarians to come and sack the city.
After a while, the barbarians move on and the city is spared. But the people are disappointed—destruction would have at least been interesting.
Enough doom and gloom—what’s the solution?
Clark draws a distinction between the “amenities” of civilization and the factors that caused it to prosper in the first place.
A society can be “dead and rigid” even while enjoying great wealth:
“People sometimes think that civilisation consists in fine sensibilities and good conversations and all that. These can be among the agreeable results of civilisation, but they are not what make a civilisation”
Ultimately Clark says that flourishing civilizations have two things beyond a base-level of material prosperity: confidence and belief.
“confidence in the society in which one lives, belief in its philosophy, belief in its laws, and confidence in one’s own mental powers.”
For example, the way in which the stones of the Pont du Gard Aqueduct are laid shows not only a triumph of technical skill, but a vigorous belief in law and discipline, as well as a confidence in the ability to accomplish great tasks.
But there’s something else great civilizations share:
“Vigour, energy, vitality: all the civilisations—or civilising epochs—have had a weight of energy behind them,” Clark says.
Clark’s thoughts on civilization should inspire reflection about our own. Does the West believe in its foundational principles, laws, or philosophy? Is the West confident in itself?
Or, is it fearful, timid, and exhausted?
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The great men of history read intensively — it's how they gained an edge over their rivals.
We can do the same, today.
So here are the classics that influenced the greats, from ancient warriors to modern emperors🧵
Alexander
According to Plutarch, Alexander was given an annotated copy of the Iliad which he carried with him everywhere.
He considered it a “perfect portable treasure of all military virtue and knowledge” and was especially fascinated by the character Achilles.
Marcus Aurelius
Marcus Aurelius was extremely well-read. His tutor Fronto described how the emperor read works of Cato the Elder, Cicero, Lucretius, and Seneca in addition to numerous Greek tragedies.
The East India Company was the most powerful corporation of all time.
It had an army larger than Great Britain's, and its influence shaped the borders of nations.
So how did a company become stronger than most countries?🧵
The East India Company's origins started with famed explorer Francis Drake.
His voyage in 1577 opened the world to the East Indies, and when he returned to England in 1580, he brought exotic spices from the Spice Islands that investors believed could be a lucrative venture.
Soon after, the Queen granted a charter to a group of wealthy merchants and explorers for the region. The new corporation was called “Governor and Company of Merchants of London trading into the East Indies” or more commonly the “East India Company.”
Rome is usually remembered for its monuments, emperors, and epic battles.
But it was a haven for learning and literature as well. Some of the greatest written works were penned during Rome’s rule.
Here are 12 of the best🧵
12. The Annals and Histories, Tacitus
Tacitus’ works explore Rome in the first century. As a Roman senator he likely had privileged access to the Senate’s records from which to base much of his work.
Ronald Mellor calls Annals the “pinnacle of Roman historical writing.”
11. The Satires, Juvenal
A collection of satirical poems, it captures the energy of everyday Roman life.
Poems on prostitutes, fortune-tellers, politicians, and sycophants create a powerful denunciation of the degeneracy of Roman society.
The world of the late bronze age was the first “globalized” society.
But this highly connected network of cultures crumbled into a dark age after a series of disasters.
There are some striking parallels to today…🧵
In the 12th century BC, something strange happened in the Mediterranean.
The previously flourishing civilizations of the Egyptians, Mycenaeans, Hittites, and Babylonians all experienced a rapid, seemingly unexplainable decline.
Dozens of major cities were abandoned or completely demolished within a short period of time. Previously connected kingdoms became isolated, and cultural development stagnated.
“Civilizations die from suicide, not by murder,” according to 20th-century historian Arnold Toynbee.
He claimed every great culture collapses internally due to a divergence in values between the ruling class and the common people…🧵
Toynbee was an English historian and expert on international affairs who published the 12 volume work “A Study of History,” which traced the life cycle of about two dozen world civilizations.
Through his work he developed a model of how cultures develop and finally die…
Toynbee argued that civilizations emerge from primitive societies as a response to unique challenges — pressures from other cultures, difficult terrain or “hard country,” or warfare.