A victim of our own success

Submitted by Shepard Barbash (United States), Aug 17, 2010 at 22:08

Medio de fonte leporum surgit aliquid amari quod in ipsis floribus angat, 'from the very centre of a fountain of delights arises something bitter that chokes us in our prime [in our very flowering]'. Lucretius, De Rerum Natura:

The new paradigm arose in no small measure out of the success of the old paradigm. The more prosperous the nation-state, the greater its restlessness and dissatisfaction, as Tocqueville notes. (Democracy in America, "Why Americans are so Restless in the Midst of their Prosperity.")

No wonder Hazony offers no 'policy responses'—perhaps there can be none. "History arranges things—badly," Tallyrand says.

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