See discussions, stats, and author profiles for this publication at: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/346681893 Genius Unbound Presentation · December 2020 CITATIONS READS 0 72 1 author: Carl Anthony Mosk University of Victoria 97 PUBLICATIONS 475 CITATIONS SEE PROFILE Some of the authors of this publication are also working on these related projects: Relationship between diffusion of capitalism and religion in the post-Cold War era; state controlled capitalism versus liberal capitalism during the Cold War era; the political economy of warfare View project Economic History and Political Economy View project All content following this page was uploaded by Carl Anthony Mosk on 07 December 2020. The user has requested enhancement of the downloaded file. Genius Unbound: Capitalism, Culture, and the Dialectic Carl Mosk * December, 2020 Professor Emeritus, University of Victoria, Department of Economics [email protected] www.carlmosk.com All rights reserved. Copyright held by Carl Mosk, 2020. This is a draft for a book. If you have comments or criticisms of this manuscript please send them to me at the e-mail address given above. Please do not quote or cite without the consent of the author. 1 Abstract Why have the cultural wars become so divisive? Why are science, religion, and even the fine arts becoming so politicized? Why are dialectic swings in approaches to political economy becoming so dramatic - exemplified by dramatic swings between internationalism and xenophobic nationalism - occurring? Why is national consensus, civil unity, so hard to achieve? This book argues that the answer lies in the growing complexity of societies globally. On the one hand this growing complexity has husbanded a golden era in which the standard of living is improving throughout most of the world; on the other hand it has laid the groundwork for the total destruction of the human race. At the heart of the problem is the tension, the often bitter conflict, between the two forces unleashing modern complexity and its global outreach: creativity enhanced by and impeded by efforts to instill cooperation facing the turmoil creativity has wrought. That reliance on competitive markets, a hallmark of mainstream economics, may offer a panacea is an unfortunate delusion based on a failure to take into account the law of unintended consequences particularly those undergirding ideology and power. Using examples from European history – emphasizing disputes in philosophy, science, art, politics, and political economy – this book offers a framework for understanding conflict in the modern world. There is no shelter from the storm, here, there, or everywhere. 2 Table of Contents Part I: Cooperation, Creativity, Complexity, and Conflict Chapter I Prophets, Geniuses, and the Law of Unintended Consequences Footprints on the Sands of Historical Time: Complexity and Spread Is Humanity Bounding along the Golden Road of Perpetual Progress? Or is Humanity Rushing along the Dreaded Road to Apocalypse? Exit and the Law of Unintended Consequences Espousing Unifying Virtue: Ideologies Religious and Materialist Confront the Law of Unintended Consequences Why Corruption and Conflict Undermine Unifying Ideologies: Unchanging Human Nature Prophets as Disruptive Visionaries and Purifiers Geniuses as Inspired Innovators Prelude to the Enlightenment: Genius in the Dutch Golden Age The Enduring Appeal of Unifying Transcendental Beliefs and the Unending Struggle between Religious Doctrines and Enlightenment Age Doctrines Chapter 2 Genius and the Dialectic: Why Conflict Accompanies Innovation The More Intense the Dialectic, the More Vigorous is Change Genius Thrives When the Exit Option is the Most Attractive: Europe Between 1450 and 1650 Genius Thrives When the Exit Option is the Most Attractive: Japan Between 1850 and 1920 Genius Thrives When the Exit Option is the Most Attractive: Russia Between 1910 and 1950 Geniuses Vie with One Another Enhancing the Dialectic Market Equilibrium is Not Compatible with Rapid Economic Growth Plan for Part II of the Book 3 Part II: Conflict, Capitalism, and Culture in the West Chapter 3 Conflict, Commerce, and Culture in Medieval Europe Conflict and Competitive Cooperation Military Diversion Shapes Core and Periphery on the Eurasian Land Mass, 300 CE – 1300 CE Eurasian Technological Diffusion is a Cup Half-Full/Half-Empty The Three Faces of European Medievalism: Militarism, Christianity, and Manorial Economy European Battles and Sieges, 400 – 1500 CE Commercial Cities and Sieges, 1000 – 1500 CE Limits to Growth? State Formation, Urbanization, and Social Leveling in the High and Late Medieval Period Open Feudalism versus Closed Feudalism: Medieval Europe in the Japanese Mirror A Tale of Two Parallel Hierarchies Icons and Plainchant Paris and Rome: The International Gothic Movement Scholasticism versus Alchemy Giotto and His Workshop Entertainment and Symbolism in Music: Gregorian Plainchant Chapter 4 Capitalism at War with Itself Capitalisms: It is the Ideologies that Matter, not the Ownership of Capital A Crucial Dichotomy: Merchant Capitalism versus Technological Capitalism The Cult of Capitalist Genius during the Renaissance: Medici and Fugger Fragmented Capitalism versus Concentrated Capitalism: Mercantilism and the Industrial Revolution American Capitalism Confronts Miracle Growth Japanese Capitalism: Was the Opponent Industrial Policy or Unfettered Capitalist Genius? 4 Chapter 5 States Embracing or Rejecting the Ideology of Unity A Kind of Unity: Decentralized Soft Power, Centralized Military Power Great Britain Embraces the Pendulum Swing Elusive Unity Roils the French Revolution Soviet Union Communism: Unity through Terror Chapter 6 Two Poles of Artistic Genius: Progressive Renaissance versus Gothic Artistic Geniuses and Renaissance Capitalism The Gothic in the Fourteenth and Fifteenth Century Lowlands The Progressive Renaissance in Fourteenth Century Italy and Southern Germany The British Gothic: From Romanticism to Arts and Crafts The Progressive Renaissance in Nineteenth Century France: Photography and Impressionism Post-Impressionism in France: The Swing toward the Gothic The Gothic Triumph in Habsburg Vienna Chapter 7 Scientific Struggles Light versus Sound: Waves versus Particles Mechanics versus Fields Evasive Unity: The Early Phase of Relativity Theory and Quantum Mechanics Chapter 8 Elusive Unity, Perpetual Conflict: Tragedy or Comedy? Appendix Economics: A Critical Note Market Equilibrium and Optimizing Behavior are Not Useful Concepts for Analyzing Dynamic Change in an Economy Dialectic Movement Not Movement Lurching from Equilibrium to Equilibrium along Steady Growth Paths 5 Conflicted Decision Making Trumps Utilitarian Theory Power, Hard and Soft Should Play a Prominent Role in Political Economy Ideology Tempers Economic Growth Growth Accounting is a Proper Mechanism for Capturing Quantitative Aspects of Long-run Economic Change Appendix Tables Tables 1.1 Energy, Knowledge, Settlement, and Organized Violence: Social Development in the Western and Eastern Cores (Morris Estimates) 1.2 Population, Income per Capita, Life Expectancy, and the Human Development Index Estimated Over the Long-run 1.3 Concert Halls and Opera Houses for Regions of the World and Selected Countries, Constructed Before and After 1800, by Period 1.4 Symphony Orchestras, Opera Companies, and Ballet Companies for Regions of the World and Selected Countries, Before and After 1800, by Period 1.5 Art Museums for Regions of the World and Selected Countries, Constructed Before and After 1800, by Period 1.6 Recorded Histories Worst Human Devised Disasters: The Top Twenty Adjusted for Population Size by Calibrating the Estimates as if They Occurred in 1950 2.1 The United States and the Soviet Union Compared: Population, Gross Domestic Product, and Gross Domestic Product per Capita, 1820 - 2003 3.1 Three Waves of Peripheral Population Penetrations Remake the Great Core Regions of Eurasia, 300-1300 CE 3.2 Battles and Sieges in the Western Medieval Period Organized by Region and by Period, 378 to 1499 CE 3.3 Population and Per Capita Income in Sub-Regions of Western European Core and Periphery: Circa 14 CE, Circa 1000 CE, Circa 1500 CE, and Circa 1600 CE 3.4 Commercial Cities and Towns Subject to Siege between 1000 CE and 1300 CE, and Estimates of Urbanization for Regions of Western Europe, Circa 1300 and 1500 CE 3.5 Key Features of Closed and Open Feudalism: Japan 1600-1868 and Western Europe 1000-1300 6 5.1 Palaces and Castles, Constructed Before and After 1500, for Regions of the World and Selected Countries A.1 Improvements and Innovations: Mechanical Instruments and Chemical Processes Used in Science, the Visual Arts, and Music, 1400 - 1900 A.2 Estimates of Major City Populations for Europe and Russia, 1400 – 1900 (Figures in 1.000s) Part I Cooperation, Creativity, Complexity, and Conflict Chapter I Prophets, Geniuses, and the Law of Unintended Consequences Summary of the chapter: Long run social evolution – growing complexity spreading globally - is driven by a dialectic struggle between forces promoting cooperation and those disruptive forces encouraging innovation. Conflict is unavoidable because human nature undermines unifying regimes based upon prophetic ideologies espousing virtue; conflict is unavoidable because reliance on markets as unifiers is undercut by conflicts over their legal and moral regulation; conflict is unavoidable because geniuses as the principal drivers of innovation vie with one another. While prophets and geniuses are radically different,