The Truth Is, Of Course, That History

Of All The Failed Technologies That Litter The Onward March Of Science - Steam Carriages, Zeppelins, Armoured Trains - None Has Been So Catastrophic To Prosperity As The Last Century's Attempt To Generate Electricity From Nuclear Fission.

The Year 2008 Was A Reminder To Those Who Had Forgotten That There Is Such A Thing As History And That The Cycle Of Famine And Feast In Commerce, First Identified In Antiquity And Well Understood In The Middle Ages, Was Not Suddenly Abolished In Modern Times.

In Rising Financial Markets, The World Is Forever New. The Bull Or Optimist Has No Eyes For Past Or Present, But Only For The Future, Where Streams Of Revenue Play In His Imagination.

The Prevailing Ideology Of The Modern West - Which Is Political Economy - Is In The Doghouse. Having Failed To Notice Atmospheric Pollution, The Economists Then Frightened Themselves With The Sort Of Financial Crisis They Said They Had Abolished.

Ever Since The Destruction Of Baghdad By The Mongols In 1258, The Muslim World Has Been In Slow Decline Relative To The West. With Napoleon's Invasion Of Egypt And The Creeping British Annexation Of Muslim India, That Decline Took On A Malign Aspect.