“A great part of the cultural energy of poor farming societies has always been devoted to suppressing experimentation. If they had insurance, or sufficient savings to self-insure their experiments, such strong social taboos would not be needed to help ensure… — James Dale Davidson Copy Share Image
“Topographic conditions were the foundation of Greek democracy, just as those of a different kind gave rise to the Oriental despotisms of Egypt and… — James Dale Davidson Copy Share Image
“When the payoff for organizing violence at a large scale tumbles, the payoff from violence at a smaller scale is likely to jump. Violence… — James Dale Davidson Copy Share Image
“The more apparent it is that a system is nearing an end, the more reluctant people will be to adhere to its laws.” — James Dale Davidson Copy Share Image
Place 5 percent to 10 percent of your total assets in gold bullion and selected gold and silver coins. No one knows with certainty… — James Dale Davidson Copy Share Image
“Faster than all but a few now imagine, microprocessing will subvert and destroy the nation-state, creating new forms of social organization in the process.” — James Dale Davidson Copy Share Image
“Other things being equal, the more widely dispersed key technologies are, the more widely dispersed power will be, and the smaller the optimum scale… — James Dale Davidson Copy Share Image
America today has insufficient savings to finance both crucial investment and its consumption of imports. — James Dale Davidson Copy Share Image
“Cultures are not matters of taste but systems of adaptation to specific circumstances that may prove irrelevant or even counterproductive in other settings.” — James Dale Davidson Copy Share Image
“Market forces, not political majorities, will compel societies to reconfigure themselves in ways that public opinion will neither comprehend nor welcome.” — James Dale Davidson Copy Share Image
“This tended to increase the size of societies because contests of violence more often than not were won by the larger group.” — James Dale Davidson Copy Share Image
“Governments will ultimately have little choice but to treat populations in territories they serve more like customers, and less in the easy that organized… — James Dale Davidson Copy Share Image
“Every social order incorporates among its key taboos the notion that people living in it should not think about how it will end and… — James Dale Davidson Copy Share Image
“Wherever farming took root, violence emerged as a more important feature of social life.” — James Dale Davidson Copy Share Image
