Nicolas Poussin's Shepherds of Arcadia

The Shepherds of Arcadia, by Nicolas Poussin. 1630s.

When a soci­ety is wealthy, it takes on new respon­si­bil­i­ties. New pos­si­bil­i­ties and oppor­tu­ni­ties open up for it. It has the poten­tial to increase its own wealth and well-​​being many times over, if it just thinks ahead of itself and its own instant grat­i­fi­ca­tion. If it just thinks ahead of itself and its desire for per­sonal grat­i­fi­ca­tion. If it just thinks ahead of now.

If the peo­ple of this wealthy soci­ety unite in com­mon cause, they can do things that are impos­si­ble alone. They can do things that are impos­si­ble for indi­vid­u­als alone. They can even do things that are impos­si­ble for large insti­tu­tions alone, or groups of those insti­tu­tions. If the entire soci­ety gath­ers, unites, and agrees to work together, it can do things that have never been done.

At the same time, if a soci­ety chooses not to unite, it can fall back in time. It can lose its wealth and pros­per­ity, its place in the world, its stan­dards of excel­lence. It can lose the momen­tum it gained through youth­ful expan­sion, inno­va­tion, impro­vi­sa­tion. It can lose itself, as all empires even­tu­ally do. Resting on its lau­rels, get­ting fat, lazy and stu­pid, it can think bet­ter of itself than it really deserves. It can fool itself into slow or swift decline.

And, it can miss its win­dow. All empires have a win­dow, an open­ing, a period of time that makes or breaks their future. If they do the right things dur­ing that time, they can pros­per in the future. If they do the wrong things, they set the stage for a rapid or steady slide into weak­ness and despair.

Contrary to received wis­dom, invest­ment in com­merce and cor­po­ra­tions alone will not set the stage for future pros­per­ity. It never has. If a soci­ety chooses to let the masses fend for them­selves, and con­cen­trates on the top tier, the finan­cial élite, it will lose its momen­tum, its spirit of inno­va­tion, its skill and tal­ent lev­els, and even­tu­ally its pros­per­ity. If, on the other hand, it chooses to invest in peo­ple, in edu­ca­tion, in the arts, in the infra­struc­ture all of its cit­i­zens uti­lize, it will pros­per in the short and long term. Those invest­ments will pay off ten­fold, through bet­ter, more tal­ented artists, work­ers, cit­i­zens, par­ents, and friends. The syn­ergy and energy cre­ated by that invest­ment will help shape and reshape that soci­ety for decades to come.

Most empires never see this, or see this far too late. They miss the fact that when things are good, when the money is flow­ing into gov­ern­ment cof­fers, that is the time to invest in the pub­lic. When the money is flow­ing into pub­lic cof­fers, that is the time to build roads, bridges, infra­struc­ture, schools, hos­pi­tals, muse­ums, gal­leries, lec­ture halls, con­cert halls, and so on. That is the time to build parks, clean up rivers, lakes, streams and clear the land, sea and air of pol­lu­tion. When times are good. When that soci­ety is near­ing the top of its game, invest in the pub­lic so the pub­lic can over­come down times, bad times, rough times.

It is also more than obvi­ous that invest­ing in the already rich is like giv­ing the owner of a huge and pros­per­ous cat­tle ranch a cow for his or her birth­day. It is like giv­ing the owner of a huge and pros­per­ous hab­er­dash­ery a hat for his or her birth­day. It is also more than obvi­ous that giv­ing the gift of an edu­ca­tion to some­one who lacks one is the essence of com­mon sense.

A smart soci­ety helps the great­est num­ber of peo­ple achieve their fullest poten­tial. A stu­pid, tired, defeated soci­ety gives up on that great­est num­ber to con­cen­trate on the already pros­per­ous. It takes the quick and easy way out. It chooses to fun­nel its resources into a lim­ited arena of the same. The same old same old. It chooses to die.

Is there a place on earth that has learned this les­son? Was there ever such a place?

 

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