3 March

One of the recurring patterns in history that I think doesn’t get noticed much is how the powerful end up civilised by those they rule over. Big Bad Bill was a bad boy, civilised by marriage. Many men are civilised in that way, by the ‘weaker’ sex. The Romans were invaders, bullies civilised over time by the lands they invaded. Facebook and Google are now being dragged back to civic values. It’s a question of numbers, you can crash through for a while as an invader or dominant force, but eventually the need to keep everyday life running at scale overwhelms you. Weakness and strength aren’t opposites I don’t think, weakness is just strength looked at over long times and distances. Like gravity.