"Keep clear of the dupes that talk democracy,
And the dogs that bark revolution.
Drunk with talk, liars and believers.
I believe in my tusks. Long live freedom and damn the ideologies!"
(Robinson Jeffers)
Saturday, February 29, 2020
The Last Until (Doubt it will come to that) the Apocalypse
Many years ago I read a very interesting book - drier than the Sahara, being a purely academic work - but interesting nonetheless: "Armies of Pestilence". It was an account of multiple plagues in societies across the world throughout history, and the roles those plagues had on those societies.
For example, in Greece there was a plague where a physician wrote the symptoms and progression in such detail that researchers have a high confidence it was typhus.
Another anecdote was a city in Italy (don't recall which one) that had only one place where any invading army could encamp - due to terrain. That one place was right next to a malaria-infested swamp. Most invading armies were routed, not by the defenders, but by disease.
And we all know about the effects on Europe of the Black Death.
What was interesting and IMHO most noteworthy was that a growing society, confident in itself, with strong birth rates, would get knocked BACK but not knocked OUT by a plague. Those societies would be set back but would continue to grow and advance. Historically, societies that were at, or past, their apogees were the ones that would get devastated and not recover.
1 comment:
Many years ago I read a very interesting book - drier than the Sahara, being a purely academic work - but interesting nonetheless: "Armies of Pestilence". It was an account of multiple plagues in societies across the world throughout history, and the roles those plagues had on those societies.
For example, in Greece there was a plague where a physician wrote the symptoms and progression in such detail that researchers have a high confidence it was typhus.
Another anecdote was a city in Italy (don't recall which one) that had only one place where any invading army could encamp - due to terrain. That one place was right next to a malaria-infested swamp. Most invading armies were routed, not by the defenders, but by disease.
And we all know about the effects on Europe of the Black Death.
What was interesting and IMHO most noteworthy was that a growing society, confident in itself, with strong birth rates, would get knocked BACK but not knocked OUT by a plague. Those societies would be set back but would continue to grow and advance. Historically, societies that were at, or past, their apogees were the ones that would get devastated and not recover.
Where are we now?
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