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Re:Bhutan, after prioritizing happiness, now faces an existe... by namaria on Wednesday November 20, 2024 @07:40AM (#42193420)
No, it's not special people that develop civilization. Civilization development is a higher order phenomenon that doesn't depend on personalities. The Whig narrative that special personalities drive development is a post hoc explanation with no basis in evidence.
Re:Bhutan, after prioritizing happiness, now faces an existe... by jacobr1 on Friday November 22, 2024 @11:51AM (#42215377)
The narratives around how such cultural traits evolve is not clear, and I agree are unlikely to be the post-hoc rationalization of "Great Men" setting them up.

Yet there do seem to be some traits that enable more "success" in at least something close to industrial, market-oriented societies. For example having a high-trust or risk-tolerant cultural values seems to have some success correlations.