{"id":965,"date":"2006-05-26T05:44:04","date_gmt":"2006-05-26T10:44:04","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/the-varieties-of-diversity-or-something\/"},"modified":"2006-05-26T05:44:04","modified_gmt":"2006-05-26T10:44:04","slug":"the-varieties-of-diversity-or-something","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/the-varieties-of-diversity-or-something","title":{"rendered":"The varieties of diversity, or something"},"content":{"rendered":"

Timothy Garton Ash on the stultification of Europe<\/a>:<\/p>\n

In the great age of Renaissance Florence, diversity was indeed the dynamo of Europe’s extraordinary creativity. There’s a marvellous book called The European Miracle, by the economic historian EL Jones, that explores why Europe rather than China – scientifically and technologically more advanced than Europe in the 14th century – produced the scientific, agrarian and industrial revolutions that led the world into modernity. In brief, his answer is: Europe’s diversity.<\/p>\n

But this was the diversity of a restless, often violent competition between cities, regions, states and empires. Florence and Siena, England and France, Christian Europe and the Ottoman empire – they did not resolve their differences by coalition agreements and endless negotiations in airless committee rooms on the Rue de la Loi in Brussels. To reverse Churchill’s post-1945 adage: they made war-war not jaw-jaw.<\/p>\n

Many readers will remember the speech that Orson Welles put into the mouth of the gangster Harry Lime, in the film of Graham Greene’s The Third Man: “In Italy, for 30 years under the Borgias, they had warfare, terror, murder, bloodshed – they produced Michelangelo, Leonardo da Vinci and the Renaissance. In Switzerland, they had brotherly love, 500 years of democracy and peace, and what did that produce? The cuckoo clock.” Has Europe today entered its age of the cuckoo clock?<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Sorry to have been so light on the posts, dear reader. I’ve been pretty busy with the magazine. Have a good holiday weekend.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Timothy Garton Ash on the stultification of Europe: In the great age of Renaissance Florence, diversity was indeed the dynamo of Europe’s extraordinary creativity. There’s a marvellous book called The European Miracle, by the economic historian EL Jones, that explores why Europe rather than China – scientifically and technologically more advanced than Europe in the … <\/p>\n

Continue reading “The varieties of diversity, or something”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[18],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-965","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-politics-implicit"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p4C7K-fz","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":2606,"url":"https:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/pale-fire","url_meta":{"origin":965,"position":0},"title":"Pale Fire","author":"Gil","date":"October 4, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"Adam Kirsch, my favorite book critic at the now-defunct New York Sun, has landed at Slate. It doesn't say if he's going to have a regular spot there, but I hope that's the case. I also hope he's given as much range in his assignments as he was at the\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "literature"","block_context":{"text":"literature","link":"https:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/category\/literature"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":3041,"url":"https:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/my-biggest-fault-well-im-a-bit-of-a-perfectionist","url_meta":{"origin":965,"position":1},"title":"My biggest fault? Well, I’m a bit of a perfectionist. . .","author":"Gil","date":"December 9, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"Merck gave a \"state of the biz-nass\" presentation today. Here's their statement about it. As with every other major pharma company, they plan to develop more vaccines and biologic drugs sell more in emerging markets like India and China use \"diversity\" when they mean \"diversification\" My favorite statement was this\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Big Business"","block_context":{"text":"Big Business","link":"https:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/category\/big-business"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":13568,"url":"https:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/episode-376-calvin-reid","url_meta":{"origin":965,"position":2},"title":"Episode 376 – Calvin Reid","author":"Gil","date":"June 17, 2020","format":"audio","excerpt":"Virtual Memories Show 376: Calvin Reid \"The biggest shift in comics right now is the explosion of independent publishing, the impact of Kickstarter on the ability of artists to not have to go through the superhero gatekeepers, the explosion of diversity in terms of creators and in genres, and the\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Art"","block_context":{"text":"Art","link":"https:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/category\/art"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-content\/uploads\/calvincomp.jpg?fit=1200%2C533&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-content\/uploads\/calvincomp.jpg?fit=1200%2C533&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-content\/uploads\/calvincomp.jpg?fit=1200%2C533&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-content\/uploads\/calvincomp.jpg?fit=1200%2C533&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-content\/uploads\/calvincomp.jpg?fit=1200%2C533&ssl=1&resize=1050%2C600 3x"},"classes":[]},{"id":7075,"url":"https:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/podcast-eternity-is-music-that-plays","url_meta":{"origin":965,"position":3},"title":"Podcast: Eternity is Music that Plays","author":"Gil","date":"May 13, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"Virtual Memories - season 3 episode 10 - Eternity is Music that Plays \"Americans who come to Italy want to get its beauty, its art, its delicious food. They move very fast through Italy. They'll see 8 or 10 cities in two weeks.\" Poet, novelist, memoirist and all-around wonderful writer\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "literature"","block_context":{"text":"literature","link":"https:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/category\/literature"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"http:\/\/www.assoc-amazon.com\/e\/ir?t=voyantpublishing&l=as2&o=1&a=B0006H92QK","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":169,"url":"https:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/we-could-put-on-a-seminar","url_meta":{"origin":965,"position":4},"title":"We could put on a seminar!","author":"Gil","date":"March 22, 2004","format":false,"excerpt":"Andrew Sullivan discusses Europe's response to 3\/11, and tears appeasement a new hole.[The Islamist war] existed and grew in strength and potency throughout the 1990s. it draws its roots from the Egyptian Brotherhood in the 1970s and 1980s. It is quite candid in its goals: expulsion of all infidels from\u2026","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":397,"url":"https:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/freedoms-front-line","url_meta":{"origin":965,"position":5},"title":"“Freedom’s Front Line”","author":"Gil","date":"November 27, 2004","format":false,"excerpt":"Timothy Garton Ash--who wrote a pretty neat book about the East German surveillance file that was kept on him--has a great piece in the Guardian about the voter revolution in the Ukraine:Yet until Tuesday, many west Europeans probably did not even know that there was a presidential election going on\u2026","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/965","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=965"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/965\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=965"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=965"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=965"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}