"The Parasitic Role of Elites" provides readers with an informative summary of how mankind has evolved over the last 5000 years---it reviews our successes and failures, our extraordinary development of technology, and ends with recommendations that could shape a happier future for our children and grandchildren.
Readers will discover a fascinating story, beginning with the Garden of Eden, or wherever the first Homo sapiens found themselves, and advancing by leaps and bounds to the present day. The author concentrates on the rare "start-up" nations that forged free societies and prosperous communities. Those people stood out in stark contrast to the sea of autocratic realms that surrounded them---they built the "stepping stones" to the modern world we live in.
Ancient documents and biblical texts have told us of a few benign and wise rulers like King Solomon in Judea and Pericles in Athens. But such leaders were the exception; most of the ruling elites throughout the world have been arrogant, greedy, and cruel. In almost all nations, since time began, the common people have had to get by on minimal comforts, their families virtually enslaved to produce abundant food, luxuries, and palaces for their rulers. Freedom and prosperity was a rare blessing that was only enjoyed in those nations which found ways to minimize the deprivations caused by tyrannical leaders.
The author uses the "case method" to clarify the record of man's ascent from stone age primitives to the modern world of algebra, automobiles, and astronauts. His reliance on the actual record of our forebears provides readers with a solid base on which to build their knowledge of the past. And the rigor of sticking to established experience avoids the slippery slope of speculative theories on what has helped and what has hurt mankind's spectacular advances.
Bill Greene has relied on that firm record of the past to solve the mystery of why some nations have prospered more than others and to expose the reasons why the expert historians and economists have only presented dozens of contributing conditions for successful nations. This book emphasizes the need for each of us to understand the underlying truths of human experience if we are to continue our progress to richer and happier lives. He has given us an unsparing critique of today's waffling uncertainty that prevents any sound conclusions, of the top-down mandates that restrict independent thinking, and the demands for conformity that would limit our right to be imaginative creative individuals.
In this book, the reader will:
1) SEE how Putin's invasion of the Ukraine is just one more example of the misery inflicted on humanity by brutal elites who force their people into wars.
2) LEARN how oppressive rulers have chained the minds of their people, and why a small window of freedom allowed Europeans to gain the Industrial Revolution.
3) DISCOVER the lessons of history which confirm the equality of all people, their comparable competency, and their shared desire for freedom and opportunity.
4) READ how people of every ethnicity on every continent are now enjoying free and prosperous economies. It's all simple mechanics; any people anywhere can do it.
5) LEARN how today's partisan battles are not an honest intellectual debate but represent the perpetual war between elites and their citizens.
In summary, readers will discover in these pages how the West got its head start and why everyone else is now catching up. It provides a remarkable wake-up call for all oppressed people to control their elite, take back their country, and gain the liberty and dignity that all people deserve.