Walter Russell Mead - The next American Upgrade

An Important piece that explains that the notion that there are 'developed' countries:  that there is a path to a pinnacle and certain countries are in some respects 'there' is among the most pernicious and widespread notions in our world today.  The rapidly accelerating pace of change and the weaknesses of the current order almost guarantee radical changes in social arrangements here at the 'end of history'.  Read the whole thing here.

The word ‘developed’ contains an important assumption: that a historical process known as development (closely related to modernization — another problematic word) not only exists throughout the world, it culminates in a known end which has already been reached.  This word implies that countries like France, Canada and our own happy United States of America have reached the end of history, the summit of human achievement, stable and enduring arrangements in political economy that are unlikely to change much going forward.

Nothing could be stupider or less historically defensible than this belief, yet few assumptions are more widespread among the world’s intelligentsia, planners and, especially, bureaucrats.  Technological change has never been moving faster or with greater force than it is today as the implications of one revolution in IT after another work themselves out; the foundations of the global economic and political order are being shaken by the dramatic rise of new powers. Yet somehow many of us believe that the  western world is an end state: the comfy couch at the end of history rather than the launching pad for another great, disruptive leap into the unknown.

Hat tip www.instapundit.com