i think one has to beware of the domino theory, because that was an erroneous view. In fact, the loss of southviet nam turned out, strategically, not to matter a whole lot. i feel this is more like,. you know, america's sewers crisis, where youre, you're suddenly seen to be ah, no longer number one. And that has all kinds of cascading con quences and consequences in the rest of the world.
Disasters are inherently hard to predict. Pandemics, like earthquakes, wildfires, financial crises, and wars, are not normally distributed; there is no cycle of history to help us anticipate the next catastrophe. In this episode, Michael Shermer speaks with one of the world’s most renowned historians, Niall Ferguson, who explains why our ever more bureaucratic and complex systems are making us worse, not better, at handling disasters.