Schumpeter and the Mayans

A TV debate show in today's world, whether it is "Meet the Press" in the U.S., "Anne Will" in Germany or "OMV" in the CR, is nothing more than an exercise in Ricardian vice steeped in unrealistic assumptions unless it confronts the likelihood that the Western world is facing a civilizational change. Despite the best efforts of host Václav Moravec and the other guests (PM Jan Fischer and Prof. Jan Švejnar), Prof. Michal Mejstřík managed to slip just such an uncensored thesis into Czech TV's debate on Sunday. "We are behaving somewhat like the historical Mayans," he said. They uprooted the forest until all at once there was no more forest, he said, and their historical ways of doing things led to a complete collapse of their civilization. The first to leave, he noted, were the leaders, who had to escape the wrath of their subjects. What we need now, Mejstřík said, is a Schumpeter-like evolutionary development that reacts to the mistakes we made in the past. Alas, the other TV guests adhered to their Mayan way of thinking. [Czech Republic television Otázky Václava Moravce Joseph Josef prime minister Ricardo Euro-American civilization]