I’m still reading The Origins of Political Order by Francis Fukuyama; half-way through.
What appeals to me is the way he grounds events and processes in natural human behavior. In describing what happened in the Ottoman Empire, he states:
“We saw in the case of the Mamluks that rules preventing slave-soldiers from passing on their status and resources to their children were vary hard to enforce since it came up against certain realities of human nature.” pp. 225-6.
“It” being ’passing on’ flew in the face of what human beings have always done: build families. So when we put schools into poverty-stricken neighborhoods with high rates of unemployment, why are we surprised that people in a position to hire put their family and friends in those positions? Those are the only decent jobs available. Anyone ignoring those dynamics is……….
stupid.