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New Statesman
6 days ago
- Business
- New Statesman
Have we reached peak humanity?
The spectre of decline is a seductive narrative. How easily nostalgic laments find their own straplines: late capitalism; the eclipse of the West; the collapse of public discourse; the atomisation of society; the impoverishment of the public square; and, as a niche addition, I can't resist including the downward trajectory of Test cricket. Perhaps the narrative arc of societal decline is weirdly in step with the individual ageing process, and we find a perverse personal consolation in believing that the world, or our framing of the world, has also peaked. Even allowing for that tendency, we seem particularly convinced about decline today. Every discipline has its theory about why – economists, for example, tell us that a generation will be miserable if it feels poorer than its parents' demographic. But I wonder if there is something here more fundamental than money. The privileges that are supposed to make us fulfilled and happy (such as leisure and choice) can be seen as reversing back into themselves. If modern capitalism gives you the time and freedom to become addicted to vapid and ephemeral digital technology, for example, then humanity becomes further detached from the most important anchor of all: the conviction that something of lasting value will be left behind. Decline takes many forms, and perhaps we are well tuned to understanding the impoverishment of grand ambition. It's an opportune moment for the writer and historian Johan Norberg to choose seven golden ages and interweave their rise and fall into a history of human progress: Athens, Rome, the Abbasid caliphate, Song China, Renaissance Italy, the Dutch Republic, and the Anglosphere. The authorial challenge is bringing it all together. And yet this highlights reel of world history won me over. As with any well-edited montage, we certainly know what side we're on. 'History casts long shadows,' Norberg concludes, 'but also light.' And it is light, in his history, that more often has the last word. The heroic threads are established at the outset and constantly remain in focus: innovation, openness, liberty, commerce, learning, assimilation, enquiry. You always get the point, sometimes a little too bluntly. After introducing classical Greek drama, Norberg adds: 'Netflix would not have been the same without it.' Is he exemplifying or parodying the popular historian's trait of linking everything to the here and now? But if Peak Human is the kind of muscular broad-brush storytelling that academic historians look down on, it is engaging and persuasive. Peak civilisations, of course, are portrayed as constantly in conflict with dark-age duds. First up on the wrong side of history are the Spartans, who Norberg gives such a mauling that you begin to feel sorry for them. Not only did the Spartans leave us 'no literature, no poetry, no art, no architecture and no innovative body of thought', but Norberg then adds the sucker punch that they weren't even any good at fighting. The Spartans, he concludes, 'are the most overrated warriors in ancient history; they just had very good PR'. Step forward the Athenians, who run the first leg in the civilised relay race. 'Only a regime as open, innovative, energetic, pragmatic and meritocratic as democracy,' we are told, 'could have followed the policy that won at Salamis.' The book's pattern is set, with each great golden age explained in the style of a business journalist charting the development of a superstar company. Military victories gave the Athenians 'proof of concept', so they 'doubled down on democracy and trade'. The sleight of hand required by any episodic world history is navigating the leap from one chapter to the next. Getting from ancient Greece to classical Rome, however, probably didn't cost Norberg much sleep, especially as Horace gave him the line 'Greece, the captive, took her savage victor captive'. In Norberg's summary of Rome's 'melting pot of marble', the definitive engine of greatness was the empire's strategic tolerance. 'The Romans did not embrace tolerance because they were enlightened,' Norberg concludes, 'they did it in order to beat everybody else and take their stuff. They wanted to integrate people to benefit from them.' Subscribe to The New Statesman today from only £8.99 per month Subscribe After pointedly lingering on the creative and economic hiatus after the fall of Rome – 'pitch dark' despite 'the heroic efforts of revisionist historians' – Norberg picks up the story in the 9th-century Abbasid caliphate. In AD 892, there were more than a hundred bookshops in Baghdad, which had become the new cradle of learning and free markets. Baghdad emerges as a nexus of social mobility and commerce, with successful businessmen achieving not only wealth but also corresponding status. So this Islamic 'bourgeois revolution' extended beyond the marketplaces of Athens and Rome, where commerce had still been seen as a necessary evil. (You won't be surprised that Norberg follows his Cato Institute colleague Deirdre McCloskey in recasting 'bourgeois' as an explicitly positive concept.) Norberg's next leaping off point for laissez-faire liberalism is Song dynasty China, where a 12th-century poet observed that 'great ships sail only for profit'. Marauding Mongol hordes rudely interrupt the flow of progress by shrinking the Song state. But with a little help from Marco Polo – who described the old Song capital of Hangzhou as 'the greatest city which may be found in the world, where so many pleasures may be found that one fancies oneself in paradise' – the flame is kept alive in a new cultural and trading crossroads: Venice. When the pope complained to the Venetians about their economic relationship with Syria and Egypt, they replied: 'We are Venetians first, only then Christians.' Open, secular, undogmatic: the book's firmly established heroic template. The Netherlands, despite its remarkable military exploits in the Eighty Years' War, is revealed as 'a bourgeois society that wanted to make money not war'. And the same openness is found at the heart of Britain's 18th-century ascent. Norberg cites Voltaire's description: 'Go into the London Stock Exchange – a more respectable place than many a court – and you will see representatives from all nations gathered together for the utility of men. Here Jew, Mohammedan and Christian deal with each other as though they were all of the same faith, and only apply the word infidel to people who go bankrupt.' Finally, Norberg reaches America, completing his distilled histories of elevated cultures, lovingly interleaved into a unified history of enlightened humanity. Although Norberg never hides his strong ideological convictions, he often finds room for the counter-view, while also being unfailingly courteous in crediting other historians. Though it's unclear whether the book is meant as an introduction or a refresher, I ended up thinking it didn't matter either way: one would have to be an incredibly erudite reader not to find anything new and surprising at every turn, no matter how familiar the terrain. Books such as this are feats of engineering, rather than style or originality. Can the narrative structure survive the conceptual weight it is being asked to support? That's where the intelligence of Norberg's book is found. Norberg frequently revisits a familiar objection to his thesis: slavery. To what extent did that inhuman and unpaid debt enable these so-called golden ages? Very significantly. But Norberg argues that slavery was seldom the definitive causal factor in the growth stories he admires. Other societies indulged slavery, Norberg stresses, not only the celebrated and economically successful ones. A similar question has obvious resonance in our own context today. Hyper-globalisation delivers cheap fast-fashion clothing, for example, churned out by child-labour sweatshops in Asia. When growth is driven by wilful blindness, are 'rise' and 'decline' appropriate concepts? The approved stamp 'artisan' might be an overused cliché today, but you can see what the concept is being defined against. I finished Peak Human unsure about something even more fundamental: the influence of mass digital information on our subliminal attitude towards knowledge. In Norberg's sunny enlightenment world-view, the exchange of information is the engine of progress. Assimilators thrive and the curious win. But the digital age – in which information is exchanged without any friction – now overwhelms us. We often feel defeated by information rather than excited by it. TS Eliot's aphorism feels truer than ever: 'Where is the wisdom we have lost in knowledge? Where is the knowledge we have lost in information?' If a part of us wants to switch off – literally and metaphorically – we are not necessarily turning away from the kind of creative human interaction that Norberg celebrates, but instead trying to salvage a more textured human experience. Today's ceaseless exchange of mostly meaningless pixelated 'content' seems to be undermining our higher instincts rather than supporting them. AI and the manipulation of digital information adds an extra layer of underlying disquiet. Our brilliance at manufacturing information is becoming inversely correlated with our confidence that the information is trustworthy. For all our material advances, there's a feeling of being tossed around on digital seas that we don't quite understand. For that reason, Peak Human feels incomplete. Norberg's spectrum charts 'peak-human' relative to 'declining-human'. But aren't we facing an even bigger question today: 'actually human' vs 'non-human'? When the sizeable chunk of human experience is reduced to watching rotating adverts on an iPhone, what Norberg wrote about Sparta leaving 'no literature, no poetry, no art, no architecture' becomes just as applicable to our vacant technological age as it was to Sparta's closed and military one. Norberg might counter: new technology is always unsettling but rarely turns out frightening. I'd say: this time could be different. We'll see. It's only a hunch, but I think this underlying anxiety about our place in the world is seeping into political restiveness. The paradox, of course, is that intellectual loss of confidence and bewilderment manifests itself as a yearning for childlike simplicity. 'Hard times create strongmen,' Norberg warns us near the end of the book, 'and strongmen create even harder times.' He's writing about the decline of the Dutch Republic, and the prince of Orange. But of course the shadow of America's own prince of orange, Donald Trump, falls across the page. The next peak for humanity feels distant. Ed Smith is director of the Institute of Sports Humanities Peak Human: What We Can Learn from the Rise and Fall of Golden Ages Johan Norberg Atlantic, 512pp, £22 Purchasing a book may earn the NS a commission from who support independent bookshops [See also: Dickens's Britain is still with us] Related This article appears in the 04 Jun 2025 issue of the New Statesman, The Housing Trap
Yahoo
21-05-2025
- General
- Yahoo
Construction underway for living shoreline project at Marler Park
OKALOOSA COUNTY, Fla. (WKRG) — Construction is underway in Choctawhatchee Bay just off Marler Park in Okaloosa County. Facebook Marketplace meetup at Pensacola Park allegedly turns violent: 4 arrests, 1 sought Crews are hard at work putting in a living shoreline, a nature based solution to help address coastal erosion. 'We've got contractors that are laying material down on the bottom,' Destin-Fort Walton Beach Coastal Resource Manager Mike Norberg said. 'Eventually, they'll be putting in a breakwater reef out of limestone, and then in the future, we're going to be coming back in and planting native vegetation to help stabilize the sediments along the beach.' As crews work to stabilize 2,000 feet of shoreline, county officials are hoping to reduce the shoreline erosion they've seen over the years caused by things like boat wakes and wind waves. 'It also provides natural habitat for fish and other marine life, so it helps support fisheries and tourism opportunities,' Norberg said. According to county officials, the majority of the park will remain open during construction, but certain areas will be marked off for safety. The living shoreline project at Marler Park is expected to be completed by October. Massive bull shark caught outside mouth of Mobile Bay Another living shoreline project along Highway 98 on Okaloosa Island is currently in the design phase. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Economist
01-05-2025
- Politics
- Economist
How golden ages really start—and end
The way to start a 'golden age' is to erect big, beautiful barriers to keep out foreign goods and people. That, at least, is the view of the most powerful man on the planet. Johan Norberg, a Swedish historian, makes the opposite case. In 'Peak Human', Mr Norberg charts the rise and fall of golden ages around the world over the past three millennia, ranging from Athens to the Anglosphere via the Abbasid caliphate. He finds that the polities that outshone their peers did so because they were more open: to trade, to strangers and to ideas that discomfited the mighty. When they closed up again, they lost their shine.
Associated Press
27-01-2025
- Business
- Associated Press
Krispy Krunchy Chicken® Finishes 2024 with Over 600 Openings
, one of the fastest-growing hot food concepts in the convenience store business with over 3,200 locations, is celebrating 2024 as an outstanding year of growth, menu innovation, and operational improvements. The brand continues to reset expectations in the c-store foodservice space, supplying high-quality, craveable menu items to successful operators throughout the country. The Road Forward is Filled with Krispy Krunchy The brand opened 605 stores in 2024, and projects that it will exceed this number for new stores in 2025. With a new organizational structure and new products, partners, and platforms, Krispy Krunchy Chicken is accelerating its national expansion. 'We've grown on the solid foundation of prioritizing the profitability of our operators through a cohesive brand strategy, strong foundational partnerships and a focus on innovation,' said Jim Norberg, CEO of Krispy Krunchy Chicken. 'These efforts have driven a significant increase in interest throughout the industry, and we continue to be sought out as the preferred foodservice offering.' To support its continued growth, the company is focusing on collaboration across sales, operations, marketing, and supply chain to enhance the brand experience. From new products and platforms to new ways of training and executing, Krispy Krunchy is exploring new growth opportunities, bringing their craveable fried chicken to new locations every day. Menu Innovation and Awards In 2024, Krispy Krunchy introduced several successful menu innovations and LTOs. Primary among these was the launch of its updated Cajun Chicken Sandwich, which quickly became a standout in the competitive chicken sandwich market. The sandwich earned accolades as one of Convenience Store News' 2024 Best New Products and was named a winner in CSP's 2024 Retailer Choice Best New Products Contest. In addition, following the rise in food costs, the brand brought new relevance to its core menu by introducing its $4 Value Meal. 'Research tells us that consumers choose us for our quality, our value and our cravability,' said Norberg. 'We quickly responded to the growing demand for even greater value in today's economic climate with the $4 Value Meal, offering a fresh, craveable meal at an exceptional price point.' Looking ahead, the brand plans to introduce more innovations in 2025, including new products and partnerships designed to increase customer satisfaction and growth. Finally, in 2024, Krispy Krunchy was featured in several USA Today Readers' Choice Awards and picked as one of 'Eat This, Not That's' Fastest Growing Restaurants. Yelp! ranked the brand on its Fastest Growing Brands of 2024 list, a distinction driven entirely by the increase in search and mentions by consumers. Third-Party Delivery Rolling out third-party delivery, featuring partners like DoorDash, UberEats and GrubHub, was a focus in 2024 and has already started to pay off. Consolidating third-party providers into one menu management tool through OLO, Krispy Krunchy began signing up stores mid-year and ended the year with nearly 500 stores on the platform. The tool has lowered commission fees for most operators and has reduced complexity by allowing stores to eliminate multiple tablets from multiple partners. Initial sales have been strong – even when unexpected. 'On Thanksgiving, we saw our volumes nearly double, and Christmas day delivered sales at nearly four times our usual rate,' said Norberg. 'Our operators have been extremely satisfied with this program, and we'll be expanding it throughout 2025. It's just one more way we help bring customers their favorite fried chicken, whenever and wherever they want it.' For more information about Krispy Krunchy Chicken, visit or follow on Facebook and Instagram. About Krispy Krunchy Chicken Krispy Krunchy Chicken (KKC), founded in Louisiana in 1989, is a quick-serve solution for convenience stores, truck stops, universities, casinos and big box retailers across the U.S. The store-in-store concept allows licensees to serve hand-breaded, mild Cajun-spiced fried chicken and all white meat tenders to its guests, to increase their in-store profitability and drive frequency. The full menu also includes a variety of sides and the brand's trademark honey biscuits. With a weekly chicken sales volume exceeding one million pounds, Krispy Krunchy Chicken proudly operates over 3,200 retail locations across 47 states in the United States and is rapidly expanding. To learn more about partnering with Krispy Krunchy Chicken, visit Kaitlyn Ianiro 305.631.2283 [email protected] KEYWORD: LOUISIANA GEORGIA UNITED STATES NORTH AMERICA INDUSTRY KEYWORD: RESTAURANT/BAR FOOD/BEVERAGE RETAIL DELIVERY SERVICES CONVENIENCE STORE SOURCE: Krispy Krunchy Chicken Copyright Business Wire 2025. PUB: 01/27/2025 08:30 AM/DISC: 01/27/2025 08:31 AM
