Why Nations Fail

The most common reason why nations fail today is because they have extractive institutions. [...] their extractive economic institutions do not create the incentives needed for people to save, invest, and innovate. Extractive political institutions support these economic institutions by cementing the power of those who benefit from the extraction. Extractive economic and political institutions, though their details vary under different circumstances, are always at the root of this failure.

Daren Acemoglu and James A Robinson, Why Nations Fail. The Origins of Power, Prosperity, and Poverty (Crown Business Books 2012) 368 and 372

Abschied

Alle Häfen

waren am schönsten beim Lichten

der Anker 

Dagmar Nick, Schattengespräche

Creativity and War

It could be argued, for instance, that the breakaway from classical literary, musical, and artistic styles that is so characteristic of the twentieht century was an indirect reaction to the disillusion people felt at the inability of Western civilization to avoid the bloodshed of World War I. It is no coincidence that Einstein's theory of relativity, Freud's theory of the unconscious, Eliot's free-form poetry, Stravinsky's twelve-tone music, Martha Graham's abstract choreography, Picasso's deformed figures, James Joyce's stream of consciousness prose were all created—and were accepted by the public—in the same period in which empires collapsed and belief systems rejected old certainties.

Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, Creativity. Flow and the Psychology of Discovery and Invention (HarperCollins e-books 2009) 107

Kafka und der Abschied

es gibt ein Kommen und ein Gehn
Ein Scheiden und oft kein – Wiedersehn