Ok. So, status quo is the issue. Does he go over Byzantium at
all? Byzantium was a surprisingly robust and stable culture for
1000 years. They saw themselves as part of the continuum of the
Roman Empire although they had their own distinctive ways which
were uniquely their own. It *did* reach a point of complacency
and excess but I think 800 strong years for a civilization is
pretty good, with 200 downhill years, before becoming a
diaspora. I bring up Byzantium because one of those strongest
values was that of the Status Quo. We see Status Quo as a bad
thing, but they pretty much perfected it.
