EU:s stödfond till krisande medlemmar börjar nu själv få problem. Det är oroväckande. Men i förlängningen av alla våra nuvarande ekonomiska problem så finns det en annan fond som jag är orolig för:
Industrial society is the only society ever to live by and rely on sustained and perpetual growth, on an expected and continuous improvement. Not surprisingly, it was the first society to invent the concept and ideal of progress, of continuous improvement. Its favoured mode of social control is universal Danegeld, buying off social aggression with material enhancement; its greatest weakness is its inability to survive any temporary reduction of the social bribery fund, and to weather the loss of legitimacy which befalls it if the cornucopia becomes temporarily jammed and the flow falters.
Gellner, Ernest (2008), Nations and Nationalism (Second edn.; Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press), s. 22.
Björn Östbring 