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06597_Field_TCUM T162.txt
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1996-04-10
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Toynbee urges again and again the cultural strategy of
the imitation of the example of great men. This, of course, is to
locate cultural safety in the power of the will , rather than in the
power of adequate perception of situations. Anybody could
quip that this is the British trust in character as opposed to
intellect. In view of the endless power of men to hypnotize
themselves into unawareness in the presence of challenge, it
may be argued that will-power is as useful as intelligence for
survival. Today we need also the will to be exceedingly informed
and aware.
Arnold Toynbee gives an example of Renaissance
technology being effectively encountered and creatively
controlled when he shows how the revival of the decentralized
medieval parliament saved English society from the monopoly
of centralism that seized the continent. Lewis Mumford in The