Measures of Success

Like I was saying in class, the longevity of a culture is the main indicator of success. For the last 60 or so years the United States of America has been arguably the world's most successful country but when compared with the Ancient Romans or the Mayans, America's cultural success has lasted only a short while. Even if a culture is incredibly prosperous or the people are happy it can't be considered successful if it last for only 100 hundred years. But if an empire or country can sustain themselves for centuries then they can be a successful society. In a couple hundred years we will only remember the societies that lasted for a long time and made an impact on the world, there won't be time for remembering countries that burn out and fade away. 

This is off topic, but dinosaurs are a perfect example of a successful society based on their longevity. If you consider the race of dinosaurs with the human race, the dinosaurs were way more successful. Dinosaurs were around for hundreds of millions of years, and would have kept going if not for a freak meteor. Humans on the other hand have only been around for a few million years. We may be more intelligent and live more comfortably, but our societal tendencies are destructive. A nuclear war is a possibility that could wipe out everyone and our need for innovation has lead to irreversible effects on the environment. Global warming is an immediate danger to mankind in the next century. 

I disagree with the second sentence of the statement "The (capitalist/communist) countries of the world..." because there are so many other ways to measure a society's success besides the "P," "E," and the last "S" in SPECS. In my essay about how we remember Genghis Khan I talk about how in today's world, 1 in 200 people are direct descendants of Genghis Khan. One could argue that another measure of cultural success is literally the legacy of that society. Khan's empire could be seen as the most successful empire in the history of the world purely because his presence is still around 800 years later.