As regular readers will know, my main thesis about the causes of Britain’s acceleration of innovation in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries is that its inventors did so much to evangelise for innovation, to spread it further. Innovation is a mentality, of constantly perfecting and optimising everything and anything around us, and it spreads from person to person. But there was nothing special about Britain in having people with the improving mentality. There was no uniquely British disposition, or national culture of innovation, whatever that is (bizarrely, I’m occasionally cited as saying as much). Far from it. A disproportionate number of the inventors of the period were immigrants, and I think the improving mentality arrived from abroad anyway, in the mid-sixteenth century. What made Britain special was that the improving mentality became especially viral there.
This seems like a terrific idea for the UK, and it's not crazy to think that it would have an effect. I've always been surprised to see otherwise liberal and left-wing people in the UK gossiping about who's getting knighted (etc) in their field.
That suggests it might well encourage those nearer the end of their careers. I imagine there's some politicking that would be required, and that often has the side benefit of helping others. Including, perhaps, inventors earlier in their career.
That said, I put down the influence of honors in the UK to their being at an earlier stage of development compared to the US. :) I'm reminded of the Tocqueville quote on the peculiarity of American "civil society": Americans of all ages, conditions, and all dispositions constantly unite together ... Where you see in France the government, and in England a noble Lord, at the head of a great new initiative, in the United States you can count on finding an association.
Ha! It's interesting to think about how this would work slightly differently in the US, certainly. There are some presidential awards, but I don't think they have quite the same effect.
The problem with creating a new order of chivalry to promote innovation is that, given the current state of the UK elite, it'll get hijacked to promote wokism instead.
This seems like a terrific idea for the UK, and it's not crazy to think that it would have an effect. I've always been surprised to see otherwise liberal and left-wing people in the UK gossiping about who's getting knighted (etc) in their field.
That suggests it might well encourage those nearer the end of their careers. I imagine there's some politicking that would be required, and that often has the side benefit of helping others. Including, perhaps, inventors earlier in their career.
That said, I put down the influence of honors in the UK to their being at an earlier stage of development compared to the US. :) I'm reminded of the Tocqueville quote on the peculiarity of American "civil society": Americans of all ages, conditions, and all dispositions constantly unite together ... Where you see in France the government, and in England a noble Lord, at the head of a great new initiative, in the United States you can count on finding an association.
Ha! It's interesting to think about how this would work slightly differently in the US, certainly. There are some presidential awards, but I don't think they have quite the same effect.
The problem with creating a new order of chivalry to promote innovation is that, given the current state of the UK elite, it'll get hijacked to promote wokism instead.