OK, now everyone…
I am in England this week, and yesterday we had lunch with my in-laws at The ‘Club’.
The Club used to demand that all men wear jackets and ties, and while that rule apparently has been allowed to slide, the vast majority of men dining there with their wives and families were properly attired. Â I caught not a few disapproving glances for my black t-shirt and black Prada jacket – with hood no less.
Of course, a few years ago, unaccompanied women were not even allowed in the club, and certainly not at the bar, accompanied or otherwise.
It’s a Britain that is increasingly hard to find.
I sat next to my 83-year old father-in-law who still regularly takes long walks with the dogs, plays a round of golf and does the gardening.
He was in the Royal Navy – joined up in 1944 and was sent to Malta.
Now, the amazing thing about talking to this man is that when he was a bit younger, and that is not all that long ago, Britain ruled approximately one quarter of the earth.
During his lifetime.
One quarter of the earth and one quarter of the earth’s inhabitants.
Truly, in those days, the sun never set on the British Empire. Â And this is not all that long ago.
Britain was the richest and unquestionably the most powerful nation in the world, and it had been for nearly 200 years – or certainly since Napoleon was vanquished in 1815.
From India to Canada to Australia to Kenya to South Africa to Egypt to Palestine and a lot of other places, the Union Jack flew and Britain was the world’s superpower, both in terms of military might and economic power. Â Five dollars bought you one pound and it was a very solid currency indeed.
How the mighty have fallen.
What happened?
What happened in the single course of part of one man’s lifetime that took Britain from being the predominant power on earth to a tiny (yet pleasant) small country hanging precariously on the edge of Europe and currently on the edge of insolvency?
Theories abound.
They over-extended themselves.
They stopped living on the cutting edge of technology. (They were, in their time, Google, Apple, Intel, Goldman Sachs and Japan all rolled into one).
They went broke fighting WW2.
The best and the brightest of a generation were wiped out at the Somme (my own theory).
In any event, the best words for this are the Latin: Sic transit gloria mundi
One day you’re General Motors and the next you’re broke.
It happens to everyone eventually, but it is the rapidity with which it happens now that is so shocking.
They were stronger than lions
they were swifter than eagles…
How the mighty are fallen
Last month we started working with AOL.
AOL once had a valuation of $142 billion. The were the Internet.
Tomorrow Microsoft may find themselves in the same situation.
As Britain.
1 Comment
Ralph December 22, 2009
I don’t know if the falling of the mighty is inevitable or a self-fulfilling prophecy. If they learn to adapt and not sit at the top of the hill and ignore the ideas that are changing the world that tend to come up the backside of the hill they can continue to lead. Arrogance leads to ignorance. Ignorance in this sense means ignoring the relevant that that is shaping the future. AOL could’ve become Google if they had only listened. What ideas are coming up the backside of the mountain?