The author reflects on a trip to Hong Kong with his daughter, highlighting the contrast between her experiences with modern infrastructure and his memories of a declining British public transport system. This moment prompts a broader contemplation of how capitalism and perceptions of development have evolved over time, especially regarding Britain's historical narrative of civilization as the pinnacle of progress. The piece critiques the simplistic view of global development, suggesting that crises in other regions were mischaracterized as a linear path toward Western-style maturity.
Her comment about the high-speed train took on a broader resonance. Used to Britain's strained and crumbling public transport, my little girl had identified how economic power has migrated to a different model of capitalism over the past generation.
When we told the story of how capitalism emerged, it was through the enclosure of medieval English villages and the growth of the Industrial Revolution's dark satanic mills.
We were taught that Britain created an ideal form of society that was the model for everywhere else - a narrative that defined our understanding of global development.
The crises we saw on the news were framed as painful steps in a maturing process, misleadingly suggesting that development was a one-way road.
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