    23

    In the history of our species, the interlocked phenomena of sexual

    hysteria and the search for scapegoats allow the social beast moving down

    the pecking order to ignore the forces shoving it toward the bottom.  England

    used Oscar Wilde to seize pop culture by the scruff of the neck and give it a

    vicious shake.  In doing so, Britain forgot the industrialists who had allowed

    the new chemical and electrical technologies to slip through their fingers.

    She overlooked the complacency that had eroded the international standing

    of her schools.  She turned away from the siphoning of funds into damaging

    mergers and takeovers.  Max Nordau's denunciation of pop culture did not

    stop the British economic slump.   It did, however, divert England's energies

    from the tasks that could have saved her.

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