We have far too many ways to interpret past events for our own good. - Nassim Nicholas Taleb

Nation-states like war; city-states like commerce; families like stability; and individuals like entertainment,

I disagree with the followers of Marx and those of Adam Smith: the reason free markets work is because they allow people to be lucky, thanks to aggressive trial and error, not by giving rewards or "incentives" for skill.

It seems that the sophistication of French cuisine arose from the need to mask the lack of freshness of the ingredients --much as perfume came from the need to compensate for bad hygiene. In contrast, Italian and East Med cuisines make salient the freshness of the ingredients.