Michael: Anyone who shares Warren Buffett’s delusions about the benefits of size should read Leopold Kohr’s The Breakdown of Nations. In this, Kohr develops the “size theory of social misery,” arguing that “whenever something is wrong, something is too big.” Apart from the tendency for increased size to discourage resiliency and adaptability, and to foster systemic ossification, it violates the allometric principle central to all living forms. Fifty-feet tall women may make for entertaining sci-fi movies, but are incompatible with life, a truth that can be observed in the life of Robert Wadlow who reached a height of 8’11″ when he died at the age of 22!
Would Mr. Buffett cheer on the growth of a cancer cell — which operates on the principle of increased size — or would he want its life-threatening character removed from an otherwise healthy body? Isn’t the parallel to the cancerous nature of politics — which continues to metastasize throughout our social systems — apparent?
