There is a traditional phrase “the
apple never falls far from the tree.” This was likely a Viking
expression because it is found in English, German and Russian writing
from several centuries ago. It has long meant that families produce
on-going like products. It has occasionally been meant as a
criticism of a man when his offspring is unpopular or has some
negative qualities.
I want to use the phrase in praise of commerce....
I want to use the phrase in praise of
commerce. The reality of the phrase is that it is accurate about
where apples fall, but it is even more accurate in selecting the
apple as the exemplar because of the apples' genetic make-up. Nearly
all the apples we eat are spliced offspring from one original apple
that tasted good. There was an original Delicious, Gravenstock and
Fuji tree and we are eating apples from the spliced branches of the
original trees.
If you plant the seeds from any good tasting store bought apple and then eat the fruit off your new tree you will be eating a direct genetic offspring of the original apple trees found around Lake Baikal a few thousand years ago. It will be sour and perfect for making apple cider. The whole story and the genetics are described by Michael Pollan.
The fruit of the apple tree always
reverts to the original apple tree. The same is true for humans, even
if we hate the idea. All our children are born with the original
genes of our population. It is terribly hard to accept this fact
because our children are often very much like us. That is a
testament to environment and upbringing.
Commerce doesn't give a damn about
families and offspring. The cultures that ignore family and reward
merit are the powerful commercial societies. The societies that are
family oriented and run their business on the family ties are stuck
in the pre-commercial past: Arabia, most of Africa, most of Latin
America (Chile is an exception), most of India and most of China.
It might seem strange that I put China on this list, China is booming right now, but there are no global Chinese corporations even after 150 years of Hong Kong. There won't be. Without meritocracy companies can't make it for more than two generations.
Commerce punishes nepotism.
Commerce picks up each apple, plants it and finds a place for it regardless of its family ... we don't yet know how to splice humans, fortunately.