He described medieval Britain as a highly fragmented society rather than a unified nation, with language barriers separating ruling classes from the general population.
“People at the top spoke a different language, often Latin, and populations would speak local vernaculars, which were not standardized,” he explained.
Malešević observed similar patterns in East Asian history, noting that early agrarian populations did not possess a modern sense of national identity.
“Peasants wouldn't identify with ‘Japan,’” he said, adding that identity eventually transitioned from localized communities to broader geopolitical frameworks “when people started identifying with the nation, rather than their village or their clan.”
Political Continuity and Technological Transformation
George Friedman, founder of Geopolitical Futures, argued that contemporary political divisions in the United States are not unprecedented.
“When you live during a time, it makes you feel that this is an extraordinary event in the United States as a nation,” Friedman said, but “when you look back in history and take a look at the other times, this isn't anything much worse than Richard Nixon.”
He rejected the premise that modern political friction signifies a unique crisis for the country.
Amy Webb, founder of the Future Today Strategy Group, emphasized the rapid evolution of biotechnology, drawing a parallel to Benjamin Franklin's 1780 predictions regarding human control over matter.
“The genetic sequence for the first COVID vaccine was designed on a computer in about two days,” Webb said, calling the success of mRNA technology “mindbogglingly incredible.”
“We crossed a threshold — biology was something we had read-edit-write access to, and mRNA worked!” she added.
