Meta-Institutions Matter Most

This is an essay. Like most of my essays, I write it mostly to strangers. And with it, I hope to influence history. Some influence history via words to strangers that show drama, interestingness, impressiveness, or political and moral evocation and bonding. Alas, my best skill is abstract analysis. But the fact that most other approaches hide behind an appearance of abstract analysis gives some hope for my approach.To influence history, I want to induce my readers to influence key factors that shape history. But if my main tool is abstract argument, I should focus on factors that we better understand abstractly, and also on factors with clear levers that motivated readers might predictably find and influence, if so persuaded. Which suggests that I look to factors other than meaning, motivation, aesthetics, and culture, factors which though quite powerful also seem hard to reason about and predictably influence.The biggest history-making factor that fits my criteria seems to be:…