dragonwriter was talking about the limitations of a numerically "representative picture" to tell a history, not about "absolutes," whatever that means. I thought it was pretty clear.
This shouldn't even be an argument, since history over-represents minorities all the time. It's not a mystery as to why. Trade and war have a couple of things in common. They feature prominently in histories because they are a catalyst for change, and they are practiced as often as not by "minorities" - ethnic, religious, racial, etc.
Tell a history well (or poorly) or try to make some kind of historical point and it is likely you are going to be talking about minorities. Over-representing them, to be sure. Taleb knows all this, and his recommendations regarding written histories have been pretty good. Regarding this thing, he was just being a combative douche. (or he has some other goofy racial agenda, as some have speculated... who knows)
This shouldn't even be an argument, since history over-represents minorities all the time. It's not a mystery as to why. Trade and war have a couple of things in common. They feature prominently in histories because they are a catalyst for change, and they are practiced as often as not by "minorities" - ethnic, religious, racial, etc.
Tell a history well (or poorly) or try to make some kind of historical point and it is likely you are going to be talking about minorities. Over-representing them, to be sure. Taleb knows all this, and his recommendations regarding written histories have been pretty good. Regarding this thing, he was just being a combative douche. (or he has some other goofy racial agenda, as some have speculated... who knows)