There are no longer rich countries and poor countries, but rich and poor people living within a hundred yards of each other, throughout the planet. Half of humanity lives in towns in 2005, and urbanization continues to grow to more than two-thirds of humanity, before receding. Between 2010 and 2020, life in towns becomes so dangerous and inhuman that the ruling classes are forced to radically change their strategy, as they did in Europe in the middle of the nineteenth century. This marks the transition to an energetic and normative education society. It is only in the third stage, towards 2060, that a rejection of the constraints and standards stipulated by this didactic society appears.
Pressure is by then sufficient to liberate the imagination and move to a creative society.
Tribes, followed by Empires and then States, were the players. But that kind of history is only the most visible part of history, the emerged tip of the iceberg. The rise of communications is silently dissolving it. We should not regret the fading of the powers that be. They were primarily abusive, and still will be for some time.