Ok. So, status quo is the issue. Does he go over Byzantium at
   all? Byzantium was a surprisingly robust and stable culture for
   1000 years. They saw themselves as part of the continuum of the
   Roman Empire although they had their own distinctive ways which
   were uniquely their own. It *did* reach a point of complacency
   and excess but I think 800 strong years for a civilization is
   pretty good, with 200 downhill years, before becoming a
   diaspora. I bring up Byzantium because one of those strongest
   values was that of the Status Quo. We see Status Quo as a bad
   thing, but they pretty much perfected it.