LMA vs. Path Dependency
Path dependency is a phenomenon where past practices or paths persist due to resistance to change. These practices, entrenched through institutionalization and standardization, make it difficult to adopt better alternatives, even when they are available. This persistence often serves the interests of "Western hegemony"—a term used to describe the dominance of Western powers, particularly the United States, in global politics, economics, and culture. Western hegemony is defined by capitalism, imperialism, and colonialism, and it often uses path dependency to maintain continuous control.
Once a method or path becomes dominant, it can lead to lock-in, where alternatives are neglected or actively suppressed. Western hegemony does not simply observe this phenomenon; it actively incentivizes path dependency, benefiting from upholding existing power structures and minimizing challenges to its authority, thereby perpetuating a cycle that resists change.
We've previously discussed path dependency in the context of martial arts, where belts and tests are often solutions in search of imaginary problems. A similar phenomenon occurs with modern keyboards, which still use the QWERTY layout originally designed for mechanical typewriters. This layout was not chosen for its intuitiveness or efficiency; it was developed to prevent the typewriter keys from jamming by slowing down typing speeds. Additionally, it was favored by telegraph operators for translating Morse code. Despite the obsolescence of these original contexts, the QWERTY hegemony persists.
Path dependency also appears in other areas, like the use of training wheels when balance bikes are older and more effective. Capitalism enabled the dominance of training wheels, and path dependency maintained it. Likewise, gentle parenting predates rigid Western authoritarian parenting; play-based learning predates the banking model of education, including rote memorization and decomposed practice; land-based learning predates instructor and instruction-led learning. Yet they all came to dominate through Western hegemony and defend their positions through path dependency. Hegemony is absoluteness, and being absolute means eliminating alternatives, thereby imposing dependency.
Another example is the fossil fuel hegemony, which reinforces the path dependency of the dollar hegemony. These dependencies work together to enforce the status quo, which means the current world order with the US as the Supreme Authority. Path dependency can be thought of as a trajectory. US hegemony and capitalism represent the ultimate path dependency, where those in power cling to their course despite it causing genocide and heading the world toward annihilation. Even from the perspective of capitalist efficiency and self-interest, driving towards extinction is profoundly inefficient. However, US imperialist (capitalism and US hegemony) path dependency is not about inefficiency but maintaining control at all costs. Instead of planning for the future, it shuts the door behind it, preferring universal demise over losing power. US imperialism is path-dependent on steering us toward annihilation if it ensures its control until then.
While not all path dependencies sustain systems of oppression, all systems of oppression rely on path dependency to maintain themselves.
Under Western hegemony, methods often persist not because they are beneficial, moral, or humanizing but precisely because they are not. Path dependency is not just a result of historical inertia; it is actively maintained through psychological conditioning, economic incentives, and institutional enforcement. These mechanisms ensure that established methods remain in place, regardless of their actual benefits or drawbacks.