Young Kakutani doesn't like Niall Ferguson

Though clearly he has some inkling of dynamical systems: Civilizations are highly complex systems, made up of a very large number of interacting components that are asymmetrically organized, so that their construction more closely resembles a Namibian termite mound than an Egyptian pyramid. Such systems can appear to operate quite stably for some time, apparently in equilibrium, in reality constantly adapting. But there comes a moment when they ‘go critical.’ A slight perturbation can set off a ‘phase transition’ from a benign equilibrium to a crisis — a single grain of sand causes an apparently stable sandcastle to fall in on itself.