THIS STORY ON HOW THE FUNDAMENTALISTS IN PAKISTAN DROVE OUT THE PEOPLE WHO KNEW HOW TO RUN THINGS reminds me of Robert Heinlein’s dictum, often quoted on this blog and worth repeating once more:

Throughout history, poverty is the normal condition of man. Advances which permit this norm to be exceeded — here and there, now and then — are the work of an extremely small minority, frequently despised, often condemned, and almost always opposed by all right-thinking people. Whenever this tiny minority is kept from creating, or (as sometimes happens) is driven out of a society, the people then slip back into abject poverty.

This is known as “bad luck.”

Pakistan has been experiencing bad luck for decades now.