Italy Joins China's New Silk Road Project

The weakness of centralized planning is what allowed the western way of life to dominate in a world where technology hampered its effectiveness.

In this new world we may need to accept that our individualistic nature has become that very same weakness that dooms our way of life in the great game of life.

Maybe it's getting late, but I can't seem to parse your first sentence.

What is the its you are referring to when you say technology hampered its effectiveness.

Secondly, I don't believe it is widely accepted that our nature is individualistic. Individualism is a moral stance, political philosophy, ideology, social outlook.

I think the GP means that central planning was hard to pull off without modern communication tech like phones and internet. So, the western style of federated semi-autonomous regions proliferated, since it didn't depend on strong central control.

However, in the age of instant global communications, it may be that effective central planning is "better," or at least possible.

And now, the individualistic model may not be compatible with the planet-scale adjustments we need to make to prevent catastrophic environmental change.

Also, I agree individualism is not necessarily humans' natural state. We probably self-organize into loosely affiliated extended family units in the absence of imposed hierarchy, but humans are nothing if not adaptable.