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Today's episode, The Philosophy of History in Khaldoon.

Practically every movie ever made about sports has the same plot.

A team of lovable losers gathers around an inspirational leader,

overcoming their previous differences and going on what these Hollywood types call a journey of self-discovery.

Finally, they must face a seemingly insurmountable foe and are victorious.

It's obvious why we like these zeros to heroes narratives.

Everyone likes to root for the underdog. But how is it that we find them plausible?

Suspension of disbelief is going to be needed if a film like A League of Their Own is going to persuade us that a baseball team featuring Madonna and Rosie O'Donnell could win games, with or without the help of Tom Hanks.

We fall for these stories, I think, because we can't help believing in team spirit.

Real-world evidence to the contrary, we persist in thinking that togetherness and solidarity

can help the underdogs to overcome any height disadvantage in basketball, any fastball

pitching ace, any collection of overpaid mercenaries who play soccer in Manchester.

And we're right to believe this, according to the 14th century judge, historian and philosopher I'm Khaldoon.

He developed a simple but powerful theory to explain the rise and fall of empires, calipates, whole civilizations.

And the key to his theory is basically team spirit.

The Arabic term he uses for this concept is Asabia, which comes from a verb meaning to bind or tie together.

An Asabah is thus a group of people who are bound together, a league of their own, if you will.

When he talked about Asabia, Ibn Khaledun especially had in mind the feeling of solidarity

and group identity possessed by tribal groups such as the Arabs who originally spread Islam.

Ibn Khaldun believed that this feeling of solidarity is the key to explaining both the rise and the fall of new political powers.

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