# sick man of europe (others-read)

*Ordinarily means:* a country regarded as weak and failing compared with its neighbours or its past

A once large power that others read as too narrow in its reach to hold its own walls, so they plan to set them instead.

- Computed level: L16 (depth in the emergence graph, not abstraction)
- Status: published  ·  Domain: agency

## Emergence
**Emerges from:** [once](https://emergencemachine.com/tools/lexicon/what-is-the-meaning-of-once.temporal), [large](https://emergencemachine.com/tools/lexicon/what-is-the-meaning-of-large.size), [power](https://emergencemachine.com/tools/lexicon/what-is-the-meaning-of-power.over), [others](https://emergencemachine.com/tools/lexicon/what-is-the-meaning-of-others.distinct-entities), [read](https://emergencemachine.com/tools/lexicon/what-is-the-meaning-of-read.information), [narrow](https://emergencemachine.com/tools/lexicon/what-is-the-meaning-of-narrow.spatial), [reach](https://emergencemachine.com/tools/lexicon/what-is-the-meaning-of-reach.action), [hold](https://emergencemachine.com/tools/lexicon/what-is-the-meaning-of-hold.physical), [wall](https://emergencemachine.com/tools/lexicon/what-is-the-meaning-of-wall.range-end), [plan](https://emergencemachine.com/tools/lexicon/what-is-the-meaning-of-plan.strategic), [set](https://emergencemachine.com/tools/lexicon/what-is-the-meaning-of-set.fix), [instead](https://emergencemachine.com/tools/lexicon/what-is-the-meaning-of-instead.alternative), [reputation](https://emergencemachine.com/tools/lexicon/what-is-the-meaning-of-reputation.social-model)

**Through:** Others' model of the self has moved from its past reach to its current weakness; once they read its walls as unheld, their own plans begin to set them, and the reading itself narrows its reach further.

**Novel properties:**
- a decline read and acted on from outside
- walls treated as vacant before they fall
- a reading that feeds the weakness it reports

## Examples
- In the nineteenth century the Ottoman Empire was called 'the sick man of Europe', a phrase attributed to Tsar Nicholas I of Russia. *(history)*

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*Canonical: https://emergencemachine.com/tools/lexicon/what-is-the-meaning-of-sick-man-of-europe.others-read*  
*Structured data: https://emergencemachine.com/tools/lexicon/what-is-the-meaning-of-sick-man-of-europe.others-read.json*  
*Every definition provably resolves to space, time, energy and pattern.*