Civilized to
Death, by Christopher Ryan
Review by
Dave Gamrath
In Civilized to Death, author Christopher Ryan argues
that the way humans lived as hunters and gatherers, before the advent of
agriculture ten thousand years ago, was a much healthier way to live, and that
humans need to get back to the principles of prehistoric communities if we want
to survive. Whoa!
Book Review:
Most
of us have heard the story of human civilization, which goes something like
this: about ten thousand years ago,
humans invented agriculture, which allowed us to settle and for the first time
to have spare time to invent new technologies that allowed far better and
healthier lives. Prehistoric humans
lived as savages and died young. Their
lives were miserable and violent. Today,
life is the best it has ever been.
In
Civilized to Death, author Christopher Ryan makes the argument that the
opposite is true, that our modern way of living is much more difficult, violent
and unhealthy, and that we’re heading off a cliff. Ryan stresses that “when you’re heading in
the wrong direction, progress is the last thing you need.” Instead, Ryan believes we need to revert back
to the cultural norms that existed before we got “civilized”.
Ryan raves
about lifestyles in forging societies, including being fiercely egalitarian,
where an individual’s autonomy is non-negotiable, and reciprocity was
expected. Foragers tended to view
themselves as very fortunate, living in a generous environment and benevolent
spirit world. Wealth was measured by
freedom and autonomy, not by materialistic standards. The forager’s society was based on
cooperation, not competition. Property
was held in common. Women were not
subordinate to men. All work was
accorded a certain dignity. We like to
believe that prehistory included much starvation. Ryan claims the opposite is true. Foragers faced occasional hunger but not
extended starvation.
But
hasn’t life expectancy greatly expanded?
Ryan argues that the main driver of our longer expected lifespans is that we’ve significantly lowered infant
mortality, which is a good thing.
Prehistorically, expected lifespan was around 40. But for a forager that made it to adulthood,
they could expect to live into their seventies.
Okay,
if things were so great, why did humans make the big change to
agriculture? Ryan tells an interesting
story around that question. Ryan reports
that 15,000 years ago, the climate was extremely
fertile for an extended period, allowing foragers to effectively “stay put”
while still foraging. Many gathered in
what is known as the “fertile crescent” in the Middle East. Then, around 13,000 years ago, there was a
horrific ecological event. A massive
lake near today’s Great Lakes suddenly emptied into the sea, causing extreme
climate change and a thousand-year drought.
Ryan calls agriculture a “panic-stricken response”. People didn’t pursue it; agriculture was
forced on them, as a more difficult way of life. With agriculture, human population exploded,
demanding more agriculture. New concepts
developed, such as the idea of ownership and property, including slavery. Quality of life collapsed. People now lived in overcrowded,
disease-ridden communities. This change
happened over a couple thousand years, and soon people had forgotten the old
way of life; there was no going back.
Obviously,
Ryan holds a pretty dim view of today’s society. It often seems like we are always
working. In contrast, prehistoric
foragers used to spend about 20 hours per week hunting and gathering. The rest was leisure time, spent communally,
with a focus on family and their community.
Our culture has led to the sixth great extinction on planet earth, and
accelerating environmental catastrophe is all around us, no matter where one
lives. Ryan writes that overpopulation
and crushing poverty have always been part of our “civilized” culture, and
warns that overpopulation will destroy human value and dignity.
Ryan
provides many other examples of where our culture has gone wrong, and he believes
things will get worse before they get better.
Ryan fears we may soon face economic collapse, and if we don’t, we are
still in for a great shock as automation eliminates close to half of American
jobs by 2030. But he still claims he has
hope, if not optimism. Ryan writes that
today’s so-called progressive agenda often aligns with forager values: egalitarianism, assistance for the
vulnerable, respect and autonomy for women, funding for healthcare and
education, and other measures to benefit society as a whole. Ryan contrasts these with common conservative
values that didn’t exist before agriculture, such as individual rights over
community, men controlling women, and the worship of wealth.
Ryan
says we are at a crossroads, facing three possible futures. In one, we get angry and deny all this, and
end up collapsing, as has every previous civilization. Or instead, we strive for innovation and
creativity to fix things, but Ryan states this is just more of what got us here: temporary fixes, then back to crisis. So, what does Ryan advise we do? Accept where we are at and how we got here,
then change direction and go back towards bringing hunter-gatherer values into
our modern lives, dumping corporate structure and replacing it with progressive
policies and networks. Ryan vows that every
step down this road would lead us closer to a future that recognizes the
origins and nature of our species. How
likely is it that we will take this path?
Ryan admits, not very.
Although
a bit of a bummer, I do feel I gained insights from Civilized to Death. If, as Ryan writes, agriculture was a panic
response to a crisis, today we need a new panic-driven response. But who will lead it? As I see Generation Z rising up against the
selfishness and shortsightedness of previous generations, it gives me hope that
today’s young people may possess the courage and determination to turn us in a
new direction, and to lead us to a more just, caring, and healthier society
that Ryan describes. “When you are lost,
a step back may be a step in the right direction.” As we approach over 10 billion humans on the
planet, obviously we can’t go back to hunting and gathering food, but can we
hunt down and gather needed changes towards a sustainable human lifestyle on planet
earth? We can hope.
Reviewer Opinion:
A
provocative book
Reviewer Rating of Book:
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