Jared Diamond: Collapse
I’m going to post about some of the books from my library that have been thematically impactful.
Collapse is a book with a title that will get your attention.
Jared Diamond has copped criticism for this book, from affiliations with Gates, Gore and enviro-inc, to accusations that he was unfair on the tribal way of life as being disparaging to native peoples or inferior to modern society.
It’s interesting the Gates connection, don’t you think? Overpopulation is a big theme in this book.
I’m not wading into those debates. Anthropology is fascinating but I’m not an anthropologist.. But large chunks of the book made a lot of sense to me.
A collapse happened, and surviving people had to adapt with whatever they had leftover. Easter Island is the major focus but he looks at a few other societies too.
The debates and counter debates are fascinating but a rabbit-hole that you may never get out of.
It’s still a survival classic. And opens up a lot of imaginative possibilities as to how things might go down as Australians contend with increasing overpopulation in the cities, causing a strain on local resources…. despite having a collapsing birthrate…hmm. A lot of the elites who have determined that we need record migration to prop up their flagging voter base and their zombie-corporate mates would've either had a passing familiarity with this book or listened to people who read it.
Either they all operate by a deliberate plan or they have no plan at all and keep butting heads. Why the urgency to check population strain on natural resources AND a record immigration influx?
One thing we won’t ever get to see is records of the discussions that Easter-Island tribal leaders were having among themselves as they grappled with a changing situation. From the outside looking in, Easter Island seems to have been a disaster, and most people would say it was bad management, though some will bag Europeans or rats or STDs or whatever. But incredibly, some say it was also a successful account of human adaptability.
But then, we also don’t get to see much of the everyday life of what an ordinary islander had to deal with. What they liked, hated, suffered from, fought against or shrugged at.
We have a bare island with grass, and a few generational survivors with some stories and songs. Some glyphs, tools. The stone heads, scientists digging around and people arguing about it all.
