Revisiting “Collapse”

David Pollard’s commentary on Jared Diamond’s new book, “Collapse” is well worth reading. He summarizes several other reviews, including one by Malcolm Gladwell in the New Yorker. Gladwell’s review is the gem, especially when he writes:

“The lesson of “Collapse” is that societies, as often as not, aren’t murdered. They commit suicide: they slit their wrists and then, in the course of many decades, stand by passively and watch themselves bleed to death.”

According to Gladwell, Diamond uncovers an underlying assumption that survival as a culture and a society corresponds to biological survival:

“The fact is, though, that we can be law-abiding and peace-loving and tolerant and inventive and committed to freedom and true to our own values and still behave in ways that are biologically suicidal. The two kinds of survival are separate.”

Supposedly, Diamond remains optimistic that we’ll navigate the crisis, though Pollard notes that the book’s message belies that optimism.

“. . .we are doomed to stay loyal to our culture to the bitter end, against all reason, and contrary to our instincts. Cultures just change too slowly, and our current one has 30,000 years of baggage attached to it, way too much acquisition-and-population momentum and I-can't-hear-you-la-la-la inertia to respond to Diamond's urgings for quick, citizen-driven action, even if that action is, some day, forthcoming.”

Diamond insists that the solutions to this crisis involve the cooperation of businesses, because they along with governments are the most potent forces in the world today. His view is that the public has the responsibility to pass the laws, and to make the purchasing decisions that will encourage businesses to behave better. Diamond is probably correct, though Pollard remains pessimistic that this could ever come about. Pollard might have a point, there.

Head over to Pollard’s blog and have a read. It’s very thought provoking stuff.