Civilized to Death: The Price of Progress

Great book. I recommend reading it whether you are a listener of Christopher Ryan's podcast or not. If you're not, Civilized To Death assumes no prior knowledge and lays out its argument and evidence from the ground up. And, depending on how much of the ideas in the book you've encountered before, you might find it completely upends how you see the world. If you are a regular listener of the podcast, you'll find a lot of familiar ideas, but what's different here is that all the ideas are systematically organized, fully fleshed out, and all the names of researchers and historians and the names of books and research papers, etc, which fly by when you're listening to a podcast and are hard to catch, are spelled out, with pages of notes at the end of the book with all the references so you can check the sources for yourself or learn more about any of the concepts in the book.So what is the book about? Well, if you've ever wondered about this seeming paradox, that we live in an age of space age wonders -- we can go to the moon and all have supercomputers in our pockets -- and yet, it somehow still feels cold and meaningless, like there's a nutrient missing, that as our technology advances, life should be getting better and better, yet, rather than descending down towards zero, rates of depression and anxiety are actually going up (and lest you think that this is simply a change in measurement and reporting, actual suicides are going up as well), and that our efforts to find solutions, such as our society's political discourse, seems the flounder all over the place and always miss the mark, as if everyone trying to talk about our issues can only draw from a limited, boxed-in set of ideas, this book is for you. The central premise of the book, which explains these mysteries, is that we humans are the only species that has domesticated ourselves. We all live in what is essentially a zoo -- a world built for us by other humans -- instead of living in the natural world like animals. Everything from the food we eat to the houses we live in to the social institutions that shape our lives to the electronic communications systems that form so much of our waking life experience these days all follow designs and rules invented by other humans, much as how zoo animals live in a world that is totally built and controlled by the zookeepers. If it was a perfect zoo, with a built environment that suited our species perfectly, this wouldn't be a problem, but it is a very imperfect zoo, and the mismatch explains the ailments listed above. So as not to spoil any of the surprises in the book (and there will be a few, I can pretty much guarantee, even if you are already familiar with ideas from psychology, anthropology, and archaeology) and to keep this review short and to the point, I'll just say that Christopher Ryan pokes and prods the zoo cages to see what they're all about, and also delves very deeply into the question of, "What kind of animal is the human species?" Human nature probably isn't what you think it is, because the zoo itself, which we call "civilization", feeds us completely wrong information about who we are, sometimes out of ignorance, sometimes because the wrong story serves the interest of "civilization" better. If you want to know who we really are, and what the evidence is, read this book.The book is clear and fast-paced, and even though it references a lot of science, it never gets bogged down in details or scientific jargon. All the ideas are presented directly (with occasional humor) and in a way accessible to everyone. You'll probably find you zip through the book in a matter of days, but the ideas will stay with you and you'll think about them for years to come.

I think Chris Ryan makes some pretty bold claims and generalizations here, but hot damn if I didn't find his theories and ideas compelling! Some fact checking needs to be had on my end (and for every critically-thinking reader, I'd venture to say) but I think this book examines some old ideas, evidence, abs narratives - seeing things from a different angle than what we typically see. I'm no anthropologist, but I feel like it itself is a soft-ish science, so proceed with caution and you mileage may vary - which isn't to say that things shouldn't be challenged and discussed! Side note: I'm a huge Richard Dawkins fan, and Chris Ryan seems to have a big problem with his ideas regarding evolutionary biology. My admiration for Dawkins immediately puts me on the defensive, but I also see the value of challenging old canon so as to not let ideas stagnate - credit where credit is due I guess. I give this book 4 promiscuous free-loving Bonobos out of 5.Yeesh, what a rambling incoherent review lol.

In Civilized to Death, Christopher Ryan picks up where his excellent Sex at Dawn left off. Ryan expands his look at humankind in its original state from sex to overall social organization. Further, he traces today's social ills to the rise of class society after the agricultural revolution. Human beings spent most of our 200,000 year history as foragers in egalitarian societies.The advent of agriculture about 10,000 years ago created surpluses that gave rise to classes, the state, inequality, private property (including people), the nuclear family and more. As Ryan succinctly puts it: "Disparities of wealth and power were among the first things to emerge when people settled into villages and towns. Someone had to make decisions about who got how much of what, and when. Someone had to organize the sowing and the reaping, the protection and trading of land and livestock. Once wealth emerged, so did an elite class that was naturally tempted to benefit further from their privileged position."Civilized to Death reads somewhat like a punchy modern version of Engel's classic  Origin of the Family, Private Property and the State . Unfortunately Ryan's suggestions aren't nearly as good as his overall analysis. He wraps up by posing a call for "sufficient shifts in consciousness". In reality, and as he goes to great pains to point out, our consciousness is shaped by the conditions we live in. Those in power pursue their own interests, and they won't give up their power without a fight.Maybe this soft idealism plays in with his praise of select European rulers that use reform as a sop to the masses that prevent revolts and preserves the status quo. This would explain his description of Obama -- who bombed 7 countries -- as a "well-intentioned, deeply thoughtful, Nobel Peace Prize–winning political leader" [sic].

I listen to Tangentially Speaking, the author’s podcast, so that very probably makes me bias, but nevertheless I feel compelled to leave a review…This book lends validation to my own feelings & experience, feelings that were very probably suppressed as I was growing up. Society tends to benefit at the expense of the individual, and functions on the assumption that money and time are somewhat interchangeable. Personally, I’ve never considered that a very good deal.Subjugation starts with compulsory ‘education’ and carries on until we’re 65. That’s potentially the whole of our productive life. Our one & only life.Anyway, I agree, wholeheartedly, with the author’s sentiments, sentiments that are presented in a very articulate, and often very amusing, manner.In fact, and I know this probably sounds a bit much, I actually found the book to be consolatory

Bad writing, waffle and waffle and childish useless moanings, all could have been put into 100 pages but the guy needed to fill this up some how. Google the review notes.His conclusion is: universal basic income that doesn’t incentivise having kids and using Hunter gather social outlooks in modern society. That’s it, save your time, go out side and smell the grass, do something else other than wasting your life on this bollocks of a book.

Informative and witty, explores history/society from a refreshingly untapped angle. I got through it in one weekend and thoroughly enjoyed it [couldn't stop boring people with anecdotes from it]

This book is a great read and the ideas are thought-proving to the extreme. It sounds exaggerated to call any book life-changing, but this one surely merits the term.It will do for your idea of civilisation what Sex at Dawn did for sexuality.

It was as if I had written this book myself, I couldnt agree more with what the author is trying to convey. We are on a train thats going to be derailed unless we go back to our nature that we have long since lost.