Beyond Civilization
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June 14th, 2025
- from Beyond Civilization by Daniel Quinn
- > The ruled masses of our culture have been no less miserable than the ruled masses of the Maya, the Olmec, and other civilization-quitters we’ve examined. The difference between us and them is that we possess (or are possessed by) a complex of memes that so far have utterly barred us from quitting. We’re absolutely convinced that civilization cannot be surpassed by any means and so must be carried forward even at the price of our own extinction.
- I think he's totally confused here — like yes, such memes exist, but quite possibly they exist downstream of evolution having found a version of civilization that (with the tech that existed at the time) WOULD outcompete any available alternative
- (which these other quitted ones didn't)
- arguably this was Moloch, because if everybody walked away at the same time then you're good
- but uhh also if gazelles and cheetahs just tried a little less hard, ran a little less fast...?
- that makes no sense. and in the meantime something beautiful and excellent came from that
- like that's not how evolution works at all
- > Unable to walk away, we’ve used three very different rationales to make sense of our inaction.
- oh, well maybe we're more on the same page than I thought