Utterly brilliant. I've not seen nor read a weaving of root causes and patterns of modernity's mess quite like this. What an incredible context and sources you have shared. I will continuously be referring to it as I puzzle on my work. Thank you.
Thanks for the good words, Nadine! I'm thrilled if you can use it. I've been thinking for a long time that ancient Mesopotamia has more to tell us than we've been hearing, so I'll be writing more on this.
Glad you enjoyed it, Leah! Yes, it's so important to know the stories that are the concrete holding old structures in place. Maybe hearing and naming the stories can help us change them.
I really enjoyed this piece. I love learning about good ideas that fell away in the name of progress — it's a fascinating look at what could have been.
I think the hierarchical model won out because its mode is to take, while the alternative required reaching consensus. One gives a single party the tools to acquire; the other demands agreement from both. Aggression has its short-term gains, but it carries long-term regrets.
As a species, we need to recognize this dynamic and make a conscious decision about which direction we choose
So true, Anthony! Taking without asking or agreeing seems easier at first, certainly quicker. More efficient. By the time the regrets set in, the massive long-term INefficiency is so much harder to correct. I keep being inspired by those Native North American nations around 1000-1200 CE. Katherine DuVal's book Native Nations is an amazing read—evidence from Native stories and archaeological digs that they completely reorganized themselves, moving away from centralized, high priestly bureaucracies. Time to dethrone our own high priests of commerce??
Great post. There's little doubt our transition from hunter-gatherers to agrarian societies was the turning point that led us here to overshoot and ravaging the planet. This article adds to my understanding of that.
Should we survive the fascism sweeping the US and other nations, the question becomes if we can survive the toxicity we have created on the planet, the end of EROI on oil, and avoid the implosion of agriculture from climate change and myriad other factors.
Yes, the controllers — billionaire oligarchs are responsible for an outlandish, staggering proportion of the destruction, but population is a factor, too. Without fossil fuels and the calories they have provided, 8.3 billion people would have never been realized.
As I write, people in India are attempting to survive 50° C temperatures. Many other countries and regions are enduring life-threatening heat as well. This affects labor productivity and the interconnected world economy profoundly, agriculture being most critical. The systems we have built in defiance of the limits of the planet are set to crumble. There is no denial of this reality.
The coral reefs were declared dead in 2025 by scientists after how many waves of coral bleaching? The largest living organism on Earth, the Great Barrier Reef is done.
The Arctic, warming 4x faster than the rest of the planet is now emitting GHGs. The permafrost there stores more CO2 and CH4 than we've released since the Industrial Revolution.
I could go on, having researched and written about these issues for the last five years.
The contrast of the Uruk and Trypillian societies well illustrate the behavioral issues that have landed us here, Buckle up. The wheels are coming off.
Yes, adopting agriculture was a turning point. Except it didn't have to be. It's not farming per se that destroys the Earth, as we can see from Trypillian cities. Also, we can learn from Indigenous examples around the world. They take care of their lands—they practice agriculture by burning, ag in small mounds, ag integrated under forests.
It's agriculture + attitude (an attitude of domination) that causes the trouble we're in.
We need to change ourselves on the inside—adopt a different spirit toward one another and the Earth. We're still following Uruk's model of trying to be safe by controlling nature. It doesn't work, and we're seeing the results now, as you've been writing about for so long.
The good news? Changing ourselves on the inside—adopting an attitude of cooperation and care—is exactly what can help us weather the changes the Earth is right now going through. Caring for one another and Earth, in fact, is EXACTLY how we change the whole bloody system.
Thanks for being here, Geoffrey, and for your comment.
For me, discovering how deep the roots are actually gave me a sense of hope. I suddenly felt lighter. Like, no WONDER the mess we're in is so thorny and changing it feels so hard. The taproot goes so so SO far down! The fact that there has been THIS much change in a couple hundred years begins to look miraculous. ;-) Like, just having this much democracy is a big change from 300 years ago. It makes me think that we CAN do this—that the current mess is the last gasp of a dying system. May it be so! Thank you for being here, Dolores, and for adding your voice.
I'm embarrassed to admit that I don't share your optimism about our collective future, but your wonderfully written essay (?) is very much in tune with much of what I've been reading over the past several years, initially sparked by Daniel Quinn's Ishmael trilogy, but since broadening out to include dozens of other thinkers.
I always wind up at the same place. First, we live on a finite planet with finite resources, and 'soon' some of those will become too scarce for Industrial Civilization with its mantra of 'forever growth' (no matter how produced or distributed) to continue and it will collapse.
Secondly, it seems clear to me that our species knew everything we needed to live sustainably countless generations ago. All of Modern Science simply reinforces that truth. To me, that means the price we are paying for most of the knowledge of the past 10-20,000 years (?) is our destruction of our most primal, DNA-driven instincts, the ones that allowed us to adapt to even major changes in our environments.
Spurred on by the documentary below, I now strive to be as kind, helpful, loving and present with all life that crosses my path. (yes, I walk around ants. LOL) Doing so seems like the most/least we can do. Peace.
Yes, things look grim. We're not going--especially right now--in good directions. I agree that IF we stick to this heading, we ARE going to create more and more suffering and make it harder and harder to change course. But being certain about collapse? I'm not there. Because I can't see the future. So I hope you're not certain about that outcome either. I think being certain about the future not only closes us off to seeing other possibilities, other creative solutions, but also may actually prevent those solutions from presenting themselves in the first place. I hold with Indigenous peoples who believe that thoughts and attitudes and words DO things in the world. They act not only inside the person thinking or saying them but also in the larger shared reality. I like to keep an attitude of "don't know" about the future; it helps me stay more poised to act in the moment, whatever happens.
I only read the first Ishmael book, but it was sure intriguing. I had just finished writing Tamed by a Bear, and one of my friends compared it to Quinn. I wonder how you would react.
I have to comment on your name! I don't run across a lot of us. I'm part of the Germanic bunch from the Midwest. But there are also the (British and African) pecan growers from Georgia.
Thanks for contributing your voice here and especially for practicing kindness toward all. As you say, the most/least we can do. I think its effects may stretch farther than we know.
First, thanks for your thoughtful response! My Stuckey lineage began in Scotland, from where we had to flee in the 1600s (?), with the name of Stockley. On to Switzerland and then to the USA.
I have no crystal ball, either, so I don’t ‘know’ how things will proceed, but the ‘evidence’ I’ve seen certainly is grim. That said, I am definitely in favor of any/all true mitigation efforts. In fact, I used to have a website called ‘Climate Mitigation News.’ It still has a FB page, but the website is gone.
So beyond the individual strivings of being kind, etc. I always pass along those efforts that I think will either ‘extend the glide’ or ‘soften the landing.’ And I would be more than excited, if the ‘Doomer’ mantra were proven wrong, especially for my children and grandchildren. I think I’ll probably be gone before my personal situation gets too horrific, but….
One of the interviewees in the documentary I shared, Stan Rushforth, a Cherokee elder, spoke about how our Mother Earth and her admonition that we have ‘a sacred obligation for how we are to be in this time.’ I totally agree.
Unlike others who are unable to see how we solve the ‘finite planet with finite resources’ conundrum, I have made my peace with it all, just as I, at 76, am ‘ready;’ not suicidal at all, but mindful that a life mostly filled with endless doctors’ appointments, tests, medications, etc. ceases to be one worth living, but that’s a whole other topic.
Anyway, your wonderful response has reminded me that I need to choose how I express myself more carefully. I am not sitting around the house, endlessly scrolling through one negative post after another (any more LOL). I still have some joys in my life, and I’m working on engaging in more restorative activities.
I didn't know about the Scottish branch. Mine were Swiss all the way back to the 1500s, Stucki, I think.
The "sacred obligation." I want to make that part of my regular conversation.
And there's something about an open future that lets the others of Earth do their thing too—their irrepressible, creative survival thing. I believe it's not all on our shoulders. In the sense that our shoulders alone will not complete the job. But the life force is surprising (thank goodness!), and we can partner with its upwelling mystery.
I met a guy from Switzerland at La Universidad Menendez Pelayo in Santander, Spain, summer of '66, whose last name was Shtucker (?). He thought we might be long-lost relatives.
As for it all being on our shoulders, I totally agree. In fact, the beginning of my present journey (Daniel Quinn) included this truism: 'There is no one right way to live.' The needs and choices of rural folks in Indonesia will never be the same as those in West LA or the outback of Australia....... Peace.
So interesting. I've been thinking lately about how so much in our world seems wrong that we take for granted — and, of course, I have a post coming up about it.
There's so much to say about all this, but one small note: We don't really have democracy in the U.S., even in the voting booth — at least, not a healthy one. (The book Tyranny of the Minority explains why.) Although we supposedly modeled our constitution after that of the Iroquois Confederacy, it leaves much to be desired.
Your piece also made me think about Sapiens, another book I read recently. Though it has its flaws, I have to agree with it that the Agricultural Revolution was not all it's cracked up to be.
Anyway, thanks for calling our attention to where so much in our current culture originated, and reminding us that it's not only far from the natural order of things but also not at all the way we have to continue.
You’re so right, Rosana, we don’t have democracy. And what we have we’re losing on a daily basis. I might have phrased it better: we may “try” to have democracy at the voting booth—at least we give it lip service—but when it comes to the economy we don’t even try. Inequality and hierarchy are the name of the game. I want democracy in the economy too. It’s the only way we can curb the rapaciousness. The only way we can save our skins here on Earth. The only way we can honor the lives of all the animals and plants we love, who prepared this world for us. The only way we can take any action to preserve a livable climate. We’re going to have to normalize equality, to make inequality strange. It will mean changing the story in our own hearts and minds too. Thanks for being here and for your comment!
Great writing , thinking and heart Priscilla , thank you. Looking forward to reading the whole book. I loved approaching this with you through art. First Nations art here in Australia dating back over 65,000 has a very different story to tell, weaving human and Country into intricate kinship, with deep love and respect for all forms of life. Such a worldview is much resisted and disrespected by colonising mindset that invades, steals and damages Country, acting out the deep tap root of domination story you uncover here. Yet for all these continuing assaults, kinship story and culture is very much alive. So much appreciate the other stories you offer here, these are our beacons and reminders .
What a heritage—stories that celebrate love and kinship instead of taking. We need to learn from Indigenous peoples' examples—to take those values of love and kinship to heart, and teach ourselves stories that train us in respectful relations. In our "sacred obligations," as the Cherokee teacher mentioned above says. Or in mālama 'āina, as the Hawaiian people say: caring for the land. This is our way forward: to practice loving care. To allow it to shape every activity of life. Thank you, Sally, for being here, and for making room for First Nations of Australia to be heard.
Much to think on in this article. A perspective going much farther back in human history than is normally done. I though have some thoughts to add.
One thing that struck me as I reflected on your lovely writing, is that it is still 'humancentric'. I got the impression that you see humans as the main players in figuring out our future. That we are the 'doers' and Earth the 'done to'. That Earth is a steady state that we act on, and it’s for us to fix ourselves in relation to that. I would suggest that Mother Earth is taking centre stage, right now, and any of our musings about how we could behave better is going to be thrown to the wind in the existential crises that, I believe, are on the horizon.
It is going to be a severe test of our core values as individuals, and groups, as the safe and nurturing earth we have taken for granted, comes apart.
It is good though, to have some vision of what could be. And as someone else said, it is and will be so important for each of us to live our time with as much integrity and decency and compassion and care we can muster. And humility, in the struggle to learn to be 'with' instead of 'apart from'. Hopefully, deep and rooted conviction to stand fast in the face of whatever is coming. Somehow, maybe, to be able to grieve what we as a species have done to this miracle we found ourselves in.
I don’t know how to do that, it is so immense.
Anyway, I hope this hasn’t come across as a criticism, more as an add on, if you will.
Utterly brilliant. I've not seen nor read a weaving of root causes and patterns of modernity's mess quite like this. What an incredible context and sources you have shared. I will continuously be referring to it as I puzzle on my work. Thank you.
Thanks for the good words, Nadine! I'm thrilled if you can use it. I've been thinking for a long time that ancient Mesopotamia has more to tell us than we've been hearing, so I'll be writing more on this.
We so desperately need the hope your post brings. Thanks Priscilla!
You're welcome, Blubunny! So glad if you pick up a thread of hope from it. We all need these small infusions to keep us leaning toward the new world.
Thanks for this terrific research, important comparisons, and compelling writing. We need to hear these stories.
Glad you enjoyed it, Leah! Yes, it's so important to know the stories that are the concrete holding old structures in place. Maybe hearing and naming the stories can help us change them.
Yes, here’s to new, life giving stories!
And to writing them! Thanks for your work, Leah.
🙏💗
I really enjoyed this piece. I love learning about good ideas that fell away in the name of progress — it's a fascinating look at what could have been.
I think the hierarchical model won out because its mode is to take, while the alternative required reaching consensus. One gives a single party the tools to acquire; the other demands agreement from both. Aggression has its short-term gains, but it carries long-term regrets.
As a species, we need to recognize this dynamic and make a conscious decision about which direction we choose
So true, Anthony! Taking without asking or agreeing seems easier at first, certainly quicker. More efficient. By the time the regrets set in, the massive long-term INefficiency is so much harder to correct. I keep being inspired by those Native North American nations around 1000-1200 CE. Katherine DuVal's book Native Nations is an amazing read—evidence from Native stories and archaeological digs that they completely reorganized themselves, moving away from centralized, high priestly bureaucracies. Time to dethrone our own high priests of commerce??
Great post. There's little doubt our transition from hunter-gatherers to agrarian societies was the turning point that led us here to overshoot and ravaging the planet. This article adds to my understanding of that.
Should we survive the fascism sweeping the US and other nations, the question becomes if we can survive the toxicity we have created on the planet, the end of EROI on oil, and avoid the implosion of agriculture from climate change and myriad other factors.
Yes, the controllers — billionaire oligarchs are responsible for an outlandish, staggering proportion of the destruction, but population is a factor, too. Without fossil fuels and the calories they have provided, 8.3 billion people would have never been realized.
As I write, people in India are attempting to survive 50° C temperatures. Many other countries and regions are enduring life-threatening heat as well. This affects labor productivity and the interconnected world economy profoundly, agriculture being most critical. The systems we have built in defiance of the limits of the planet are set to crumble. There is no denial of this reality.
The coral reefs were declared dead in 2025 by scientists after how many waves of coral bleaching? The largest living organism on Earth, the Great Barrier Reef is done.
The Arctic, warming 4x faster than the rest of the planet is now emitting GHGs. The permafrost there stores more CO2 and CH4 than we've released since the Industrial Revolution.
I could go on, having researched and written about these issues for the last five years.
The contrast of the Uruk and Trypillian societies well illustrate the behavioral issues that have landed us here, Buckle up. The wheels are coming off.
Yes, adopting agriculture was a turning point. Except it didn't have to be. It's not farming per se that destroys the Earth, as we can see from Trypillian cities. Also, we can learn from Indigenous examples around the world. They take care of their lands—they practice agriculture by burning, ag in small mounds, ag integrated under forests.
It's agriculture + attitude (an attitude of domination) that causes the trouble we're in.
We need to change ourselves on the inside—adopt a different spirit toward one another and the Earth. We're still following Uruk's model of trying to be safe by controlling nature. It doesn't work, and we're seeing the results now, as you've been writing about for so long.
The good news? Changing ourselves on the inside—adopting an attitude of cooperation and care—is exactly what can help us weather the changes the Earth is right now going through. Caring for one another and Earth, in fact, is EXACTLY how we change the whole bloody system.
Thanks for being here, Geoffrey, and for your comment.
It's quite depressing to experience the deep roots of the mess we are in. And, you give us hope that we can change and are changing. Thank you.
For me, discovering how deep the roots are actually gave me a sense of hope. I suddenly felt lighter. Like, no WONDER the mess we're in is so thorny and changing it feels so hard. The taproot goes so so SO far down! The fact that there has been THIS much change in a couple hundred years begins to look miraculous. ;-) Like, just having this much democracy is a big change from 300 years ago. It makes me think that we CAN do this—that the current mess is the last gasp of a dying system. May it be so! Thank you for being here, Dolores, and for adding your voice.
I'm embarrassed to admit that I don't share your optimism about our collective future, but your wonderfully written essay (?) is very much in tune with much of what I've been reading over the past several years, initially sparked by Daniel Quinn's Ishmael trilogy, but since broadening out to include dozens of other thinkers.
I always wind up at the same place. First, we live on a finite planet with finite resources, and 'soon' some of those will become too scarce for Industrial Civilization with its mantra of 'forever growth' (no matter how produced or distributed) to continue and it will collapse.
Secondly, it seems clear to me that our species knew everything we needed to live sustainably countless generations ago. All of Modern Science simply reinforces that truth. To me, that means the price we are paying for most of the knowledge of the past 10-20,000 years (?) is our destruction of our most primal, DNA-driven instincts, the ones that allowed us to adapt to even major changes in our environments.
Spurred on by the documentary below, I now strive to be as kind, helpful, loving and present with all life that crosses my path. (yes, I walk around ants. LOL) Doing so seems like the most/least we can do. Peace.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UftuDAkwM3I
Yes, things look grim. We're not going--especially right now--in good directions. I agree that IF we stick to this heading, we ARE going to create more and more suffering and make it harder and harder to change course. But being certain about collapse? I'm not there. Because I can't see the future. So I hope you're not certain about that outcome either. I think being certain about the future not only closes us off to seeing other possibilities, other creative solutions, but also may actually prevent those solutions from presenting themselves in the first place. I hold with Indigenous peoples who believe that thoughts and attitudes and words DO things in the world. They act not only inside the person thinking or saying them but also in the larger shared reality. I like to keep an attitude of "don't know" about the future; it helps me stay more poised to act in the moment, whatever happens.
I only read the first Ishmael book, but it was sure intriguing. I had just finished writing Tamed by a Bear, and one of my friends compared it to Quinn. I wonder how you would react.
I have to comment on your name! I don't run across a lot of us. I'm part of the Germanic bunch from the Midwest. But there are also the (British and African) pecan growers from Georgia.
Thanks for contributing your voice here and especially for practicing kindness toward all. As you say, the most/least we can do. I think its effects may stretch farther than we know.
First, thanks for your thoughtful response! My Stuckey lineage began in Scotland, from where we had to flee in the 1600s (?), with the name of Stockley. On to Switzerland and then to the USA.
I have no crystal ball, either, so I don’t ‘know’ how things will proceed, but the ‘evidence’ I’ve seen certainly is grim. That said, I am definitely in favor of any/all true mitigation efforts. In fact, I used to have a website called ‘Climate Mitigation News.’ It still has a FB page, but the website is gone.
So beyond the individual strivings of being kind, etc. I always pass along those efforts that I think will either ‘extend the glide’ or ‘soften the landing.’ And I would be more than excited, if the ‘Doomer’ mantra were proven wrong, especially for my children and grandchildren. I think I’ll probably be gone before my personal situation gets too horrific, but….
One of the interviewees in the documentary I shared, Stan Rushforth, a Cherokee elder, spoke about how our Mother Earth and her admonition that we have ‘a sacred obligation for how we are to be in this time.’ I totally agree.
Unlike others who are unable to see how we solve the ‘finite planet with finite resources’ conundrum, I have made my peace with it all, just as I, at 76, am ‘ready;’ not suicidal at all, but mindful that a life mostly filled with endless doctors’ appointments, tests, medications, etc. ceases to be one worth living, but that’s a whole other topic.
Anyway, your wonderful response has reminded me that I need to choose how I express myself more carefully. I am not sitting around the house, endlessly scrolling through one negative post after another (any more LOL). I still have some joys in my life, and I’m working on engaging in more restorative activities.
‘Talk’ again soon, I hope. Peace.
I didn't know about the Scottish branch. Mine were Swiss all the way back to the 1500s, Stucki, I think.
The "sacred obligation." I want to make that part of my regular conversation.
And there's something about an open future that lets the others of Earth do their thing too—their irrepressible, creative survival thing. I believe it's not all on our shoulders. In the sense that our shoulders alone will not complete the job. But the life force is surprising (thank goodness!), and we can partner with its upwelling mystery.
Be well, and thanks for the conversation.
I met a guy from Switzerland at La Universidad Menendez Pelayo in Santander, Spain, summer of '66, whose last name was Shtucker (?). He thought we might be long-lost relatives.
As for it all being on our shoulders, I totally agree. In fact, the beginning of my present journey (Daniel Quinn) included this truism: 'There is no one right way to live.' The needs and choices of rural folks in Indonesia will never be the same as those in West LA or the outback of Australia....... Peace.
So interesting. I've been thinking lately about how so much in our world seems wrong that we take for granted — and, of course, I have a post coming up about it.
There's so much to say about all this, but one small note: We don't really have democracy in the U.S., even in the voting booth — at least, not a healthy one. (The book Tyranny of the Minority explains why.) Although we supposedly modeled our constitution after that of the Iroquois Confederacy, it leaves much to be desired.
Your piece also made me think about Sapiens, another book I read recently. Though it has its flaws, I have to agree with it that the Agricultural Revolution was not all it's cracked up to be.
Anyway, thanks for calling our attention to where so much in our current culture originated, and reminding us that it's not only far from the natural order of things but also not at all the way we have to continue.
You’re so right, Rosana, we don’t have democracy. And what we have we’re losing on a daily basis. I might have phrased it better: we may “try” to have democracy at the voting booth—at least we give it lip service—but when it comes to the economy we don’t even try. Inequality and hierarchy are the name of the game. I want democracy in the economy too. It’s the only way we can curb the rapaciousness. The only way we can save our skins here on Earth. The only way we can honor the lives of all the animals and plants we love, who prepared this world for us. The only way we can take any action to preserve a livable climate. We’re going to have to normalize equality, to make inequality strange. It will mean changing the story in our own hearts and minds too. Thanks for being here and for your comment!
Great writing , thinking and heart Priscilla , thank you. Looking forward to reading the whole book. I loved approaching this with you through art. First Nations art here in Australia dating back over 65,000 has a very different story to tell, weaving human and Country into intricate kinship, with deep love and respect for all forms of life. Such a worldview is much resisted and disrespected by colonising mindset that invades, steals and damages Country, acting out the deep tap root of domination story you uncover here. Yet for all these continuing assaults, kinship story and culture is very much alive. So much appreciate the other stories you offer here, these are our beacons and reminders .
What a heritage—stories that celebrate love and kinship instead of taking. We need to learn from Indigenous peoples' examples—to take those values of love and kinship to heart, and teach ourselves stories that train us in respectful relations. In our "sacred obligations," as the Cherokee teacher mentioned above says. Or in mālama 'āina, as the Hawaiian people say: caring for the land. This is our way forward: to practice loving care. To allow it to shape every activity of life. Thank you, Sally, for being here, and for making room for First Nations of Australia to be heard.
Great read, thanks for sharing!
Thanks for being here and letting us know you connected!
Great article - fascinating! I will think on it.
Thanks, Jane! Music to a writer’s ears. 🙂 Come back with questions, comments as your thoughts develop.
Much to think on in this article. A perspective going much farther back in human history than is normally done. I though have some thoughts to add.
One thing that struck me as I reflected on your lovely writing, is that it is still 'humancentric'. I got the impression that you see humans as the main players in figuring out our future. That we are the 'doers' and Earth the 'done to'. That Earth is a steady state that we act on, and it’s for us to fix ourselves in relation to that. I would suggest that Mother Earth is taking centre stage, right now, and any of our musings about how we could behave better is going to be thrown to the wind in the existential crises that, I believe, are on the horizon.
It is going to be a severe test of our core values as individuals, and groups, as the safe and nurturing earth we have taken for granted, comes apart.
It is good though, to have some vision of what could be. And as someone else said, it is and will be so important for each of us to live our time with as much integrity and decency and compassion and care we can muster. And humility, in the struggle to learn to be 'with' instead of 'apart from'. Hopefully, deep and rooted conviction to stand fast in the face of whatever is coming. Somehow, maybe, to be able to grieve what we as a species have done to this miracle we found ourselves in.
I don’t know how to do that, it is so immense.
Anyway, I hope this hasn’t come across as a criticism, more as an add on, if you will.
Such thoughtful writing, thank you.