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The main thing here is that in good times an agricultural society was able to produce surplus. And the existence of this surplus made hierarchies possible: sudd
by bergie 16y ago
The main thing here is that in good times an agricultural society was able to produce surplus. And the existence of this surplus made hierarchies possible: suddenly the society could afford to have a non-working ruling class.
Organized religion probably arose from the possibility of surplus combined with an agricultural society's need for having someone observe the seasons and predict weather.
- jonmc12 16y agoAgreed. The facts about malnutrition and fitness are interesting, but more important is the author's point that historically 'Might makes right'. The biggest 'mistake' of the human race is that we created surplus without any mechanism to distribute surplus for the greatest good.
- afterburner 16y agoIt seems to me that it's quite rare that humanity addresses concerns on any scale before they actually become problems. If that's the mistake, we sure do make that mistake a lot.