Historical Timeline Towards Inequality and Hierarchy

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Source

From a google doc entitled 'Our Story'. Not sure about the author.

Very good bibliographical resources for a review of historical evolution.


Timeline

Egalitarian Hunter-Gatherer Model

From egalitarian, stable and sustainable to unequal, unstable and unsustainable in rough chronological order.

  • 1.8 million years ago - Hunter-gatherer -

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hunter-gatherer

Maybe once we had gained control of fire, this allowed us to move to colder climes. Perhaps then the need to store food for the winter prompted the idea of "this is mine and I'll kill to protect it"?


Exploitation and extraction

This stable model was about to end and enter a more exploitative model

https://theanarchistlibrary.org/library/john-zerzan-patriarchy-civilization-and-the-origins-of-gender

Hierarchy is inevitable. - https://evolution-institute.org/blog/the-pipe-dream-of-anarcho-populism/?source=sef

https://www.economist.com/blogs/freeexchange/2013/09/economic-history-2


The Glubb "spiral of death"

https://www.newstatesman.com/politics/2014/05/why-empires-fall-ancient-rome-putins-russia

  1. Assyria 859-612 BCE (247 years)
  2. Persia 538-330 BCE (208 years)
  3. Greece 331-100 BCE (231 years)
  4. Roman Republic 260-27 BCE (233 years)
  5. Roman Empire 27 BCE-180 CE (207 years)
  6. Arab Empire 634-880 (246 years)
  7. Mameluke Empire 1250-1517 (267 years)
  8. Ottoman Empire 1320-1570 (250 years)
  9. Spain 1500-1750 (250 years)
  10. Romanov Russia 1682-1916 (234 years)
  11. Britain 1700-1950 (250 years)"

http://people.uncw.edu/kozloffm/glubb.pdf


These follow a pattern: 1. The age of outburst (or pioneers).

2. The age of conquests.

3. The age of commerce.

4. The age of affluence.

5. The age of intellect.

6. The age of decadence.

7. The age of decline and collapse.

  • 1532 - Niccolò Machiavelli published The Prince “claimed to be one of the first works of modern philosophy, especially modern political philosophy, in which the effective truth is taken to be more important than any abstract ideal. It was also in direct conflict with the dominant Catholic and scholastic doctrines of the time concerning politics and ethics”


Markets and Tariffs

  • A L Kennedy - Winning - "Winning - isn't it great?" asks A.L. Kennedy.

But she argues that our "winner takes all" mentality is suffocating democracy. "On both sides of the Atlantic, in regimes around the world", she writes, "we can watch the chaotic dissolution of administrations based on winning at any price". " http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b09ppz9p


What next?

  • Really want to know how bad it is?

https://medium.com/matter/it-s-not-climate-change-it-s-everything-change-8fd9aa671804

  • Pollution

https://www.nationalgeographic.com/environment/global-warming/global-warming-effects/

  • Then there is also of course - Rising inequality
  • The traditional model for progress and success is clearly laid out in Glubb's The Fate of Empires and * Search for survival - http://people.uncw.edu/kozloffm/glubb.pdf In essence Rape, Pillage, Occupation,
  • Subjugation, Exploitation, Enrichment (for the few), Decadence, Exhaustion - Repeat.

This approach worked when there was somewhere else to colonise. Today we don't have that luxury, so we need a reset. Looking though the above list, where did it all start to go awry? Given that we have not changed, psychologically, since the Stone Age, we cannot expect to change much now. We can only draw on ways of behaving that have worked in the past and try to learn the lessons.

What will our descendants think?

Ways out

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