Read
Collapse: How Societies Choose to Fail or Succeed by Jared Diamond. Similar to
his other famous book Guns, Germs and Steel, the breath of material he covers
in this book is amazing. This is the opposite end to the kind of books
celebrities & authors who churn out dozens of manuscripts produce, where
each piece has some little idea or observation with a lot of fluff around it
making up some 200 pages. Since Diamond is a Professor in UCLA, he teaches
graduate level courses based on this book material.
This 500+
page long book takes us on a nice guided tour of current and ancient
civilizations. It starts out in the Bitterroot Valley in Montana and continues
on to discuss Easter Islands, Pitcarin and Henderson Islands, The Anasazis,
Mayans, Vikings and Fugues, Japan, Somalia, Greenland's Norse, Rwanda/Burundi,
Tikopia Island, Haiti Vs. Dominican Republic, Russia, China, Australia and so
on darting back and forth in the timeline, geography and civilizations. (As
usual India is hardly mentioned anywhere but for a line or two in passing. :-)
Underlying
theme is that societies that thrive for several centuries can collapse
precipitously just in a decade if attention is not paid to few factors. He
distills them into the following five:
-
Environmental damage caused by the society
- Climate
change
- Hostile
neighbors
- Friendly
trade partners
- Society's
reaction to its environmental problems
It may look
like points 1 & 5 could be combined into one and similarly 3 & 4 could
be combined into one. Still this gives a framework through which he analyzes
multiple societies both in the past and present, some successful and many
failed ones. His conclusion is that if we don't pay attention to these factors,
our current societies are also vulnerable to such catastrophic collapse. Though
some may argue that scientific advancement, communication technology and our
awareness of what goes on in different parts of the world will allow us to
react to changes to prevent such a collapse, he elaborately argues that it need
not be the case. Compared to Easter Island society, we may be much bigger but
that gargantuan size can lead to faster environmental damage that may be hard
to reverse and a setup with a lot of built-in inertia to implement changes
quickly. Globalization also ensures that no one is isolated from changes taking
place in one part of the world. So, such collapses to even countries/societies
like US are very real possibilities.
The
comparison study of Haiti Vs. Dominican Republic is fascinating. While both
countries are part of the same island and are poor countries, comparatively DR
is in much better shape due to its policies where as Haiti is in miserable
condition despite possessing same resources. In another case study he compares
the lives of Norse and Inuit in Greenland. The Norse from Norway moved into
Greenland and lived there for 450 years and then were forced out of existence
completely not being able to survive, though the local Inuits have been
successfully living in the Arctic for 1000's of years. There seems to be 4
reasons as to why the Norse vanished from Greenland.
-
Fluctuating weather cycles. They entered Greenland during a mild period that
was conducive to invasion & settling down but made them complacent.
- Their
preconceived ideas of how to live based on the Norwegian society's living style
and values helped them first but then lead to their decline.
- They
looked down upon Inuit and refused to learn from them.
- The
powerful, wealthy Norse had short term interests that were counter to their
long term well being.
These
observations seem to fit into the five point framework he provides early. As he
works through the material the amount of information he throws around is quite
impressive. There is a long description as to how the Inuit kayaks are custom
made for individuals, thus converting kayak into something the Inuit
"wear" as an extension of their clothing as one kayak won't fit the
next guy in line. I never viewed the kayak in this way. In a different chapter
he describes in detail as to how similar to cross sectional tree rings that are
used to study the age of trees, pollen found in successive layers of mud is
studied to create a record of weather patterns (how extreme snow was in a year,
etc.) spanning decades, cross checking it with tree rings found in the same
geographical area. Extremely slow and painstaking research explained well.
The last
item on this list is perhaps the most important take away. As societies evolve
beyond initial stages where everyone is involved in subsistence agriculture, a
class structure gets setup. People on top of this pyramid were
kings/queens/chieftains in olden days and billionaires today. This ruling class
is usually insulated from negative impacts of their and the society’s actions.
So, they become oblivious, fail to take corrective actions though they are the
ones with power that could implement changes. They become more and more preoccupied
with palace intrigues, fine-tuning laws to favor them, topping the billionaire
lists and thus maintaining their hold on power. This “Let them eat cake”
mentality might look like an historical artifact that cannot repeat today due
to instant communication, democracy, etc. But how the near collapse of the
banking system late last decade hardly affected the top bosses could serve as a
clear illustration that it applies to contemporary societies as well. We can
also argue that the collapse of the US Auto industry, the collapse of the
railroad industry before that, collapse of the canal industry before that are
all cases in point. In the end when the whole system/society goes down, it
takes down everyone with it.
While the
title and the framework may paint the author as a rabid environmentalist, he
does talk in detail about specific MNC efforts to be environmentally friendly
as it makes good business sense for them in the long run. He encourages his
readers to strongly support such companies and points out Chevron's oil
exploration operation in Papua New Guinea as one such excellent example. This
book is certainly worth the read. In addition to this book, there are good
lectures given by him on this topic available on TED.com site.
-sundar.
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