Right wing loves this dawn of everything argument about wealth and power not being related. The material conditions of the advanced, industrialized world actually recreates a lot of the same conditions that make equality possible. In immediate return, hunter gather societies in all sorts of interesting and key ways. And when we look at that, we'll see that the ingredients for a much more galetarian and libertarian world are all there. It's just that our awareness hasn't caught up to what it takes to set people in motion to big changes. i want us to be filled with good ideas instead of half baked nonsense so that we'll take actions that might actually bring us closer to our goals.
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In this episode we cover chapter 1 of David Graeber & David Wengrow’s book The Dawn of Everything, entitled Farewell to Humanity’s Childhood; or Why This isn’t a Book About the Origins of Inequality.
In doing so, we look at the following:
How the book’s underlying thesis: that human social structure is ultimately a matter of choice and experimentation, is fundamentally incoherent, and how this idea sets us up for future dramatic political failures, similar to those of Occupy Wall Street or the Great Peasant’s Revolt of 1381.
What the standard narrative of human origins actually is, vs. the caricature elevator pitch version that Graeber & Wengrow claim to be debunking.
Why most anthropologists believe that human beings began as egalitarian hunter-gatherers despite knowing about all of the evidence that Graeber & Wengrow present in order to argue the otherwise.
How and why Graeber & Wengrow flush down the toilet the analytical tools that they need in order to answer their own questions about how we got stuck in dominance hierarchies.
How social structure actually works.
How Graeber & Wengrow’s arguments are great material for right wing talking points.
Why there is room for deliberate social change in a world where social structure is largely a matter of conditions and relative bargaining power, rather than a matter of “choice”.
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