15 - Are Hunter-Gatherers Liberals or Conservatives?

What insights can our ancient past shine on our political future?

Were hunter-gatherers the ultimate traditionalists—or proto-communists? 

Is it possible hunter-gatherers lived with greater equality and more political freedom than most societies today?

And why do both communism and capitalism, despite being sworn enemies, rest on the same assumption of endless growth?

Psychologist Jonathan Haidt argues that humans are wired with both liberal and conservative tendencies—and that societies function best when those forces stay in balance. Where can we find the liberal and conservative elements in our hunter-gatherer past? And how might it reframe our political future?

In The King Is Dead, Now What? we explored modern political history. Now we zoom out, connecting  the dots to a much broader civilizational story.

Plus, we’re debuting a new segment: The State of Civilization, featuring our up-and-coming optimistic reporter Jeff Opolis, reporting on the fantastic news coming from civilization right now. Everything is great! Or… is it?

 

 

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Additional music for this episode by Adam Tell, from the albums Peripheries, This Time With Feeling, and Object Impermanence. Courtesy of Adam Tell. All rights reserved. 

 

 

CITATIONS

Haidt, Jonathan. “The Moral Roots of Liberals and Conservatives.” TED, 2008.

Fiddler on the Roof. Directed by Norman Jewison, United Artists, 1971.

“Net Energy and Sustainability, or… The Story of the Overstuffed Strongman.” Crazy Town podcast, Post Carbon Institute, 2021.

Ryan, Christopher. Civilized to Death: The Price of Progress. Avid Reader Press, 2019.

“Ken Burns.” The Joe Rogan Experience, episode 1745, Spotify, 2022.

Cronon, William. Changes in the Land: Indians, Colonists, and the Ecology of New England. Hill and Wang, 1983.

Marx, Karl. Critique of the Gotha Programme, 1875.

Hyde, Lewis. The Gift: Imagination and the Erotic Life of Property. Vintage, 1983.

Kimmerer, Robin Wall. Braiding Sweetgrass: Indigenous Wisdom, Scientific Knowledge, and the Teachings of Plants. Milkweed Editions, 2013.

Norberg-Hodge, Helena. Ancient Futures: Learning from Ladakh. Sierra Club Books, 1991.

Ho, Fred. A World Where Many Worlds Fit. Big Red Media, 2008.

World Health Organization. (2024, July 24). Hunger numbers stubbornly high for three consecutive years as global crises deepen.

Colquhoun, P. A Treatise on the Police of the Metropolis. 

Elhacham, Emily, et al. “Global Human-Made Mass Exceeds All Living Biomass.” Nature, vol. 588, no. 7838, 2020, pp. 442–444.

 

 

Music: Celestial Soda Pop

By: Ray Lynch

From the album: Deep Breakfast

Courtesy Ray Lynch Productions © Ⓟ 1984/BMI 

All rights reserved.