by Jack Donovan
As a neo-barbarian of sorts, I’ll admit that I’m somewhat interested in Jared Diamond’s new book, The World Until Yesterday: What Can We Learn from Traditional Societies?
I may yet flip through it, as there might be some useful information buried somewhere in there.
Paleo Retiree over at Uncouth Reflections went to see Diamond speak recently, and wondered if Diamond actually means what he says. He makes an important point about Diamond, who has become a tremendously influential writer. It seems like every “progressive” guy my age who reads has read Guns, Germs, and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies
. This always seemed odd to me, because human history and human nature are generally unfriendly to progressive ideas about how humans “should” be — because humans have always been sexist, violent and tribal — unless stories about human nature and human history are framed in the context of some transformational, up-with-people, “arc of history” progressive narrative.
