The Destroyer Themselves
Civilizations can either choose to fail or succeed. This crucial verdict is upon the civilization itself. Jared Diamond, author of Collapse: How Society Chooses to Fail or Succeed, believes that a civilization's demise is in light of the fact that the society in any civilization decisions on how to lead it can destroy it. Diamond writes his own definition of collapse as, “a drastic decrease in human population size and/or political/ social complexity, over a considerable area, for an extended time.” (Diamond 3) The author maintains a stand on the idea that certain attributes lead to the end of a society. Each society has different attributes that can drive a development into its decline. For instance, severe poverty,
…show more content…
East lsland is located off the coast western South America, particularly Chile. The collapsed society is described in Diamond’s book as “a triangular island consisting entirely of three volcanoes that arose from sea, in close proximity to each other, at different times within the last million or several million years, and that have been dormant throughout the island’s history of human occupation” (Diamond 83). From this piece of information, it is evident that the collapse of Easter Island was not because of the volcanoes, as they were not a problem to the society. Instead, different characteristics lead to the downfall of Easter Island, such as its isolation. Easter had no “enemies or friends in contact” (Diamond 118). It did not have the support of any neighboring civilizations when they began to waste away the resources of the land , nor did it have any enemies to declare war on and fight with to gain more resources, land and power. The dominant element for the undoing for Easter is due to the fact that the island’s society “destroyed itself by overexploiting its resources” (Diamond 118). Not only did the exploitation of resources result in the failure of Easter Island, its isolation also played a part in its …show more content…
The island was identified in the twentieth century as a “barren wasteland” (Diamond 103). However, during the beginning stages of human inhabitancy, Easter was “a subtropical forest of tall trees and woody bushes”. (Diamond 103). The island had multiple unknown species of trees, which leads one to believe that Easter was home a disparate forest. Easter was a shelter for birds likewise; housing a minimum of six species of native birds which included “ one species of heron, two chicken-like rail, two parrots, and a barn owl.” (Diamond 104) Also, the human settlers feasted on delicacies such as porpoises, fish, shellfish, birds, and rats in addition to seals, sea turtles and and perchance, large lizards. (Diamond 105) These luxurious foods are believed to have been cooked over firewood that came from the “subsequently vanished forest” (Diamond 105). These eatables were eaten regularly as a part of the islanders’ lifestyle. Slowly, the fish was shown to be nonexistent from the diet of the islanders. The land birds also went extinct due to the “combination of over hunting, deforestation, and predation from rats.” (Diamond 106) Trees were cut down continuously as well. The inhabitants of Easter Island began to starve as the people started to finish the supply of food and wood. They had no food left left. The society of the isolated island had over used the limited yet precious resources that was given to them by nature. One of
Earthquake: a series of vibrations induced in the earth’s crust by the abrupt rupture and rebound of rocks in which elastic strain has been slowly accumulating; something that is severely disruptive; upheaval (Shravan). Tsunami: an unusually large sea wave produced by a seaquake or undersea volcanic eruption (Shravan). Combine these two catastrophic natural disasters, and it will be a day that will forever live in infamy through terror; a day much like that of October 28, 1746 in Lima, Peru in which an entire city was destroyed within mere minutes. Author Charles Walker guides his audience through the devastation and wreckage of this heartbroken town and into the economic, political, religious, and social fallings that followed. Walker argues that the aftermath of this tragedy transformed into a voting of the citizens’ various ideas perceived of the future of Lima, theological consequences, and the structure of the colonial rule (p. 12). However, as illustrated by Walker, the colonial rulers would in turn batter the natives with their alternative goals and ideas for the future of Lima. Finally, the author reconstructs the upheaval of Lima during its’ reconstruction and their forced and struggled relationship with the Spanish crown that ultimately led to rebellions and retaliations by the Afro-Peruvians and Indians.
Jared Diamond is born in Boston on 1937. He is a physiologist, ecologist, and a prolific writer. Diamond has published hundreds of articles that is about science. Not only that Diamond is a writer, but he also received his Bachelor’s Degree at Harvard University in 1958 and PHD at Cambridge University in 1961. Diamond is currently working at UCLA as a professor of geography and physiology. He has done many research about ecology and the evolutionary of biology in New Guinea and many other southwest Pacific islands. Diamond has done many projects in his career. He is also a field researcher and director of the World Wildlife Fund. No only he published hundreds of articles, but he also wrote many essay in his life. One of his essay that he shared to the public is called, “The Last Americans: Environmental Collapse and the End of Civilization.” Diamond wrote this essay on June 2003. The essay that Diamond wrote is about the environment and how it is failing miserably.
The environmental movement in politics is often overplayed causing people to loose interest in the issue, but Jarred Diamond makes it impossible to ignore the issue in his book Collapse: How Societies Choose to Fail or Succeed. Jared Diamond hopes to catch as many peoples attention as he can; the name alone, “Collapse”, makes him appear to be an alarmist looking for attention. He has just cause though for blowing the whistle on society. He makes parallels to previous failed societies and to modern societies showing how the practices that we employ are similar to these failed societies. He is suggesting that America, as well as other countries, are headed down the path of ecocide more possible a global ecocide. Through his extensive research and numerous examples he makes it impossible to argue with his thesis. While all of examples seem redundant and like he is over emphasizing the point he does this to show his thoroughness. He also does it to show that he is correct. Diamond does not want to be wrong; he is a major author who gets a lot of attention when he releases a book. People look to discredit Diamond’s work. Due to this he gives ample resources to support this thesis.
However, progress can become “a seductive trail of successes [that] may end in a trap” (Wright 5). Progression can mask the conclusion of a person’s actions. But progression does not only include large events such as the making of a gun or the change from hunter-gather to farming. Progression can include basic changes to necessities such as “clothing and built shelter… [we] opened up every climate from the tropics to the tundra. We moved beyond the environments that had made us, and began to make ourselves” (Wright 13). This migration and progression to various locations sets off the beginning of many different societies, some in which successfully make it, others do not. This is also called a trial and error process. Basically all civilizations are a trial and error, based on how they have dealt with progression; the society can either rise or
One of the first theories as to why the islanders were driven to collapse was that the islanders overexploited the natural re...
Webster's online dictionary defines civilization as "a society in an advanced state of social development". Without the restraints of society, the behaviour of people will regress to their savage beginnings, due to the fact that one's need for survival will overpower all other impulses. The descent into savagery, man's inherent desire to survive over anything else, and the need for civilization and order shows how society unnaturally holds everyone together. Society artificially bonds everything together by imposing rules and structures and without the reminders of civilization and its conventions the savagery of human nature emerges.
To begin with, the Lorax and Easter Island have many differences but the most obvious one is that in the Lorax one person/thing (the onceler) was responsible for the destruction and the depletion of a resource. Unlike the Lorax a whole generation of people led to the destruction and depletion of many resources, and not just one individual profited from the exploitation but a whole species of people did. In the Lorax you can see that the onceler used the truffula trees for economic purposes. He got filthy rich from the exploitation. Whereas, in Easter Island a whole group of people benefited from it, they build pyramids, cut down trees to build temples, and depleted the land of all its natural sources.
Corrupt leaders and the governments laws are a major factor as to why societies fall. The society depicted in Maze Runner was very top heavy in and outside of the maze, and mainly controlled by this association who went by the name of W.I.C.K.E.D. Nazi Germany fell almost because of the same thing, their leader Hitler hungered for power and basically made it so whatever he said was law.The evidence of a collapsing social system is very evident throughout the story Maze Runner. For example “‘Gardens-where we grow crops...Blood house-Where we raise and slaughter the animals...’The grievers will kill you all-one every night till it’s over!’”(Pg. 43 and 256) This shows that they need people to do their jobs and the society inside of the Glade was very dependent upon whether or not they have people to work in places like the blood house, and that without enough people to support everyone else by doing their job the society will collapse very quickly.
In the article "The world as Polder: What does it mean to Us Today" Jared Diamond mentions how life on earth is a system of living up stream and down stream. This is seen when Diamond mentions how Eskimos who are not around chemical manufacture, but instead in remote areas. Tend Suffer the most from toxic chemical poising since they are surrounded by all the toxic chemical waste the first world countries do not dispose of properly. Diamond also mentions how the East Islanders and the Classic Maya society along with other societies could not have known the damage they were causing, since they did not have other societies to learn from. However, our current societies do yet many choose not make a difference in the world if that change will
...t societies can be weakened or even fall due to political corruption, war, and social injustice. When a society has one of these things, or even all three, it will not be a safe or fun place to live. Citizens will start riots and some will maybe even flee. And honestly, these things are bound to happen. Ultimately, we are doomed… it’s just up to us how long that will take.
Theodore Dalrymple is an English writer and retired prison doctor and psychiatrist. Daniel in his writings has frequently argued that the liberal and progressive views prevalent within Western intellectual circles minimize the responsibility of individuals for their own actions and undermine mores which are traditional, contributing to the formation within rich countries of an underclass which is afflicted by violence, sexually transmitted diseases, criminality, welfare dependency and drug abuse. His writings are generally based on his experience of working with criminals and the mentally ill. Dalrymple has been at various occasions been accused of being a pessimist and a misanthrope, but his persistent conservative philosophy has which is describe as being anti-ideological, skeptical, rational and empiricist has been worthy of praise . In 2011, Dalrymple for his works has received the 2011 Freedom Prize from the Flemish think-tank Liberia. The Theodore Dalrymple’s, “What We Have to Lose”, is the vigorous defense of civilization from barbarism. His main argument which he puts forwards with detailed examples and evidences many of them form his own experiences, recognizes that often the greatest threats to this fragile human achievement come from within. In his essay he provides a chilling glimpse at the problem we face in the West. He recognizes the fact that we have grown so used to civilization that it is almost impossible to believe that it is a fragile thing, and it can disappear. It gives us an important lesson that civilization, despite its grandeur and its seemingly endless resources, is not invincible, and can disappear. I would say we are witnessing an accelerating decline. The situation in West comes down to a point wher...
The term, progress, is synonymous with phrases that denote moving forward, growth, and advancement. It seems unorthodox then that Ronald Wright asserts the world has fallen into a progress trap, a paradox to how progress is typically portrayed as it contradicts the conventional way life is viewed: as being a natural progression from the outdated and tried towards the new and improved. Wright posits that it is the world’s relentless creation of innovative methods that ironically contributes to the progress trap rather than to progress itself, the intended objective. Wright’s coinage of the term “progress trap” refers to the phenomenon of innovations that create new complications that are typically left without resolve which exacerbate current conditions; unwittingly then, matters would have been much better if the innovation had never been implemented. In his book, “A Short History of Progress,” he alludes to history by citing examples of past civilizations that collapsed after prospering, and ones that had longevity because they avoided the perilous progress trap. Wright recommends that societies of today should use indispensable resources, such as history, to learn and apply the reasons as to why certain societies succeeded, while also avoiding falling into the pitfalls of those that failed, the ones that experienced the progress trap. This can easily be interrelated with Godrej’s concept of “the overheated engine of human progress,” since humans for centuries have been risking environmental degradation for progress through ceaseless industrialization and manufacturing. This exchange is doomed to prevent improved progress and will lead to society’s inevitable decline since it is unquestionable that in the unforeseeable future, cl...
Jared Diamond author of “The Ends of the World as We Know Them” highlights the reasons for the disappearance of early civilizations. Civilizations like the Mayans, Incas and Aztecs once inhabited the earth for hundreds of years, However; when these advanced civilizations reached the pinnacle of their capability, they faced tragedies such as war, unusual weather, environmental deprivation, terminated trade markets and unscrupulous leaders who contributed to the destruction of their civilization. One significant idea portrayed from Diamond’s article is that there are many factors that threaten American civilization.
No one knows for certain what the future will hold, but history shows that societies often evolve and become more advanced for the better. However, while some progress, others regress back to a primitive state. The british historian, Arnold Toynbee, often talked about civilizations dying by their own hands. Toynbee’s observations of societies committing suicide are evident in both H.G. Wells' scientific romance novel, The Time Machine, and Ray Bradbury’s short story, “The Toynbee Convector”. Firstly, the novel’s underground working class rises against the capitalists. Secondly, The human race has made no advancements, but instead has reverted back to
Overall, Robinson Crusoe’s ship crashing on the island forever changes the ecology, and biodiversity. Robinson colonized the island by introducing invasive species, European crops, and enclosing areas of the island. This colonization would lead to the islands decent in, wildlife habitation, and biodiversity. Although, these concerns would change the ecosystem on the fictional island they are the signs of colonization, and improvement in the lives of the inlands inhabits.