by
Jared Diamond Easter Island, Maya, Anasazi, Khmer – the simple naming of those civilizations evokes myth and glory from a distant past. They have left great traces of their heydays, after which they all shared one common fate: as societies, they collapsed and disappeared. Why did that happen? And is there a message, something we can learn from them for our own world?
While it is very interesting and logical to follow Jared Diamond’s tracing of historic evidence for individual collapses, his modern-day examples are even more compelling. For example, he shows convincingly why the nations of Haiti and Dominican Republic vary so greatly in their economic and social status, when they share almost identical environmental resources on one common island, Hispaniola.
The author has analysed those and other society, identifying five possible contributing factors of collapse: environmental damage, climate change, hostile neighbors, friendly trade partners and the society’s responses to its environmental problems. While he considers the former four may or may not have a significant impact for a particular society, the latter one is always crucial.
As a consequence, Jared Diamond identifies a 4-step road map of factors contributing to disastrous impacts of group-making decisions: first, failure to anticipate a problem before it arrives; secondly, failure to perceive a problem that has actually arrived; thirdly, failure to even try to solve the problem after it has been perceived; and finally, failure to succeed in attempts to solve it.
While at times, the book goes to certain lengths in trying to explain findings and processes, it definitely puts a finger in a major wound of today’s world. To most extents, governments and even more so private companies make decisions that impact human life and its surrounding on Earth. But Jared Diamond places the ultimate responsibility for serious, long-term and beneficial actions on the public: he identifies every single one of us, with our votes as conscious consumers, as the ultimate institution for deciding the fate of our world. Excellent insights!
Jared Diamond "Collapse - How Societies Choose to Fail or Succeed" in English, ISBN 0143036556
"Collapse - How Societies Choose to Fail or Succeed" in German, ISBN 3596167302
Andreas Hauser
www.
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