The Price of Progress

A Review of Christopher Ryan’s Book Civilized to Death

I was, in some sense, the type of person the book is arguing against. I’m not a fan of when people idealize the past, specifically a state of pre-civilization. I decided to give the book a try as it was well-rated, and I do believe that there is definitely a point to be argued for the author’s narrative, even if I disagree with its overall theme and conclusion.

The book is trying to show we have a bias to see history as an ever-ending story of progress and also that we have a mythical “origin” story that views our hunter-gatherer lifestyle in an incredibly negative light. The beginning of the book was overall quite good and focused on anthropology and the early history of human beings. It dived into some myths that help propagate the origin story. Many of the problems that we view as extremely negative and that civilization has managed to conquer, like frequent periods of hunger, dangerous infectious diseases, or very poor lifespan, were actually a product of agriculture, but they did not occur before it when we were hunter-gatherers.

This was the most solid part of the book and is well in line with scientific research. However, the author goes well beyond it and very often gives his own personal “cultural critique” of modern society. I often find they weren’t very well argued for. The only exception is the notion of progress. And by progress, I mean it in a quite broad and philosophical sense, not just of technology. We believe that history is progressing and things are getting better and will continue to do so in the future. I find this quite flawed and even dangerous. The author illustrates this quite nicely, although it could have been developed better.

Later in the book, he tries to tie his narrative with an anti-capitalist stance. Some of it is decently made, such as a critique of consumerism. But at other times, not so much, and some of the way he presents his case are incredibly misleading. Quite often, picking the worse of modernity against the best of the past provides a narrative that is not at all representative.

While I disagree with a lot of what he said, some of it is more a view of perspective than anything else, so I was quite tolerant of it. Especially knowing what he would argue based on the narrative of the book in general. I wanted a pro-naturalism and anti-civilization argument, and that’s what I got. However, some things went well beyond just his personal perspective, and they were just factually wrong. His attack on Dawkins was a bit embarrassing, constantly putting up a strawman that our genes prevent altruism. That’s not quite what he said, and in fact, it is explained in the very book that the author quotes.

From time to time, he also tries to attack evolutionary psychology by claiming it argues for an exclusively negative picture of human nature. And yet again, most of his arguments are bad and addressed in any introductory textbook. He gives a good account of why human beings have a “good side” (which he wrongly thinks evolutionary psychology completely rejects) but tries to shun anything from the opposite camp and fails.

I don’t want to paint an overly negative view of the book, however. There are a lot of things that I agree with. For people who view civilization exclusively in a positive light and view the past as nothing but misery, that’s most certainly false, and this book provides a lot of evidence and arguments against it. Near the end of the book, he also touches on many other topics highlighting the difference between early and modern lifestyles, including relationships, psychiatry, sex, child-rearing, religion, and more. I found them pretty interesting, even if I disagreed with some points.

If you want an argument against civilization, this is certainly a book for that. And if you’re curious about the topic, it’s worth checking out. However, it’s certainly not without flaws, and expect a fairly biased account. But, of course, everything is biased. Just don’t take it as gospel and read other material about hunter-gatherers and the development of civilization.

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Tiago V.F.