In the informative essay, "The Vanishing", by Malcolm Gladwell, Gladwell analysis Jared Diamond’s (a geography professor from U.C.L.A) book, Collapse: How Societies Choose to Fail or Succeed. The book tells the story of the Eastern and Western settlements of Greenland, the Norse, how they thrived and ultimately how they failed. Diamonds view states that wen societies mismanage environmental factors, such as soil, trees, and water, they fundamentally will fail. Essentially the lesson to be learned from Diamond book is that “societies aren’t murdered, they commit suicide.” Primarily, when looking at the analysis of the Norse, it is essential to examine their group dynamic. To illustrate their group dynamics it is relevant to observe through the lens of a “group as a whole” a concept discussed in Smith and Bergs, The Sources of Paradox in Group Dynamics. The concept of the group as a whole is thinking of a group as if …show more content…
The dilemma here was that they were unable to evoke an adaptive change. One of the six core ideas of adaptive change is being able to identify they adaptive challenge, this is in direct comparison to Heifetz three main points of systems in distress that seek equilibrium; the point being to solve the problem (adaptive challenge). It is uncertain when the Norse actually came to the realization of the problem, but by the facts given in the essay about the bones found as fossils, it is adequate to assume that there must have been a point where the society began to realize they had an adaptive challenge. By eating all of their cattle and even their pets, it is shown that they figured out a solution for short term gain with long term consequences, another main point in Heifetz theory. The goal was to regulate distress, another of the six core ideas of adaptive challenge, but they failed due to their lack of ability to shift their
Jared Diamond, author of the Pulitzer Prize Winning, National Best Selling book Guns, Germs and Steel, summarizes his book by saying the following: "History followed different courses for different peoples because of differences among peoples' environments, not because of biological differences among peoples themselves." Guns, Germs and Steel is historical literature that documents Jared Diamond's views on how the world as we know it developed. However, is his thesis that environmental factors contribute so greatly to the development of society and culture valid? Traditions & Encounters: A Brief Global History is the textbook used for this class and it poses several different accounts of how society and culture developed that differ from Diamond's claims. However, neither Diamond nor Traditions are incorrect. Each poses varying, yet true, accounts of the same historical events. Each text chose to analyze history in a different manner. Not without flaws, Jared Diamond makes many claims throughout his work, and provides numerous examples and evidence to support his theories. In this essay, I will summarize Jared Diamond's accounts of world history and evolution of culture, and compare and contrast it with what I have learned using the textbook for this class.
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.
As nature is destroyed the connection between the land the people is destroyed as well resulting in the loss of culture. In The Rabbits, as the invaders urbanize more land the native numbats become sad and devastated over the lost of land. Their culture is that they are part of the land and the nature, this means as they lose the land they are also
The great depression was a very sad and hard time. This was a time where people had little money, no available jobs and just had a hard time with everything. Many people had nd any way to make money whether it was cutting kid’s hair in neighborhood, picking fruit, selling iron cords house to house or even painting a house for 5 dollars. Even though this was a very hard time some people still had hope that things would get better. This was a really bad time until Franklin Roosevelt who was for the government supporting the Americans and not the other way around became president.
Population control is destroying the world! Ann Aguirre in her dystopian book “Enclave” shows the community as an organism made of four parts which are running it. There are breeders which produce children; they have hunters who hunt for food and the builders who build houses and everything else. Also there is elders who judge and punish people. The people who are sick or disabled are killed as well as their parents. That is because the people are not as intelligent and can’t make the medical help better, the people are very afraid of the elders and can’t have their own thought, and the world is full of creeps witch kill and eat whatever they find. The book Enclave is an example of social commentary, because it talks about Population control, creates awareness, and makes people want to take actions.
In the book “Collapse” written and theorized by Jared Diamond, historical societies known for their peril due to environmental and human catastrophes. Jared Diamond analyzes the root causes of failed societies and uses his knowledge to depict today’s warning signs. The main focus of this book is to present clear and undeniable evidence that human activities corrupted the environment. To prove this Diamon used past societies, modern societies, and social business societies as a foundation. The most specific and beneficial theories that Diamond analyzes would be the decline of biodiversity on Easter Island, the deforestation of the Greenland Norse, the mining mismanagements in Australia and big businesses.
In his translation of The Saga of the Volsungs: the Norse Epic of Sigurd the Dragon Slayer, Jesse L. Byock compiles many versions of this famous Norse epic and creates a very important scholarly work. Of special importance is the introduction, which provides a central working background to base readings upon. There are several themes echoed throughout the translation that reflect accurately on this portion of history. Byock does a superb job of illustrating these important aspects in his work. While the tale Byock tells is a fairy-tale handed down by generations of families, within the reader can find tell-tale signs of important aspects of Norse culture. For instance, important aspects of family life and the role of men and women surface. Likewise, the importance of wealth and material possessions on the power and prestige of a king is also evident.
Leif Erikson’s grandfather, Thorvald Asvaldsson slaughtered a man in Jæren, Norway in 960 CE. This was the age of the Vikings, but Thorvald was still banished from the land (Mandia, n.d.). So he brought his ten year old son Erik, later to be named as Erik the Red because of his scarlet hair, to Drangar in northwestern Iceland on a farm with rather appalling soil (Where is Vinland?, n.d.).
Margaret Atwood’s novel Oryx and Crake is considered to be a world time dystopian masterpiece. Atwood presents an apocalyptic atmosphere through the novel’s antagonist, Crake, and protagonist, Jimmy/Snowman. She does this when Crake uses his scientific knowledge and wickedness to eliminate and recreate an entirely new society. “Future-Technology was envisioned as a way to easing the burden of life, and it was accepted that slavery would remain a tacit part of human existence until there would be some effective replacement for it, for until the shuttle would weave and the plectrum touch the lyre without a hand to guide them (bk.1, pt.4), there would be a need for the enslavement of other to ease life’s load” (DiMarco 172). Since there was a need for perfection for a better life it was always understood that there would have to be many occurring disasters in which led to the ending of the human race. Through the presences of separation in social class to form a perfect community, the creation of perfect people (Crakers), and a society full of technology that allows humans to be free from diseases has warned readers of the possible outcome of the novel. The idea of a perfect everything foreshadows the future toward an end in civilization after recreation.
...downfall.Mostly societies fall due to whoever is leading them, like in Athens they were told to retreat inside of the walls which lead to an outbreak that killed ⅓ of the city’s population.Although trying to make a “perfect” society never ends up working out, we can learn from our mistakes and always try to make ours better. As I once said, “It is not possible to create a perfect society for imperfect beings.”
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.
Analyzing the Norse Collapse from Diamond’s view, the first factor that he examines is the environmental damage aspect. He states that “The Greenland Norse damaged their environment in at least three ways: by destroying the natural vegetation, by causing soil erosion, and by cutting turf” (Diamond, p.248). Diamond believes that when the Vikings arrived, they began burning woodlands to clear areas for their livestock, and cut many trees down for shelter and firewood. When the Greenlanders began raising animals such as cows, sheep and goats, the amount of fodder for the animals increased, which in turn increased the amount of farming they had to do to maint...
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. America is threatened by the destruction of their own environment.