Collapse: How Societies Choose to Fail or Succeed
I read Jared Diamond’s New York Times best-selling book, Collapse. Collapse broke down the many ways societies choose to fail or succeed into four major parts. The author Jared Diamond defines a collapse as, “a drastic decrease in human population size and/ or political/economic/social complexity, over a considerable area, for an extended time (Diamond,2005, p.3).” Diamond begins the book by going into detail about the Bitterroot Valley of Montana. He was familiar with the surroundings of a farm that his family and friends lived on in this area, including the Hulu and the Hirschy families. In this chapter, he described many of the issues that have occurred here such as the dangerous effects
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of poorly controlled mining, logging, deforestation, increased population, toxic wastes, and climate change (p.32). In the year 2000, one fifth of the Bitterroot Valley’s remaining area of the forest burnt down, and these fires occurred due to climate change, human activity, logging, very dry summers, and overpopulation (pg. 44). This section of the book discusses what Montana was like before it experienced these failures that caused a collapse. In addition, this book broke down the social and economic parts of Montana. The climate had a lot to do with the disadvantages that Montana experienced. Today, our society emerges from social, economic, and technological changes as history repeats itself as Jared Diamond describes in his book, How Societies Choose to Fail or Succeed. First, Diamond describes the places in society that have failed, or collapsed in history so far. He then provides questions that make you wonder how COLLAPSE 2 we can improve as a society to be successful in the future. He informs us about Norse, Greenland and here we learn about how things weren’t completely in their control. Norse, Greenland could have been more successful if they would have learned how to adapt to the conditions, or if they would have followed the Native’s footsteps better by fishing more often and using their resources more wisely. Next, we learn about Easter Island in the Pacific and how it can be compared to Los Angeles in modern times. Some of the issues that Easter Island ran into were the constant strong winds, which made it difficult for the ancient farmers, also the freshwater supplies were every limited which made it hard to survive (Diamond,2005, p.83). To compensate for the limited source of freshwater, the members of society would instead drink sugar water which would lead to several causes of cavities and tooth decay of the prehistorical people (p.90). Esther Island had many things that lead to their collapse, but what is believed to be the major object causing complete failure is the movement of a large statute that fed a large amount of people by providing resources and made it possible for the food surpluses to provide elite-controlled upland plantations with items such as trees and food (p.99). After this occurred, deforestation took place, and this island eventually died out due to a large collapse. By comparing the trace from Easter Island to the modern Los Angeles, we learn that specific environmental strategies may work for a society at one time and place but may be maladapted when circumstances change causing it to fail in another society (Pontin,2005, p.1). This means that we must not take many things for granted, such as trees, food, land, technology, and other resources that we use daily. If we don’t start to use our resources more wisely, as a society we eventually will fail just like many other societies have. I believe the first step to success is figuring out what COLLAPSE 3 other societies have done wrong, and then learn from those mistakes. Most of the time, you must fail before you succeed in life. Diamond took the time to explain the theme of the book by informing us of what needs to be improved so that we can be successful in the society that we live in today. Throughout the four parts of this book, many different places were mentioned that suffered from collapses.
I am going to categorize a group of places that had similar reasons of failure instead of success. These places include: Polynesians of Pitcairn Island, Anasazi, and Maya. They all collapsed due to either environmental damage, climate change, loss of trade partners, or hostile neighbors. The Polynesians were lacking high-quality stone and the other islands around didn’t have enough stone to support a large population, so they were lacking drinking water, food other than seafood, and a few other resources which makes it hard to believe that they even survived if they did (Diamond,2005, p.127). By A.D. 1500, trade had stopped and for awhile and they survived by replacing the stone that was traded with items like shells of giant clam, or by using fishhooks out of purse shell since they weren’t receiving the rocks that they needed when the trade ended (p.131). After the trade ended, the results were very devastating for the inhabitants of Pitcairn and Henderson because eventually no one was left alive on those islands (p.133). This section of the book shows that without the economic and social part of society such as working together with others to trade, the society will most likely end up
failing. The next section of the book informs us how two societies have been successful in every way other than in environmental issues. Those places include: Polynesian Tonga,
...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.
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.
...t Bowl. Unfortunately the circumstances in the Great Plains all came to a head resulting in a horrific ten years for citizens of the Great Plains. The Dust Bowl caused government and people to look at farming practices and to evaluate their output. These policies resulted in overproduction of crops causing the prices to fall. The conclusion of World War I and countries that stopped importing foods added to the pain the farmers were already feeling. Yet with the establishment of government policies such as the Federal Relief Administration and the Soil Conservation and Domestic Allotment Act and with drought coming to an end, the Dust Bowl came to an end. The American people knew that they needed to do everything that was possible to end the Dust Bow. Tom Joad, the lead character in The Grapes Wrath best sums it up “ I know this... a man got to do what he got to do.”
The prologue of the book clearly lays out Diamond thesis. He explains that past societies have collapsed based on five factors: human induced environmental damage, climate change, hostile neighbors, friendly trade partners, and society’s response to environmental problems. He also explains how is wrote this book in a scientific manner using the “comparative method”, comparing natural situations differing with respect to the variable of interest. There is a slight flaw in this though. Showing these correlations between different societies,...
As America tumbled skyward into the 1930s, the country also stumbled earthward into a cataclysmic depression. Farmers all across the country mewled out in agony as huge swarms of flinging dust particles flew amok and disfigured cropland. The dust squirmed itself into houses, barns, and the lungs of innocent people, infecting them with what came to be known as a dust pneumonia. Farmers suffered harshly from the annihilation of their farms due to the soil flying about. It impaired animals, crops, houses, and their families’ health. Horrifically timed, this explosion of catastrophic grime helped the Great Depression terminate America economically; proving the storm to be the wickedest environmental crisis to strike North America. This was the squall that gave the American 1930s the nickname the “Dirty Thirties”, the dust bowl had emerged was not to evaporate until about ten years later. The dust bowl is simplest described as an agricultural nightmare, wreaking havoc from 1930 to 1941on plantations of Midwest America. Ironically, the very people who suffered from the gale caused this calamity onto themselves. The cause of the bowl is blamed to be large scale famers overproducing too many crops, stripping the topsoil of farmland. Not all the weight of the blame rested on overproduction of course, but also a combination of drought, torrid temperatures, and trivial, yet vitally significant prairie fires also played roles in causing the bowl. These events caused the soil to become frail, loose, and subject to passing winds above the land, creating one colossal horde of dust. Clearly, the cause of the dust bowl was overproduction and various factors, resulting in demolished farmland all across North America, proved the dust bo...
The Dust Bowl existed, in its full quintessence, concurrently with the Great Depression during the 1930's. Worster sets out in an attempt to show that these two cataclysms existed simultaneously not by coincidence, but by the same culture, which brought them about from similar events. "Both events revealed fundamental weaknesses in the traditional culture of America, the one in ecological terms, the other in economic." (pg. 5) Worster proposes that in American society, as in all others, there are certain accepted ways of using the land. He sums up the "capital ethos" of ecology into three simply stated maxims: nature must be seen as capital, man has a right/obligation to use this capital for constant self-advancement, and the social order should permit and encourage this continual increase of personal wealth (pg. 6) It is through these basic beliefs that Worster claims the plainsmen ignored all environmental limits, much ...
During the Great Depression, or the “dirty thirties”, the land had changed and definitely not for the better seeing that “severe drought and high winds degraded [the] farmland” (Gale, 2008). Although it was not nature’s fault for the Dust Bowl; the “years of overproduction and poor farming techniques had stripped the land of protective topsoil and left it vulnerable” to all patterns of western weather (Gale, 2008).
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.
This rural collapse eventually led to food shortages in towns and cities.
History provides the opportunity to explore the origins of a topic or problem. The information from Agriculture and rural society after the Black Death provides an overview of agricultural and rural society’s agrarian issues; during the Middle-Ages these issues were centered around depopulation and social conflict (Dodds & Britnell, 2008, pp.3-50). Problems in the economics of society in the medieval fourteenth century involved the decline of social status and labor services (Dodds & Britnell, 2008, pp.73-132). Other examples are seen in change and growth describe of that in 1870, the Great Plains only had 127,000 people; six decades later in 1930, there were 6.8 million people; 74 percent of the population lived in non-metropolitan areas; from 1930 to 1940, there was a loss of 200,000 people; 75 percent of these counties lost populations from the Great Depression and severe drought, which had caused the abandonment of farms (Kandel & Brown, 2006, p.431). To understand these past experiences, the door to hindering issues must be opened to determine how agricultural sustainability forges change.
64-66), author Jared Diamond claims that agriculture as opposed to popular belief, didn’t help civilization bloom, but instead proved detrimental to human lives ever since its introduction. He states that the progressives believe agriculture was adopted due to its efficiency and how it complimented our race. He contradicts this view with multiple studies and expert sources. According to his research, modern day humans are much worse off than their hunter gatherer counterparts due to a variety of lifestyle changes ranging from greatly deteriorated nutritional quality to increased sexual discrimination. He gathers the support from various archaeological research conducted on various remains found in Chile, Greece, Turkey, etc. Archaeologists can further point out the date at which this switch (from Gathering to agriculture) took place. He further establishes that Hunter gatherers may have chosen to change ways with the preconceived idea that the capability to feed more people and reducing the burden on mothers (hence allowing them to bear a child every 2 years instead of 4) would in turn drastically improve quality of life. He concludes the article by emphasizing on how it created disparities between the elite and the commoners and by defending his own kind for having discovered mankind’s biggest mistake and the motive behind
...t. At one point, the land could be of use and now it was only hope that kept some residents there. Farmers needed to remain optimistic, courageous, and have faith that their lives would improve. During the Great Depression it seemed that the only choice many of these farmers had was to continue to plow and harvest. Leaving the Southern Plains meant being unemployed elsewhere, losing their homes, and still facing poverty. To many, staying there in the heart of the Dust Bowl was better than what they could expect anywhere else. Choices were scarce during the depression. The Dust bowl and its residents could be described as, “…a dead land—populated by defeated people who were plagued by drought and depression.” The defeated land caused by the people, would in return make the people feel defeated as the dust storms made living in the Southern Plains nearly unbearable.
The example of societal collapse in which I will be making reference to throughout this essay is the Maya civilization. The Maya civilization is, “probably the best known of all early American civilizations.” (Fagan, 1995) It was at its strongest point between AD 300 AND 900. Around AD 900 was the time of its collapse. This civilization was developed in a densely, tropical forest on either highlands or lowlands. Today to visit a Mayan site, people would go to the modern Mexican state, capital city of Merida. This site was once home to the “New World's most advanced Native American civilization before European arrival.” (Diamond, 2009) Over the years there has been many predictions on what had caused the Maya civilization to collapse. At the moment the most recent cause that geographers and scientists have come up with is that climate change may have had a major impact on this collapse. It is said that the rainfall received during the creation of the civilization was a key factor in the continuity of life for the Mayans. This and the addition of societal factors such as religious beliefs, ethnicity and education all had an affect on their way of life, an effect on their societal well-being. Art and architecture that was formed by the Mayans is the foundation for the archaeologists work today. They look at these features and the ruins of the buildings created to depict the kind of lifestyle they lived. Looking at the art and architecture of a specific civilization or community of the past is just one way that can help to inform future adaptations. Another way in which the Europeans received knowledge on the collapse was that they sent out geographers and researchers not long after the collapse to gather as much data and information ...
collapse. The other major issue being studied is the massive change in genetics of the
These three civilizations all had a decline that can not be totally explained. Each unique yet similar in different ways. Both the Egyptian and Mayan civilization seemed to have declined because of agricultural and ideological reasons, and all three had to do with a loss of power and trust in rulers. There are many factors that create a civilization or empire and make it powerful. The corruption and loss of these same factors is what leads to the decline of an otherwise successful civilization.