As uncomfortable as I feel when I get told that progress is either an illusion or a marketing ploy – looking at climate change does make me think we really are stupider than we look. In a paean to attachment parenting, he describes numerous anthropology studies showing that babies born into egalitarian bands are given near-constant attention and soothing. This, according to him, is the ultimate sign that the only thing we are headed towards, is our own end.

I came to the book expecting to find common ground with Ryan, but couldn’t get past the effluviant mess that was intended to pass for deep thinking.

Listen to the podcast via Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts, Stitcher, iHeartRadio, and TuneIn. More significant than the abrupt and ill-supported ending is the means by which Ryan supports his argument. It is the source of wealth, since without poverty, there could be no labour; there could be no riches, no refinement, no comfort, and no benefit to those who may be possessed of wealth. Maybe so, but Ryan downplays the fact that agriculture also allowed many more humans to exist in the first place. We experience that pain whether or not the worst happens, because we know there is a much higher likelihood that it will.

But we do seem to be destroying the basis upon which our lives on this planet can be sustained, and if that is as good as civilisation gets, you do get to see why ‘primitive’ peoples might look at us 'civilised' people as if we were insane when we tell them how much more ‘advanced’ we are compared to them. we need to have a clear picture of humanity’s existence on the planet not only today but in our deep past. Ryan updates the centuries-old theme of mankind’s “fall from grace” with a one-sided selection of anthropological and psychological studies, while jousting with pro-civilization ideologues such as Steven Pinker.It won’t actually help, of course – despite the modern belief that the scientific method clears the path of dogma, the truth is much more complicated. Nomadism was displaced by a sedentary life allowing for the accumulation of possessions, from goats to wives to children to slaves. I bolded the only things that are true for foragers: no big buildings, no tools to move the earth, and no writing.

Most of us have instinctive evidence the world is ending—balmy December days, face-to-face conversation replaced with heads-to-screens zomboidism, a world at constant war, a political system in disarray. He notes that “skeletal remains confirm that neither famine nor obesity were common until the advent of civilization.Christopher Ryan makes his case that the modern world is unfit for our species with wit, charm and examples throughout. But compared to the depth and breadth of his argument against civilization, his proposed fixes are short on details. Pangloss even goes on to provide optimistic explanations for what might not otherwise appear material from the best of all possible worlds opinion – you know, like his being hanged for heresy by the inquisition.

The depiction of human nature embedded in the NPP isn't science; it's a marketing campaign for the status quo. However, its pessimistic tone makes it a perfect companion to compensate the irrational optimistic ardors of people such as Steven Pinker.This, he states, while referencing the work of author Jean Liedloff, gives them “a precognitive sense of being wanted and loved.