Today’s Book: Beyond Civilization

Daniel Quinn is a thinker who apparently inspires many with his ideas but after reading Beyond Civilization: Humanity’s Next Great Adventure I still am clueless as to what he intends “The New Tribal Revolution” to be. Quinn spends nearly 200 pages describing the need for change in how we live, before we destroy the biosphere, yet he never really gives us a picture of what change, or changes, are needed. The closest he comes is to tell us to reject our current hierarchical civilization, which is perpetuated by the powerful meme that it is the only right way to live, in favor of a sort of tribal existence. But not in the older ethnic tribes, instead in occupation-based tribes. Except that he can only think of a few businesses which are truly amenable to this form of organization. And tribe members need to keep paying taxes and doing other things to support the current hierarchy. Not recommended, not until Quinn comes up with something a little more concrete.