The Spark of Ages - Part 3: The Creative Response to Catastrophe
The Spark of Ages: The Biological Engines of Civilization 1 The Spark of Ages - Part 1: The Four Engines of Human Progress 2 The Spark of Ages - Part 2: Shattering the Myths of Geography and Genetics 3 The Spark of Ages - Part 3: The Creative Response to Catastrophe 4 The Spark of Ages - Part 4: The Moral Awakening That Defined History ← Series Home We naturally crave comfort. In our modern pursuit of the “good life,” we equate progress with ease, assuming that the ultimate goal of society is to eliminate struggle. We imagine that the first great civilizations must have arisen in earthly paradises, places where fruit dropped from trees and the weather was perpetually mild. It is intuitive to think that abundance creates the surplus time and energy necessary for high culture to flourish. However, the historical record presents a stark paradox that shatters this assumption: civilization is not the child of abundance, but the offspring of catastrophe. ...