Civilized to Death

The Price of Progress

By: Christopher Ryan

Narrated by: Christopher Ryan

The New York Times best-selling coauthor of Sex at Dawn explores the ways in which “progress” has perverted the way we live — how we eat, learn, feel, mate, parent, communicate, work, and die — in this “engaging, extensively documented, well-organized, and thought-provoking” (Booklist) book.

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. We hear some myths and lies so frequently that they feel like truths: Civilization is humankind’s greatest accomplishment. Progress is undeniable. Count your blessings. You’re lucky to be alive here and now. Well, maybe we are, and maybe we aren’t. Civilized to Death counters the idea that progress is inherently good, arguing that the "progress" defining our age is analogous to an advancing disease.

Prehistoric life, of course, was not without serious dangers and disadvantages. Many babies died in infancy. A broken bone, infected wound, snakebite, or difficult pregnancy could be life-threatening. But ultimately, Christopher Ryan questions, were these pre-civilized dangers more murderous than modern scourges such as car accidents, cancers, cardiovascular disease, and a technologically prolonged dying process?

Civilized to Death “will make you see our so-called progress in a whole new light” (Book Riot) and adds to the timely conversation that “the way we have been living is no longer sustainable, at least as long as we want to the earth to outlive us” (Psychology Today). Ryan makes the claim that we should start looking backwards to find our way into a better future.

©2019 Christopher Ryan (P)2019 Simon & Schuster

I couldn't stop listening.

Thanks to Chris Ryan for writing this.

You confirmed deep suspicions in my psyche that something was off about how I was raised, how life is planned, and how I relate to others. I don't need drugs or therapy to numb me out. I need the kind of therapy, relationships, and lifestyle that brings me closer to my natural state. As I've been doing this over the past couple years, my depression has waned, my anxiety has lessened, my discontent has subsided more and more. I am much happier eating an avocado than crembule. Happier with a beach bonfire than a loud club. More at peace with a hike than with the treadmill. We need the message in this book of simplicity, of acceptance of our nature, and the acknowledgement of our animal nature. These don't need to be damned, but understood and celebrated. Hopefully we all take the wisdom of taking a step back from all this "progress" to see what we have lost in the process.

Please read this book!

Please listen to this book. It's important for more people to hear this. It will hopefully get you riled up enough about the traps of modern life to do something about it.

loved it until the second to last chapter

I loved the book, the assumptions it challenged, and the presentation. it really made me think about whether we are living in a false paradise and what might be better for us now and in the future.

I only gave a 4 because of the chapter on psychedelics. The chapter went from a worthy note about one way that hunter gatherers handled the divine and spirituality into a political rant about the injustice and politics of which drugs are legal or not. I don't see the relevance of the Vietnam war and the drug politics that surrounded it to the premise of mankind being better when closer to nature.

overall, I loved the book, but one chapter made me question the validity of the remainder.

Mind blowing

So much of what I have felt or thought or knew but was un able to express is expressed in this book. I can’t tell you how much I appreciate the effort the author put into making this a veryMeasured and pleasant book.
It’s been said “ people know the truth when they hear it”

Excellent

A wonderfully refreshing breath among a field littered with dusty old tombs written by equally dusty and old sheep-men with cataract brains.

Amazing!

This book provides profound insight into the fine mess we are in as a society.

Much Needed Reality Check for Modernity

Steinbeck, in his much beloved travel narrative, 'Travels with Charley in Search of America', once reflected on the great satisfaction one might derive from sitting in a small town church on Sunday as the fire-&-brimstone rain bellows down from the burly, convicted voice of a country preacher. Such is this book for those of us standing quizzically aside & staring out brows-furrowed into a modern world of chronic disease, lauded selfishness, staggering levels of overproduction, environmental devastation, etc & wondering, 'who the hell's idea of progress is this, anyways?'

Sobering view on progress

Sobering view on progress. Probably the best book I’ve ever read. Recommend it with no doubts.

An Important Book

Sex at Dawn brought be to the doorstep, and Civilized to death gave me a tour of the house and a view of the street I came down to get there. This is an important book! I think the the arguments made would have been stronger without an appeal to the "life worth living" narrative, which I perceive as a component and tool of the NPP to endorse progress and the treadmill of personal improvement. Thank you for pulling this stuff together, Chris!

Life changing book

This book should be required reading for anyone concerned about where we are headed as a species. The insight that you can find sonething closer to happiness and a fulfilling life if we choose to replicate hunter gatherers' life principles was especially interesting and one I will take to heart.