On Friday, February 24, 2006, Jared Diamond, author of Guns, Germs, and Steel,came to Houston. He lectured at the Hotel Intercontinental in the Galleria area.
I had read in the Houston Chronicle that Diamond was coming to town the previous Sunday, but because of work I had neglected to purchase tickets before the event. Gambling that there would still be seats available, I drove over to the hotel and sure enough, there were tickets still to be purchased. Tickets were either $34 or $54, but there were only the $54 tickets available. But for a Mighty Wizard like me, that didn't matter. I simply conjured up the money and in I went! :)
Professor Diamond's visit was put on by an organization that calls itself The Progressive Forum.Any time I hear the word "Progressive", the antenna immediately goes into warp drive, as I instantly start wondering what kind of progressive enslavement is being advocated. Progressive Forum bills itself as non-partisan, but judging from the crowd and some laughs that were generated when the words "Property Rights" were bandied about, it wasn't hard to guess where the sympathies of this organization belong to. To boot, the Forum has David Crossley on its' board. Sigh...
We'll set these matters aside for now, as the real star of the night was Professor Diamond. I have to admit that I had heard of GG&S a number of years ago, but had other issues on the mind. I finally broke down and purchased the book about 3 months ago. Diamond's book is a stellar read. As of this writing, I have finished about 325 pages and am about to get to the parts of the book where Diamond writes about how China became Chinese and how Sub-Saharan Africa became Black. Fascinating topics. In reading GG&S, one comes to the conclusion that Diamond falls into what is sometimes referred to as the "geographical determinism" camp of human development (or lack of thereof). I hope to finish the book in another couple of weeks and have yet to purchase Diamond's follow up book, Collapse, How Societies Choose to Fail or Succeed,but based on overall reviews that I have read, I would have to say that the evening's talk was something of a summary (or rehasing) of what Diamond has to say in Collapse.
Before going any further about Diamond and his works, I will write here my hand written notes that I took during the lecture:
1. The attendance of the event was somewhere around 1,000 people.
2. The organizer of the Forum, Randall Morton, introduces Diamond and makes a statement that Diamond, aged 68, is "healthy, wealthy, and wise". After Diamond himself takes the stage, he says, "I am healthy, I am not wealthy, and I will leave it to you to judge whether I am wise."
3. Diamond tells a story of his first visit to Houston back in 1956. He went as a debater for his university where two people would go and debate opponents at other schools around the country (William F. Buckley did this as an undergrad at Yale. Such events were big hit items back in the 1950's). He and his partnet went to Texas Southern (TSU), and went up against their opposition, one of whom was a woman. That woman had fiery and impassioned personality and many thought she carried the day. That woman was Barbara Jordan.
4. Why write a book about why socieites succeed or collapse? Why did some civilizations build cities in jungles or the desert, then abandon them?
5. Diamond tells the stories of Norweigans in Greenland who settled circa A.D. 984 and whose civilization of roughly 5,000 members died out circa A.D. 1440. Meanwhile, the Norse who settled Iceland survived and are amongst the most successful people in the world today. Why?
6. Diamond elaborated about the story of Japan. The Japanese have managed to survive for 14,000 years. The 16th and 17th centuries saw a wood / timber shortage which was handled via rationing and the creation of wood / forest plantations.
7. Diamond contrasted the social choices made between the Dominican Republic and Haiti, an interesting comparison as both nations occupy the island of Hispaniola. The Haitians have cut down all their trees while the Dominicans have lush forests. The Haitians are extremely poor, while the Dominicans have a living standard in the low several thousand dollar range per capita. Why?
8. The story of China. Is there an Ecocide issue going on?
9. Diamond identifies five different major issues that go far in determining the fates of human societies:
A) Human / Environment interaction
B) Climate change
C) Enemies - or lack of thereof. He briefly speculated on the collapse of the Roman Empire, an issue of major historical signifcance.
D) Friends / trading partners - and potential problems with them.
E) The social institutions and the role of elites.
10. Diamond spoke of the fate of Easter Island, which was settled between the years 800 - 1680 A.D. It looks as though a number (13?) tribes fought over wood and other resources until the entire civilization died out. He joked about how students at his U.C.L.A classes said that property rights would have solved this problem (drew huge laughs from the crowd - but not from me), or that technology would bail them out (again big laughs from this largely progressive crowd).
11. He mentioned that a social choice the United States has made is that air quality is about 30 percent better than it was in 1970, despite the fact that we have 100 million more people, some 50 million more vehicles on the roads and that we drive farther than we did 35 years ago. This because of various Clean Air Acts.
12. A biggie here? Why do some societies solve their problems and others don't?
A big issue is whether a society's elites end up suffering from the broader problems of the society, or whether they can insulate themselves from the bad things that go on around them. Diamond gave the example of how in Los Angeles, the wealthy have gated communities with their own private security patrols. They send their kids to private schools, drink bottled water (or other water substitutes), have private health insurance, and live in areas where environmental threats are relatively low (as they can be in earthquake prone SoCal). This is in contrast to those who have to face the the broader problems that involve crime and police departments, public schooling, and so forth. Diamond also mentioned the example of Holland, where in 1953 the North Sea flooded broad areas and killed thousands. Among the dead were rich, poor, and political elites. When the politicians were affected, you bet your last dollar something was done to deal with this. He also spoke of Louisiana and the costs of inaction.
13. Diamond thinks that America would do well to rethink our core values of rugged individualism and spoke of the need to engage the world and not pursue isolationism. He spoke of our social choice of fighting in Iraq vis - a - vis the cost of about (in his view) $25 billion to bring malaria and AIDS under control (really - that cheap?). He also thinks that America is mishandling its forests and fisheries. If that is the case, then it would do well to remember that a large swath of America's forests are - and have been since the time of President Theodore Rosevelt - under the management of... the United States federal government.
14. Diamond finished up by saying that he is positive about the future. He is positive because the past is different from today. We do have more people, better weapons, but also better tools. Technology is morally neutral. He thinks we are in for some tough times involving energy, as he said that the oil companies are not spending the money exploring for oil and that we would be in the best position to know how much is out there (not true for the first statement, true for the second).
Diamond would up by his talk by saying that one thing we have in our favor is that we have the media and that globalization can be positive in that we can learn from the mistakes made by other societies. This also holds as we have archaeologists and historians who can teach us about the past and lessons the past holds for us.
There was a Q&A session after Diamond finished, with some of the usual blatherers who asked questions that had little or nothing to do with what was being discussed. One woman asked - at length mind you - what he thought about the effects of children taking Rilatin. I went to get my copy of GG&S signed and went home to digest what this man had to say. More on that later.
Ciao for now.