A globally renowned scholar and author, Jared Diamond finds answers to the massive “Why?”s in so-vast-you-don’t-notice patterns in history. His bestselling and Pulitzer-winning book‚ Guns, Germs, and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies looks at the reasons history turned out the way it did — why European societies conquered the rest of the world instead of the other way around. His latest book, Collapse: How Societies Choose to Fail or Succeed, asks nearly the opposite: Why do some civilizations fail?
An ecologist, evolutionary biologist and professor of geography and physiology at UCLA, Diamond takes an approach that goes beyond culture and into the impact it has on the environment. As Malcolm Gladwell observes, “Diamond’s distinction between social and biological survival is a critical one, because too often we blur the two.” Diamond’s ability to tackle daunting questions (and pose unsettling answers) in a straightforward voice may be reason enough to share his optimism that recognizing a problem paves the way for solving it.
Duration: 18:21
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[…] Why Societies Collapse Posted on Monday, November 3rd, 2008 in Video – Views: (69) A globally renowned scholar and author, Jared Diamond finds answers to the massive “Why?”s in so-vast-you-don’t-notice patterns in history. His bestselling and Pulitzer-winning book Guns, Germs, and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies looks at the reasons history turned out the way it did — why European societies conquered the rest of the world instead of the other way around. […]
Collapse influenced my studies on Rwanda/Central Africa and more recently, Haiti. Good book. Terrifying conclusions.
Consider this: 3.9 (some estimates are 5.4) million people have been killed since 1998 during what is called the Second Congo War / Africa’s Great War… which does not take into account the genocide of the mid-90s or anything prior.
American news agencies report almost every single death in Iraq and Afghanistan. Nearly four million people have been killed in the last 10 years, and how often is Congo on TV? Sudan’s Darfur genocide has been reported moderately, only because the public has demanded it. I’m disgusted… and we need to do more to get this out there.
Joe,
I agree that the news media doesn’t care a bit about Africa and what is happening over there. They are/were obsessed with the war because they didn’t want it, so the way to get us out of Afghanistan and Irag is to publicize the deaths. But they have no real interest in Africa because it’s a native, backwoods (from their perspective) continent that no one really cares about.
Unfortunately, it keeps people who love Jesus and have resources from going, serving, and praying.