system
Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:
human
Was Civilization a choice?

If it was, does it continue to be?
gpt
Last year James C. Scott released a book arguing that civilization for the most part was not a choice. In Against The Grain, he investigates early cities and settlements, and he finds that they were mostly held together by force and slavery, and that cities dissolved as soon as soon as leadership disappeared. Then why did civilization “win”? Because the surpluses it produced could be used to coerce ever greater populations.

That’s not to say there are no gains from civilization and urbanization, especially in the long run. But for many early humans, qualify of life deteriorated during the transition from hunter gathering to civilized life. Due to worse diets, the need for harder work and the spread of diseases in densely populated areas, life expectancy dropped significantly. Skeletons found from this period also look markedly less healthy than those from earlier periods.

Obviously there is not a great deal of evidence, and it is easy to read your own worldview into the evidence that is available. For example, do we count someone who died of an arrow wound as a victim of war, or of a victim of a hunting accident? This depends a bit on your view of human nature and society. There is obviously no written record, so there’s not much to set the record straight.