fellow peasants -our leaders are ruining us

Orion > Discourse and Dissent > Kenny Ausubel: "When Diamond studied the ecological downfall of Mexico's ancient Mayan civilization, he determined that the final strand in its unraveling was a crisis of political leadership. 'Their [leaders] attention was evidently focused on the short-term concerns of enriching themselves, waging wars, erecting monuments, competing with one another, and extracting enough food from the peasants to support all these activities.' Sound familiar, fellow peasants?"



Good article: thought provoking. Leads to studies of historical ecology are welcome.