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Summary
This is a new view of the role of power in social evolution. It shows how, as human societies evolved, intersocietal conflicts necessarily developed, and how humanity can choose peace over war.
"Goes far beyond our common folk knowledge about power." -- New York Times Book Review
The Parable of the Tribes provides a new way of analyzing the human condition. This panoramic work, which incorporates history, philosophy, anthropology, and psychoanalytic theory within its sweep, is troubling and difficult; nevertheless, it is surprisingly readable and, in the end, hopeful." -- Esquire
"In an age of intellectual timidity, Andrew Bard Schmookler's Parable of the Tribes is a work of immense scope and boldness. It makes a serious contribution to our understanding of war, peace, and civilization in a world spinning out of control." -- Daniel Yankelovitch
"Imagine a group of tribes living within reach of one another. If all choose the way of peace, then all may live in peace. But what if all but one choose peace?" From this basic premise, Andrew Bard Schmookler has built a towering work of intellectual and spiritual insight, a book that will shatter many preconceived notions about how civilization has developed and why human history has been so filled with torment. In this new edition, Schmookler shows how, with the end of the Cold War, we now have an unprecedented opportunity to solve the problem of power that has plagued civilization.
The Parable of the Tribes is a new vision of the story of humankind. It presents a radiant new synthesis of history, evolutionary biology, political theory, and psychology.
Andrew Bard Schmookler is the author of a number of books, including Out of Weakness: Healing the Wounds That Drive Us to War; Sowings and Reapings: The Cycling of Good and Evil in the Human System; Fool's Gold: The Fate of Values in a World of Goods; and The Illusion of Choice: How the Market Economy Shapes Our Destiny. His cultural and political commentaries appear frequently in newspapers, magazines, and journals and on the radio. The original edition of The Parable of the Tribes was winner of the 1984 Erik Erikson Prize.
Table of Contents
Book I. The Parable of the Tribes
One
The Parable of the Tribes
1. Introduction
2. Understanding Change
3. The Common Sense: Selection by Human Choice
4. The Rube Goldberg Problem: A Critique of the Commonsense Theory
5. Toward A Bigger Vision
6. The Way of Life
7. The Emergence of Culture
8. The Breakthrough to Civilization
9. The Struggle for Power
10. The Selection for Power: The Parable of the Tribes
11. The Reign of Power
12. Power versus Choice in Social Evolution
13. A Tragic View of Human Destiny
14. Hope
Two
The Theft of Human Choice
1. Unfree Choices
2. Two Great Waves of Change
A. The Spread of Civilization
B. The Modernization of Archaic Civilization
3. Heads I Win, Tails You Lose: The Non-Alternatives of the Parable of the Tribes
A. Withdrawal
B. Destruction
C. Transformation
D. Imitation
4. Qualifications: Limits on the Transformative Effects of Conquest
5. Choosing the Choosers: The Historymakers
6. The Mother of Invention
A. Introduction: Beyond Selection
B. Leaving the Primitive State
C. The Escalator of Civilization
D. Conclusion: Innovation as Directed by Human Purpose
Three
Shaped by Power
Introduction
1. Red Sky at Morning: The Dawn of Civilization and the Rise of Warfare
2. The Evolution Toward Larger Societies
3. The Evolution Toward More Complex Societies
4. The Evolution Toward More Effective Central Control
A. Unity of Purpose
B. Coordination
C. Sacrifice
5. Reflections on the Disadvantages of Centralization
A. Ignorance
B. Lack of Motivation
C. Stagnation
6. The Adrenalin Society
7. The Common Denominator
Epilogue to Book I. Power and Choice in Our Times
Book II. The Natural and the Unnatural
Introduction: The Natural and the Unnatural
PART I. A House Divided: The Human Condition in Civilization
Prologue. A Zoo Story
Four
Human Nature and the Evaluation of Civilization
1. Out of the Cold: Beyond Value Neutrality
2. A Theory of Natural Values
3. The Question of Human Nature
4. Eden: The Natural Environment
5. The Fatal Mismatch
6. The Original Sinner: Evaluating Human Nature
Five
Power and the Psychological Evolution of Civilized Man
1. The Re-creation of Man
2. Fighting Mad
The Seeds of Rage
Channeling Destructive Energies
The Faces of Human Aggression in the Evolving Reign of Power
3. Hierarchy and the Lust for Power
4. Under the York: Harnessing Human Energies
The Displacement of Pleasure by Work
The Displacement of the Present by the Future
The Human Costs of Production
Afterword: The Fighting Machine
5. The War Within: Moral Internalization and the Social Order
6. Unreasonable Reason
The Powers of Reason
Is It Progress?
The Loss of Meaning and Value
Impersonality
7. Conclusion: Possibilities
PART II. Power and the Loss of Wholeness
Six
Systems of Nature and of Civilization
1. Synergy and Viability: Dimensions of Wholeness
2. Nature and Civilization Contrasted
A. Natural Systems
(1) The Body
(2) The Species, Especially Natural Societies
(3) The Ecological System
B. The Systems of Civilization
(1) Overarching Systems: Ecological and Intersocietal
(2) Social Systems: Governmental and Market
(3) The Civilized Human Being
3. The Turning Point: Biological Evolution versus Social Evolution
Introduction: The Problem of Discontinuity
Different Mechanisms of Change
Evolving Different Kinds of Structure
The Agony of the Torn
4. Artificial Wholeness: Justice as the Antidote for Power
The Restraint of Power
Justice as Synergy
Limits to the Scope of Justice
Justice and the Future
Seven
The Parable of the Tribes and the Loss of Wholeness
1. Man's Dominion: Power and the Degradation of the Ecosystem
A. Paradise Lost
A New and Dangerous Regime
The Unbound One
Corruption as Suicide
Sinning Freely
The Justification of Injustice
B. The Evolution of Technology and the Parable of the Tribes
Technology and the Growth of Civilization
The Selection for Power and the Evolution of Technology
The Serpent's Tooth (The Selection for Attitudes Toward Nature)
Beyond the Question of Master and Servant
Beyond Hubris
2. The State of Unnature: The Problems of the Intersocietal System
Horseman of the Apocalypse
Everybody Loses
Evil and Beyond
3. Men Are Not Ants: The Problem of Power in the Body Politic
A. Intrasocietal Analogue of the Parable of the Tribes
B. The Roots of Injustice: A Critique of the Marxist View
C. Modern Reversal of Trends?
D. Wheels within Wheels: The Class Struggle and the Evolution of Civilization
4. The Market as a Power System: A Critique of the Capitalist Economy
A. Introduction
B. Market Justice: Questions of Class Exploitation
The Market's Case Presented
Critique of the Marxist Critique
The Market Power of the Rich
The Problem of Economic Inequalities and Political Equality
C. Market Atomism and the Loss of Social Synergy
Externalities
Other Dimensions of Market Inattention
D. Moral Confusion and Choice in the Market Economy
E. Conclusion
5. A House Divided Revisited
6. The Death of the Unnatural
The Rise and Fall of Civilizations
Apocalpse Now?
Eight
Conclusion: Therefore Choose Life
Afterword to the Second Edition. The Challenge of World Order
