Civilized to Death by Christopher Ryan

Was it a good thing that we moved from the foragers to what we're today. Rather than calling it civilisation, we can call if the evolution was good or bad for humans (and for the whole ecosystem).

We evolved over a really long period of time. The modern era is comparatively tiny when we started on the wave of modernisation and advancement in all the fields with growing our knowledge leaps and bounds. The author tries to put a perspective that humans had a choice to stay the way we were but we chose to be different. We made a mistake by exploring how to increase the comfort and change the way we live. This in turn improved a lot of vital factors but we paid a price for that.

Unfortunately or otherwise, we always pay a price for the changes (not just for the material things), and the complicated part is that we don't realise the full potential of a life choice when we're actually making it. It shows up only in hindsight.

Another argument is that we're living longer but is this long life free from the ailments of old age. Are we the healthiest version of ourselves when we get old. Well, we're not in our best of our health even when we're young. Of course, one can counter it with the lifestyle diseases but will that stop us.

And the last thing about contentment and happiness. Are our fellow beings (animals) happier than us? Is this is a state of living or a state of mind? Does our modern day comforts do anything to make our life any better or worse? The best way is to not over generalise the outcomes.

There are some passages which sound like a rant but a reader can differ.

We may not agree on a lot of points but it is good to be aware of different thoughts. And yes, this is not a made up of things by rich.

Legacy of Violence by Caroline Elkins

This is not the first record of violence but it is very well comprehended to include all the "colonies" and how the whole empire was run with consent of everyone who could make a difference.

It is difficult to challenge the status quo, specially when doing nothing can get you far with all your desires, needs, and a stupid sense of accomplishments. The whole narrative of civilising the world was nothing but a mirage of self satisfaction, and it went so far that it made everything else so minuscule in comparison to the fake grand promise of improving subjects' lives at the cost of killing them.

There will be no end to this as more and more resources will appear in public domain. However, that doesn't do much to change the narrative which starts and ends with greatness.

No number of fallen statues and reparations can wipe the memory of atrocities done to improve the lives of a few. Specially with the whole glorification, and bring back empire campaigns are going big and strong.

We learn from the history that we never learn from the history.

Peace