Katia N’s Reviews > Goliath's Curse: The History and Future of Societal Collapse > Status Update
Katia N
is on page 44 of 592
We are a species that survived the ice age by being intensely social, cooperative across groups, and equal, even during times of need and danger. There appears to have been peace across groups, but individuals were willing to kill, especially to avoid oppression. Those aggressively seeking status or wanting to dominate others were both figuratively and literally cut down. (Cont. in the comment)
— Nov 08, 2025 08:10AM
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Katia’s Previous Updates
Katia N
is on page 425 of 592
Our Palaeolithic emotions are not a curse. The curse is the institutions and arrangements which bring out the worst in us.
This is very old, at least Rousseau’s time argument. I am not sure I’ve read 425 pages to come to this. It is as difficult to argue against as Hobbs’s one about all of all being evil.
— Nov 18, 2025 05:34AM
This is very old, at least Rousseau’s time argument. I am not sure I’ve read 425 pages to come to this. It is as difficult to argue against as Hobbs’s one about all of all being evil.
Katia N
is on page 422 of 592
I want you to imagine that the decision to detonate the bomb had rested not with betting scientists or the machinations of wartime politicians but with a jury of randomly selected US citizens fully briefed both on the impacts and risks of the bomb/the geopolitical /military situation. Now, ask yourself this: would that jury – with their friends and relatives waiting at home – have taken the same gamble?
— Nov 18, 2025 05:19AM
Katia N
is on page 322 of 592
Data is fast becoming the latest lootable resource that can be easily seen, captured, transported, and stored. AI is more extractive than artificial: it’s dependent on cheap workers, cheap materials, and stolen information. If we started paying workers fairly and requiring consent and compensation for the use of public data, the development of AI would both slow and become far more controllable.
— Nov 17, 2025 04:09AM
Katia N
is on page 270 of 592
The Creek (also known as the Muscogee Creek Confederacy), another key slave raider and colonist trader, were later compensated by being recognized as the first Native American group to be ‘civilized’ by the American government. For the Creek and other groups, slaving and aggression was handsomely rewarded.
— Nov 15, 2025 07:36AM
Katia N
is on page 220 of 592
One of the hardest things to permanently kill is not swords or crops but ideas. Once a legitimized hierarchy is deeply rooted in a culture, it becomes hard to remove. Entire systems for justifying inequality are carried forward for thousands of years. (Cont. in the comment)
— Nov 14, 2025 01:44PM
Katia N
is on page 165 of 592
Some percentage of a population appears always to harbour authoritarianism, &studies of twins suggest that it may be largely genetic. Surveys across 8 high-income countries found that around 10–25% ranked as highly authoritarian (with the US scoring the highest) These authoritarians tend to become more politically active&aggressive when they are activated by a social change, most commonly the emergence of a threat.
— Nov 12, 2025 02:46PM
Katia N
is on page 165 of 592
External threats change our brains in another way. They make us more open to being dominated. Authoritarianism – obedience to high-status authorities and the desire to punish rule-breakers – increases when individuals face a threat to their safety and security.
— Nov 12, 2025 02:44PM
Katia N
is on page 150 of 592
Experiments with ‘deliberative democracy’ in which a randomly selected group of citizens gather together, are briefed by experts, deliberate, and make policy (either in a small jury of nine to twelve members, or assemblies in the hundreds or thousands) have been shown to reduce political polarization and even aid reconciliation in war-torn countries such as Bosnia. An assemblyeven helped Ireland legalize abortion
— Nov 11, 2025 01:13PM
Katia N
is on page 126 of 592
Administration trumped intimidation. Emerging kings across the world faced a similar problem in trying to prove they had the right to rule. Human sacrifice was a solution that many converged on and then later dropped. the ability to deal out random violence: It’s an act that puts the ruler above ordinary morality. Polities across the world have all settled on the importance of violence to make rulers legitimate.
— Nov 10, 2025 01:20PM
Katia N
is on page 115 of 592
Clearly, agriculture is a necessary but not sufficient condition for creating a state.3 Goliath fuel (caged land, lootable resources, and monopolizable weapons) can help explain why states arose in these areas yet not in Japan or New Guinea.
— Nov 10, 2025 11:38AM
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Nov 08, 2025 08:11AM
Cont: That egalitarianism is what made us human. Yet, deep down, our primal heritage still hungers for status. Some of us are willing to lie, cheat, threaten, and even murder for it. These traits – mobility, collaboration (especially through reciprocity), status competition, the dark triad, and an aversion to dominance – have shaped the course of collapse and history.
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Ehat is Goliath's curse? Is there a universal tendancy for us to be attacked by shepherd boys who throw stones into our eyes?
I am not sure yet what Goliath’s curse actually is. I’ve just read the first chapter stating his underlying assumptions about human nature based upon the evidence he has gathered. (Not hobesian). But Goliath in this context he defines as follows:‘It was a move towards human societies organizing, like many of our chimp cousins do, as a dominance hierarchy. That is, a social-ranking system in which one group or individual is placed above others owing to their ability to impose penalties, including violence. It was the emergence of Goliath. A Goliath is not just a state. While the Roman Empire was the political heart of the Roman Goliath, there were other hierarchies that preceded it: rich and poor, master and slave, man and woman. A Goliath is a collection of dominance hierarchies organized primarily through authority and violence.’
I think he does not want to use the word ‘state’ for this as it is broader. So far interesting book. It looks he agrees with Grabar at least at this stage and at least partly: it has not started with massive violence for subjugation.
I will enjoy seeing what you have to say when you have finished the book then!
Thank you, Jann. I am so much behind with those things at the moment- still have too French histories to write up. But you are my inspiration for these things:-)
