Viral Break
Agribusiness Matters is taking a pause to deal with viral contagions and other exigencies.
P.S. Earlier post had archive link redirected to another website. That correction has been made here.
I am taking a pause as I’ve been down with viral fever since last Sunday. I have quarantined myself. Now it looks like my wife and my 3.5-year-old son are also going through their viral fever episodes.
For paying subscribers, billing will be paused until I hit the resume button. Your next bill date will be pushed out appropriately. If you have 12 days left on a monthly subscription right now, you’ll still have 12 days left when I resume. If you have 289 days left on an annual subscription, you’ll still have 289 days.
You’ll still have access to the archives as usual of course, so you can catch up on stuff you might have missed.
During this hiatus, it will not be possible to sign up for a paid subscription if you don’t already have one, so the paywalled archives will be unavailable to new readers.
Over these last few days when I was down with bone-numbing coldness, this book has been such a pleasure to read. It is already turning out to be the most powerful read for me in 2022.
Who wouldn't love a book that finally argues that agriculture wasn't humanity's worst mistake?
If you look back at our prehistory, the broader narrative has always been something like this:
1) Hunter-gatherers lived in small egalitarian bands
2) Nothing significant happened until humans invented agriculture
3) This was a major turning point in human history. After this, we discovered the idea of cities, social stratification, property rights and it set the foundations for the city-state that eventually came to define the governments we live in.
This book completely turns this Christian theology argument(dressed as historical narrative) over its head.
Phew!! What a relief!!
What makes this book a spiritual experience for me (maybe, it is the fever that is doing all of this) is that this book has helped me shatter this duality that has been willy nilly created between
1) upwards to a brighter future or downwards from a brighter past.
2) Progress towards robotics future or hold on to quaint ideas about the past.
3) agritech modernity or agroecological nostalgia
4) Exponential Tech Age or primitivism.
5) ecomodernism or regenerative ag
Is there really one choice between the two?
In other words, with this book, the entire premise underlying Season 2 of Agribusiness Matters has been thoroughly destroyed!
Good riddance!
This book is groundbreaking that is backed by solid empirical research and I plan to write about this book’s agricultural argument “What if Agriculture Wasn’t Humanity’s Worst Mistake” in detail.
My relationship with David Graeber and his powerful works go a long way.
It was around 2015-16 when I first discovered his works. Those days, I used to work in the domain called “Social Technologies”. His works on the origins of bureaucracy helped me write an essay many moons ago inquiring why bureaucracy resists technological advances. (It was meant to be included in an anthology of sorts on “social technologies” until the editor developed cold feet and backed out)
It's fascinating how David Graeber's work has traveled with me, although what I do for work has changed radically over time. David Graeber passed away in September 2020 and as I am reading this book, I am realizing what an irreparable loss it has been.
And in other news, out of sheer boredom (and frustration of not being able to get back to my writing energies), I made this meme of sorts. Those of you who know LOTR would get the joke.
That’s all I have for now until I come out of my viral family affairs.
Do stay safe and remember to take a pause, should you need to:) I just did.
Cheers
Venky