David Graeber and David Wengrow's new book, The Beginning of Everything, aims to reexamine and rewrite the history of humanity, thereby exploding the myths that prevent us from wiser and better choices today. No small task. Even quixotic -- but one that we desperately need.
They call their work "a quest to discover the right questions." They have thereby avoided the first, largest, and most fatal trap of every previous architect of social revolution: finding, having, and promoting "the answer."
Voltaire would smile at our 21st century fatalism. Our best and brightest, our most-listened-to voices, our leaders all speak as if this world, with a few tweaks, is the best of all possible worlds, and the only option. Their answers range from infrastructure bills to "owning the libs," from ending the use of fossil fuels to "ending" racism, from acquiring universal health care to making America Great Again, whatever that means. Somehow, these answers will solve the problems, and when accomplished, we can sit down and rest. So our narrative goes.
Will Graeber and Wengrow save us from this global Huis Clos of endless blather by close-minded people?
They search the archeological record and re-examine it towards exploding myths and thereby asking better questions about who we have been, and who we could be. It's an invigorating read on every page, from a strong voice, taking strong stances, giving no quarter to nonsense, and admitting its own humanity.
When we ask the best of all possible questions, we can shed our bitter present far more easily. The endgames of 21th-century global political maneuvering are truly destructive of human and planetary thriving. They question nothing of our social and political fabric and its inertia, and just offer rage over its details. When we ask better questions, and keep asking them, we can begin to thrive in the understanding and opportunities they bring us, without ever achieving a final answer.
From the introduction, I am left with a whisper of hope that at least somebody is asking better questions
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