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February 13 2020
Review: The words and works of historian/novelist Ronald Wright
Ronald Wright [0] is a particularly gifted writer and historian who
happens to have a background in archaeology, something he has amply
put to use. Perhaps best known for his 2004 Massey lecture "A Short
History of Progress" [1] (was delivered as 5 separate lectures at various
Canadian locales; also available as a book), my first introduction to
Wright's work was a 2010 interview he did with Silver Donald Cameron,
host of The Green Interview series [2]. It's really an excellent
interview and if one reads or listens to nothing else from Wright this
should be it (it's also quite a bit shorter than the Massey lecture).
The interview covers a lot of ground, the histories of Assyrian, Mayan,
and Easter Island civilizations and how they collapsed, what Wright means
by a "progress trap" (a term he coined), some of the common features
and late stage signs of impending collapse, and what makes the present
civilization's predicament uniquely dire. Archaeologists often have a
unique take on the past, seeing patterns that others don't.
Unfortunately the above interview is only available through Kanopy.com
as the The Green Interview site is weirdly paywalled --it's unclear
how one subscribes and I suspect nobody actually does. Because of this
I've taken the liberty of making an audio-only copy which can be found
elsewhere on this site.
Wright's Massey lecture, despite foreboding revelations, was apparently
well received and went on to form the basis for the 2011 documentary film
"Surviving Progress", also worth watching (Kanopy.com has it). Last year
was the 15th anniversary of the Massey lecture, commemorated with an
hour-long CBC Radio One program [3] featuring an interview with Wright
and excerpts from the original Massey lecture. While the Massey lecture
is quite good, it's shear length makes it easy to lose focus on; best to
spread it out. All 5 lectures, 1 hour each, are free on the Massey site.
The CBC Radio One program (also free) is good too but little more than a
taste; it's main value is Wright's reflection on where he sees things
15 years on.
In Wright's interview with Cameron he states that much of the material
presented in the 2004 Massey lecture came out of research he did for his
1997 debut novel "A Scientific Romance" [4], so I added that to my reading
list along with a 2000 essay "Civilization Is A Pyramid Scheme" [5].
For a first novel "A Scientific Romance" is really quite enjoyable. A
Dystopian tale, the story starts with the premise that H.G. Wells' "The
Time Machine" was not entirely a work of fiction but in fact a well-kept
secret reality. David Lambert, the protagonist and London archaeology
professor, receives a recently recovered letter of H.G. Wells describing
the time machine and Tania Cherenkova, it's Russian inventor, a mysterious
female associate of Nikola Tesla. It seems Tania headed off into the
future with the machine programmed to return in 100 years, which it does,
but without her. Long story shortened, Lambert figures the controls out
and heads off 500 years into the future only to find a London overgrown
with tropical flora and fauna, partially submerged and completely devoid
of humans. Seems climate change unleashed a multi-pronged push back
on humanity's excesses, with pandemics, food shortages and civil order
devolving into the usual authoritarian responses. Eventually Lambert
makes his way to Scotland and discovers the survivors, a black-skinned,
plaid wearing bunch living a medieval peasant existence amid some rather
amusing ruins of the past, the McDonald's golden arches, misc. car
parts and electronic detritus, often used for decoration. Literacy has
largely been lost; since Lambert can read he is enlisted to chronicle
the fragments of correspondence that has survived. The fragments reveal
further details of how things transpired when the shit hit the fan.
Turns out London is rather radioactive due to reactor meltdowns, hence
it's abandonment. Dark skin was an advantage with higher UV levels, lamas
replaced sheep for similar reasons. The local lords eventually figure
out who Lambert is, or rather that he is from the past. Being devote
Christians they naturally "invite" him to play Christ in their Easter
passion play and promptly crucify him, a disenfranchised future taking
revenge upon it's guilty ancestors. Fortunately Lambert has made a few
friends who help him off the cross and make a hasty escape back south.
The story ends with Lambert back in the time machine but as traveling back
in time is problematic the reader is left to wonder. A love triangle,
mad cow afflictions, and a friendly puma living in a formerly posh London
loft add some additional narrative twists.
Some notable quotes from "A Scientific Romance":
"[C]ivilizations, like individuals, are born, flourish, and die;
.. the very qualities which bring them into being --their drive,
their inventions, their beliefs, their ruthlessness-- become
indulgences that in the end will poison them."
"Six billion hundred weight of overcrowded ape meat was a free
lunch waiting for a wily microbe .."
".. were all human systems doomed to stagger along under the
mounting weight of their internal logic until it crushed them?
.. think of Easter Island .. --where limits must have been plain
to anyone-- the last tree came down to put up the last colossus,
the rains washed the soil into the sea, the people starved and
ate each other, and there was no escape because without wood
there's no canoe."
"The great questions of the age are usually commonplaces, which
no one bothers to remark. And in official documents, the true
crises are so often strenuously ignored. Read the inscriptions
of any civilization on the point of collapse, and they celebrate
military triumphs, the magnificence of kings, the harmony of
earth and heaven --as if nothing whatever were wrong. Then
silence. You have to read the silences."
and lastly,
"Civilization is always a pyramid scheme. Living beyond your
means. The trick is to keep wringing new loans from nature
and your fellow man."
One might conclude Wright is not a fan of civilization but he is, he
just feels it can only endure if it restrains itself in size and reach,
living only off Nature's interest, its principle unmolested. What that
might look like he does not say, but activities like extracting vast
quantities of non-renewing resources seem off the menu. Under such
restraints continued technological advancement would necessitate a much
smaller human population wise enough to keep it's desires in check. Hard
to imagine but Wright is quick to point out that the axioms of any
civilization invariably narrow the view of what's possible.
In the CBC Radio One program Wright sounds fairly pessimistic on
humanity's odds of making a course correction this late in the game,
giving it a 1 in 3 chance. He also sees 2030 as the cutoff for completing
such a transition, saying "if we collectively lose this, the experiment
of civilization is over", an allusion to the now diminished inventory of
energy and resources which are the building blocks of any civilization.
Without a certain abundance of such building blocks technological
advancement is not possible, thus precluding a civilizational reboot.
Wright sees technological advancement as a kind of ladder with each
successive rung a prerequisite for the next. In his view we've kicked
out the lower rungs, preventing a reascension. Thus there is a lot at
stake; with our huge industrialized population wrapping much of the
planet there is literally no unplundered place left if we crash hard.
The history of progress may turn out to be quite short indeed.
- -
[0] Ronald Wright Wikipedia page:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ronald_Wright
[1] The 2004 CBC Massey Lectures, "A Short History of Progress" (5 hours):
https://www.cbc.ca/radio/ideas/the-2004-cbc-massey-lectures-a-short-history-of-progress-1.2946872
[2] The Green Interview (via Kanopy.com):
Ronald Wright: Seeing the Future in the Ruins of the Past
https://www.kanopy.com/product/ronald-wright-seeing-future-ruins-past
Wright-SeeingTheFutureInTheRuinsOfPast.ogg (01:18)
(audio-only ; find under "References and Documents" section)
[3] CBC Radio One program: 15 years on since 2004 Massey Lecture
Escape options narrowing for world caught in 'progress trap': Ronald Wright
https://www.cbc.ca/radio/ideas/escape-options-narrowing-for-world-caught-in-progress-trap-ronald-wright-1.5288833
[4] A Scientific Romance, (c) 1997, London: Anchor, ISBN 9781862300118
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1196219.A_Scientific_Romance
[5] Civilization Is A Pyramid Scheme
The Maya's Ruined Temples Reveal A Frightening Message For Us All
by Ronald Wright, August 2000
http:////sacredlands.org/pyramid.htm