Customer Reviews

Why Civilizations Self-Destruct

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Mr. Pendell book discusses the human evolution from its origins to the present. He focalise on the issue that humans evolution is improved by harsh conditions that where present during the Ice ages, since only the more intelligent elements would survive. As climate improved the less capable outbreed the more intelligent.

As examples of his these he bring forth archeological samples of the Cro-Magnon man whose brain was about 30% bigger than modern man. Also early Neanderthal man of the Neolithic during an ice age had a bigger brain than the Neanderthal man of the mild Mesolithic age.

He comes to present day United States Welfare policies and shows the skyrocketing devolution happening in just a few decades of liberal policies.

All together a must get.

For a small book this is a heavy read, the first few chapters read like a psychology book, but once your by that you get treated to some unusual theories on civilisation and human behaviour. The author believes that humans evolve during harsh times because they can't afford to carry the weaker segments of the population and so only the strong survive and the weak perish. But when civilisation takes hold the weak and lazy slowly out breed the more productive and so civilisation creates its own downfall. At times I was both amused and shocked by some of the snobbish statements the author makes, but he does drive through a brutal truth.

'Historical Review Press' publish this book under the name 'Elmer Pendel'; his name seems to have been Elmer Pendell, in fact (and Amazon may record him as Pendel Elmer!)

It's undated, but internal evidence suggests about 1975 - that's the latest publication date quoted. Incidentally there is absolutely nothing about the vast influx from Mexico and South America into the USA - it was written before that became a major issue. On the other hand there is a detailed proposal for a law requiring people to register before being allowed to have children.

Nearly two-thirds of this book is concerned with personal psychology, and group psychology - there's a lot on consciousness, for example. It's interesting enough, but peripheral. There's also a great deal on early man, including the effect of ice ages, which Pendell considers must have had a good genetic effect. He goes for the ice-cap theory - must have weeded out people of less good brainpower. (He also says, just once, that deserts have the same effect; and he says the Black Death improved Britain). There's quite a bit on fossil man, but Pendell doesn't seem to realise how very tiny the total amount of evidence is - a few years ago all the human fossils so far discovered could fit onto a table-top. Incidentally he conflates 'evolution' in the full species sense, with population shifts or races within species.

The issue in the title only really gets addressed near the end of the book, and even then Pendell introduces other possibilities: silting up of waterways; lead poisoning; over-powerful central administration; loosened family ties; raw materials having to be imported. He does at least discuss the issue of what civilizations are - he says, something with an organizational network. This permits e.g. stonehenge people to count contra-etymologically as 'civilized'. He thinks all civilizations 'self-destruct' and doesn't seem to consider that they may have been abandoned, or survivors moved somewhere else. However his main emphasis is on slaughter of brave men in wars, small families of the best types, and large families of the worst. He doesn't convincingly explain why the worst types have larger families: they have less self-control, and aren't motivated by important things, says Pendell. Also of course medical care is important here, since, more or less by definition, they must be less good at child support.

Anyway: that's his book. I don't think there's any doubt that there's substantial truth in his thesis. But it's weakened very much by his inability to show how self-interest, and the interest of groups, can work in such a way as to damage the whole structure of a civilization. For example, many clever people work at things which are harmful to a society, if they're paid to, but Pendell believes in unsocialist societies, and can't face this issue, since he seems to think personal cleverness must always be of benefit. Incidentally he seems to have worked all his life in universities, including Chicago (funded by the monopolist Rockefeller!) but seems to think he would be a great independent pioneer type.