Humanity's Next Great Adventure - Beyond Civilization

In "Beyond Civilization" Daniel Quinn has yet again demonstrated his mastery of timely wordcraft. Quinn writes directly to the guilt-ridden, urban middle-class who sense something is dreadfully wrong with their lives, but are confounded by their intuitions. Once again, Quinn restates his ideas concerning the source of our contemporary cultural woes - the Agricultural Revolution which initiated a break from scavenging, gathering, hunting and Paleolothic tribal values. All this makes for interesting after dinner conversation, but Quinn still offers little in the way of solutions for making any real difference. Possibly, we do not need to go beyond civilization (which is no more than a cultural myth). If we are to make any meaningful difference for our children and the neighbors children, we must live in the now and become native to this planet. For starters, we must establish boundaries around what is left of Earth's wild places so we can learn how to live in harmony with other life. We must voluntarily limit childbirth to replacement of self. We must stop poisoning the Earth with petrochemicals of all kinds. Kill your television and replace your lawn with a garden. Obey the Golden Rule. And most importantly, immediately withdraw from the whirlpool of envy and guilt that keeps flushing us down the consumerist cesspool.

Daniel Quinn offers many good points and ideas to improve life and the way that we live it. He raises the question that asks why society feels that changing the way things are run, dealt with, planned, executed, etc., is the only way of doing them. Is there no better way?

In the book, written much like a journal, Quinn writes his `daily thoughts.' He begins the book by giving accounts of problems what is done that cause them; not only in today's world but in previous societies as well. He also asks why society puts such faith in programs implemented by the government and otherwise, when often times they provide little intended relief or support. They simply don't work efficiently. The last half of the book stresses the point that change is not going to occur overnight, it will take time. He brings up a wonderful point in the second half that points out that this world is highly capable of handling pollution and waste, but not when everyone or even the majority is acting this way. He believes that we need a variety of people and lifestyles in order for the world to operate efficiently. Not everyone can live the same lifestyle or there will be no structure, therefore causing collapse.

This book was full of good points, however, I found it boring and often had to reread previous sections in order to tie them to what I was trying to read. It seemed to shift gears from one page to another and I didn't like the absence of a plot. I realize not all books tell stories, but rather express ideas. In the end, I was simply glad this book was no longer than it is. Reading was tedious and I personally was left with very little to take with me to ponder.

I haven't gotten all the way through Beyond Civilization yet, but I can honestly say it has proven to me that NOT every human being on this earth has fallen with our society. All of Daniel Quinn's words absorb into my mind because I have always thought about the very things Quinn has written about, only not as organized! I'm watching the news as I type and I feel sick to my stomache. This world could be so much more advanced, a happier place to be yourself without fear of judges, have a more organized heirarchy...but we don't. And it's all because we don't use our minds to the fullest...I'm only 20 years old and Daniel Quinn's books have installed hope within me that SOMEDAY, we could all be happy , together.

Makes you understand that our grossly flawed culture is only the very tail end of a tremendously successful run of the race. With the realization that mankind itself is not flawed, but only the current culture is, the reader's mind (if open) moves beyond. The reader is forced to face humanity itself, not simply our faulted culture. Makes you realize that there _is_ hope for humanity.

My life will now be divided into two categories: the time before I read Beyond Civilization, and the time after.

In his earlier works Daniel Quinn attacked our culture and the ideas at the base of it. In Beyond Civilization he finally offers a solution: Abandon civilization entirely.
Some have said that Quinn is not clear about how living tribally this will save the world. Obviously, it won't. Actually, Quinn says EXACTLY THAT in Beyond Civilization: This book is not about saving the world, its about getting more enjoyment out of the world (and at the same time postponing the coming catastrophe.)

Quinn's book was great until the last portion. He carefully crafted an opposing analysis of what civilization does for homo sapiens, presented his argument effectiviely, and then ended the book with a joke. And the punchline wasn't even funny. Although thought provoking, the book is a waste of time. There is nothing good in here that was not in Ishmael.

The author of this book, Daniel Quinn, wants to throw away our "advances" in society. Our progress really isn't progress at all. He wants a new model for society and details in in his book, Beyond Civilization. He isn't about anarchist ideas, but rather, allowing people to find their own way of living, instead of having to confrom to a "dream" or "standard". Detailing a structure similar to that of the circus societies, it encourages diversity rather than supressing it. An open ended way to actually end up doing something you find enjoyable in your life right from the start.

Reading this book was/is one of the most profound experiences in my life.I always thought that I was an alienated misfit.There is life outside of our souless corporate pyramids.I intend to spend the rest of my life trying to jump the wall If there is anyone in the NW USA that feels the same way please contact me at my E-mail address

After reading "Ishmael" and "Story of B" and viewing the "Food Production and Population Growth" video, I had high hopes for "Beyond Civilization". Unfortunately, I was very dissapointed. I don't think tribes will catch on or provide a solution to our current path of ecological suicide. In my opinion, Daniel Quinn is best at describing the ramifications of current issues/problems in a way that is easily understood. He is not as suited to providing solutions to those the problems. I believe that Paul Hawken's book, "The Ecology of Commerce" is a great solutions book.

Okay, Daniel Quinn has some exciting and new ideas. His beliefs might even shock some of you. .... I enjoy Quinn's work (possibly because when I first read "Ishmael" at age thirteen I realized that I wasn't the only one with "those kind" of feelings and beliefs about society and our culture in general), but that doesn't mean everything he writes is interesting, fresh, or even particularly well-written. "Beyond Civilization" is possibly the worst book I've ever read (aside from some of the *joys* from the mandatory reading lists shoved down students throats in the public school system)! Whatever insight you gain from this book can truly be gained by reading "Ishmael" or "The Story of B". Don't get caught up in the DQ hysteria, think for yourself ....

Keeping in mind that for Quinn, writing this book was something like pulling teeth, BEYOND CIVILIATION is a rather impressive little work. As a deeper reader of the books that have influenced Quinn, I can see where he cut corners and generalized. I can't blame him. The works and words belong to other people, and are presented in detail in other works. BEYOND CIVILIZTION should only be seen as the canon that shoots the curious into those other works. If Quinn didn't say it once, he certainly said it a thousand times: THERE IS NO ONE RIGHT WAY TO LIVE. So hop to it. Read the book and take it from there.

After reading Ishmael, one could only have high hopes for anything by Daniel Quinn. Beyond Civilization does not measure up to expectation. Quinn does a good job describing how we arrived at our current condition but fails utterly to paint a way out. Perhaps that is asking a bit much, but that is what "Beyond Civilization: Humanity's Next Great Adventure" promises but does not deliver. If anything, Quinn's "new tribalism" looks a lot like cooperatives from the 60s and 70s. The best examples he provides of a hopeful future is a traveling circus and embracing homelessness. I can hardly wait to explain to my children how the best hope is to run away and join the circus. Somehow I don't think this is the stuff the inspires revolution, or even evolution. Sorry, this one is a loser.

Daniel Quinn's "BEYOND CIVILIZATION" is his latest work that deals with his theme of saving the world. Changing minds and walking away are the goals he emphasizes in this book of short essays. Each essay delivers a unique message which is designed to allow the reader to discover his/her own way of walking away from dragging the stones for civilization. For anyone who sees the problems modern civilization is causing the people of the world, everywhere, and wants to put an end to it, this book is definitely worth reading.

After reading Ishmael, one could only have high hopes for anything by Daniel Quinn. Beyond Civilization does not measure up to expectation. Quinn does a good job describing how we arrived at our current condition but fails utterly to paint a way out. Perhaps that is asking a bit much, but that is what "Beyond Civilization: Humanity's Next Great Adventure" promises but does not deliver. If anything, Quinn's "new tribalism" looks a lot like cooperatives from the 60s and 70s. The best examples he provides of a hopeful future is a traveling circus and embracing homelessness. I can hardly wait to explain to my children how the best hope is to run away and join the circus. Somehow I don't think this is the stuff the inspires revolution, or even evolution. Sorry, this one is a loser.

Daniel Quinn's "BEYOND CIVILIZATION" is his latest work that deals with his theme of saving the world. Changing minds and walking away are the goals he emphasizes in this book of short essays. Each essay delivers a unique message which is designed to allow the reader to discover his/her own way of walking away from dragging the stones for civilization. For anyone who sees the problems modern civilization is causing the people of the world, everywhere, and wants to put an end to it, this book is definitely worth reading.

Before reading this book you must be very open-minded to new ideas and reasoning. Daniel Quinn picks apart society and analyzes the people, cultures, and programs. The book has one idea per page and the order is very clustered. Some ideas I can see where he is coming from and others I can't comprehend its meaning. The books messages tend to pick on society and our wasteful use of biomass. Quinn believes that civilization will eventually be our downfall. He compares and contrasts the rise of our civilization to ancient civilizations such as the Mayas, Olmecs and Anasazis. Quinn also stresses Tribalism comparing it to circuses, gypsies, the bushmen of Africa. He even goes to the extent of comparing the homeless to a tribe because a tribe works for its people with no social classes. So ultimately he is suggesting that we go back to where we started and have no civilization at all. There is countless random points on things such as programs criticizing our society and I don't recommend this book to anyone.

Daniel Quinn has laid out the only reasonable solution to the seemingly impossible problem of an industrial/military domination of the planet. Using our inability to serve ourselves as the trap in which we seem to find ourselves, our servants are herding increasing portions of dependant mankind into the corral of mother culture. Becoming independent of the debilitating conveniences too readily provided, as individuals and as tribes, we can finally abandon a bad idea at its roots as exemplified by other civilizations whose machinery sits idle beneath jungle root and desert sand while their populations persist in more local organizations.

In my opinion, this book represents Quinn's best book. At the same time, it wouldn't work unless I had read his other books. Here Quinn more clearly states his ideas for a better world, one where hierarchy no longer exists. It offers suggestions for how this can come about. The alternative is to remain "pyriamid builders". I would recommend this book to anyone, but I would suggest reading Ishmael first so one understands some of the concepts Quinn is using here.

Beyond Civilization is a bit beyond me. This book was written by Daniel Quinn and is focused on humans and their interactions with mother nature. Daniel does bring up some good points about what we are doing to earth and how other societies have worked. It seems to me that Quinn has a problem with civilization. He thinks that this is outdated and we should go back to a simpler time. I also agree on this with him. I believe that we humans should stop overextending ourselves. But this book is just not that good. It starts too read like a science journal, like he is just jotting down notes and facts. This style of writing really turned me off. I believe that this book may be one of the worst that I have ever read. That is not to say that this book does not have a good message. Other people may like but this is just not my cup of tea. Which is why I cannot recommend this book to be read at all.

This is the greatest bathroom book ever written. Each page is a seperate heading, and though the whole thing flows as a book, you could tear the pages out and read each invidiually and learn something from each.
If you are sick of feeling like you are trapped in a civilization not of your making, and wonder if there is a way out: this is a road map.

Like all of his books, Daniel Quinn has forced me to consider the course of my life and of those around me. If you ever wondered if there was something better than wage slavery and an isolated, insecure existance, this books is for you. I have since persued ways of living outside wage slavery and have never been happier or more full of hope.
Also recommended: Limited Wants, Unlimited Means, ed. John Gowdy.

Mr. Quinn has, as have most Jeremiahs in earlier societies, engendered quite a lot of animosity for his calling out of our American (nee western) society as a 'taker society'. Here in Beyond Civilization Quinn puts his proverbial 'money' where his former books' mouths were and outlines what the hell we can do about the state of things we 'takers' have brought about. A good read, but not for those who are lazily comfortable living in 21st century America.

The fact that "Beyond Civilization" begins with a fable that captures the entire essence of what's wrong with our civilization is an absolute winner in my eyes.

I read this book with pleasure. Like Ishmael, Quinn's other winner, I could not help but experience the ambivalence of getting angry about our human backwardness, yet encouraged to keep myself from falling into the traps of "Mother Culture" and the thoughts of "old minds."

As a "new mind" I wrote two books: "The Awakened Leader: One Simple Leadership Style That Works Every Time, Everywhere," and "Spirituality in the Workplace: What it is; Why it Matters; How to Make it Work for You" (the last one co-authored with Dr. Satinder Dhiman and Dr. Richard King)

Both of these books present ways to apply wakefulness in our lives, and with that, make a positive difference for ourselves and others.

Beyond civilization is a great and inspiring reader, and so are "The Awakened Leader," and "Spirituality in the Workplace."

Daniel Quinn has conjured the nerve to say what must be said to turn this orb around. A lot of people may be offended by his books, but as a biologist, I can add one more vote for the validity of his theories - at least read Ishmael and this book, and then get to work on your plan. It's the only hope our species has.

Sorry I got my fill of all this anarcho-primitivist crap when I was an avid punk scenester. Sure let's all go live in subsistence communes while regressing away technology. Sounds wonderful ya'll. I am tired of hearing how this book changes people's lives. This old fart has to have some of the worse prose I have ever read.
Daniel Quinn a futurist? I bet Umberto Boccioni would roll over in his grave if he were ever hear that absurd claim.
Don't read this book, even if your girlfriend forces you too. Actually do read it in that case, so you can realize what a moron she is and then dump her.
Pure garbage...

This book explains how to enact the philosophy in Ishmael. If all the world could embrace this vision, we could save ourselves. This book is more important to have in your library than any other, except possibly Ishmael.

Daniel Quinn writes in his book "Beyond Civilization" about the destruction of civilization and how civilization could possibly destruct human kind. How can the master's tools dismantel the master's house? In fact civilization is just a tool and every tool can be misused causing it to malfunction and possibly do some serious damage. Daniel Quinn writes of how our society could move towards a new way of living. He gives ideas on how to discard that useless over used hammer and how to possibly make a more efficient maybe even less expensive tool. What are those ideas exactly? Personanlly it was difficult for me to follow every detail he included because of the format of the book. It seemed like a plain black and white answer would be on the next page but sure enough each time Quinn seems to be on some other indirectly related topic from what he first started out on. To understand this book and to benefit from it, the reader needs to understand that there are no plain black and white answers to our population problems, enviornmental neglect, social inefficiency, and overall worldwide despair. The purpose of this book is to better understand that to go beyond this civilization, what will eventually become our doom, we must all first better accept the human condition and not try to change it. Then we must learn how to bend with it's faults like a suspension bridge bends with an earthquake. Only then can we find ways to move beyond to mankind's next great invention, something beyond civilization.

In Daniel Quinn's, Beyond Civilization, the main idea is that which is stated in the title. This is a novel by a man who wishes to changed humanities everyday life. Quinn believes that civilization will lead to the destruction of mankind and that we should try to regress to an earlier time in human culture to prevent our planet from obliteration. One of the ways he suggests doing this is by people living in tribes, similar to that of the small circus. It would contain a small group of friends and family who rely on each other to survive without destroying the environment.

These ideas are all well and good but the fact is that most people, especially Americans, do not want to give up their luxuries and entertainment for the betterment of the world. I am one of them. I would not even consider putting down my x-box for the assurance of the survival of our planet. I am one of those stupid Americans who believe that "oh this will never happen anyway." I think Daniel Quinn presents a few decent ideas but the fact of the matter is that these ideas will probably always remain to be just that; ideas.

Since most of human evolution occurred while we lived in an environment that is closer to what Daniel Quinn describes than to a modern city, it is likely that many of us would feel more comfortable living in a simpler manner. Civilization, industrialization, computerization, etc. all create an 'un-natural environment'. Humans are designed to be quite flexible but some of us adapt better than others do to driving a car with a Global Positioning System-controlled voice that tells when to take a left and when to take a right in order to get to our destination.
If you don't like all this technology, then head for a small town and simpler times...and use this book as your guide.
For me, I love technology, I talk to my PC and he talks to me. I don't bother sorting my trash because I know that nanotechnology and robots will be going through our dumps in the next few decades and extracting all of the asbestos, mercury, lithium and other contamination that we all are dumping today.
The only real solutions to the problems created by technology have always been more technology. That is the way it has always been. If you want to move to the countryside and do primitive, you can get a monthly magazine from the city and watch how we do it, that is your choice.

Daniel Quinn really got me with this particular novel. Not only do you have to be very open-minded to even get a little bit out of the novel, you also have to be willing to take in new ideas about life. The organization of this book is very mind-boggling. Daniel Quinn's major point in this book in my opinion is our wasteful tactics on biomass. He feels as though civilization is what's going to break us. Quinn feels as though we should take several steps back and rethink the idea of civilization and whether or not we should have it at all. Daniel Quinn tended to be very random and off the wall with his thoughts making it very hard to comprehend what he was really talking about. Therefore I wouldn't really recommend this novel to anyone.