Berman focuses on the shift from Paleolithic Hunter-Gatherer society to Neolithic agricultural society. The Paleolithic mind had a horizontal outlook, attentive to appearances. The Neolithic outlook shifted to remote speculations. This shift involved many components - immediate return versus delayed return economies, for example. Delayed return comes with storage of food.

We are all Zoroastrian, that'd be another message here. Zoroastrians started the historical speculation of some future resolution of our present conficts.

Berman resists the temptation to prescribe a return to Hunter-Gatherer society as a panacea for our modern ills. He presents a nice outline of the Dominant Tradition, something like Plato's vision, with three Counter-Traditions, successively more radical.

He acknowledges that Zen Buddhism is a reasonable approximation of the most radical Counter-Tradition, but doesn't enter into any careful examination of e.g. Chinese or Japanese society and how Zen functions as a tradition in those. He does discuss the Mondragon collectives in Spain, but not in very great depth.

This book is a rich examination of the roots of our present crises, ecological, social, etc. It's not very optimistic... the structures that have brought us here are very deeply rooted. But still, by understanding how we got here, maybe that can reveal a crack in the wall.... ( )