Agricultural Revolution is the biggest fraud in history of humans.

Agricultural Revolution is the biggest fraud in history of humans.

Some 10000 years ago, agricultural revolution happened which led to dramatic change on planet earth. Before that, humans were living as foragers for almost 2.5 million years.

This may come as a surprise but life then was much better compared to human life today. Let's have a look at working hours,

In developed countries: 40–45 hrs/week

In developing countries: 60–80 hrs/week

For Nomadic forager (even in most extreme places like deserts): 30–40 hrs/week

Hunting didn't used to take more than six hours a day for tribe. These people didn't had any household chores to do, so life just was about hunting, eating and relaxing. Of course, there were dangers from wild but they claimed far lesser lives compared to people dying today from road accidents. Ancient nomads were stronger and, in fact had larger brains compared to today's human.

So what made man leave forager's life and take up agriculture? Answer is,

The trap of luxury.

Let's go to point where man was having his first ever harvest. For him, agriculture meant more food, which in turn meant more luxury. But more food came at cost of efforts. Whenever he made effort he thought, “I am working hard now, but after harvest there will be no need to worry about lean years.” but more food, led to more population, leading to more efforts to meet everyone's needs. It is quite similar to today's man saying, “If I work hard, I’ll get more money and then everything will be okay.” But it's never okay. Along with money comes family, children and their needs which lead men to work even harder for money and this vicious cycle goes on and on.

Agriculture depends on seasonal variations. High uncertainties are involved in it. Seasons and rainfall cannot be always as per man's expectations. A bad year is bound to come. During such bad years, early nomadic man simply used to migrate to another area. But that was not case with farmers. Agriculture made man narrowly reliant on limited variety of crops like wheat, barley, maize etc., leading to low immunity, malnutrition and diseases. A single famine began to wipe out millions of lives due to starvation as man forgot to thrive on any other kind of diet. As a result man began to constantly worry about future. (note that Agriculture brought in worries too). Worries made him produce more and store in surplus. These surpluses led to rise politics and elitism (small amount of people having large amount of affluence).

This also made tribal wars bloodier. Earlier tribes if subjugated by another, simply used to move to new turf, new land. There was nothing to lose. But agriculture made humans settle at a place. Invasion meant loss of hard earned harvest stored in quantity enough for year, so humans began to put up bitter fights till death.

Those who wanted to stay foragers were also pulled into this trap. They were outnumbered by farmers. They had to either leave their hunting ground, area of which was decreasing due to increased farming, or join the farmers.

Once this revolution turned its wheels, there was no going back. Population increased on such scale, that there was no way of complex farming societies returning to their original lifestyle.

Today's life may be better than those farmers' but still majority of human population is trapped in this cycle of “more effort, more money” toiling for their whole lives, either in farms or in corporate. Ask yourself if you are satisfied with your current work. Majority will not be able to answer positively. Agriculture simply took out the ease out of human life..

Reference:

• Sapiens, A brief history of Humankind by Yuval Noah Harari.
• Rich Dad Poor Dad by Robert Kiyosaki