Journal Entry: Reading Reflection 3 (MDS3001W)

1. What is the main idea, or theme, of the essay?
2. Which passage(s) did you like especially, or that really captured the author's intent?
3. How does the main idea of the essay relate to the History and Social Science area?
4. Which course from the U of M catalogue relates to the essay and the History and Social Science area?

The main idea of Jared Diamond's essay, "The Ends of the World as We Know Them,” is that Americans need to reflect, and to change our behavior. “Such questions seem especially appropriate this year.” Diamond writes early in the essay. “History warns us that when once-powerful societies collapse, they tend to do so quickly and unexpectedly.” But Diamond is not all doom and gloom. By the end, he concludes that “To save ourselves we don't need new technology: we just need to political will to face up to our problems of population and the environment.” While I would argue that the word “just” might tend to minimize the scale of the task of creating the “political will to face up to our problems of population and the environment,” his point remains fundamental: it is well within humanity's current power to substantially stop and reverse most if not all of the alarming trends described by Diamond and many other authors.
This essay is one of the most direct examples of the idea that if we don't know our history we are doomed to repeat it. By looking at the trajectory of many past civilizations and comparing them to our own, Diamond helps us understand the situation and the decisions we face. POL 3477 – Political Development, HIST 1017 – Origins: Global Societies, and POL 1905 – Freshman Seminar have all used Diamond's other well-known book, Guns, Germs, and Steel. I fitting class to use this essay might include ANTH 4069 – Environmental Archaeology, or a directed or independent study class in history, anthropology or geography, among others.