Quotes from Richard Manning

What was invented with civilization was the ability of some to deny sensuality to others.

Famine was the mark of a maturing agricultural society, the very badge of civilization.

A thirty-two-ounce soda and a tank of gas is America distilled to its seminal fluids.

The British custom of taking tea as an afternoon break has more to do with sugar than with tea. During the nineteenth century, when the custom arose, it was something like the coffee break in modern workplaces, but not so leisurely: a chance to gulp a quick cup of tea, which was invariably laced with sugar. In this way were the human machines of the factory "nourished"—fueled—without even needing to leave their machines.

The predominant system of farming bolstered by all of this is accurately named industrial agriculture. It is capital-intensive, not labor-intensive, which largely explains the region's depopulation. Industrial agriculture considers the countryside as a factory.

We are beginning to understand that by the time the conquistadors struck the Andes or Custer reached the Black Hills of South Dakota, only shadow populations of natives remained. The Indian wars got the headlines, but they were mopping-up operations. The shock troops were diseases, especially smallpox, aided by weeds and a few other members of catastrophic agriculture's evolved coalition.