The Fall

I reviewed Steve Taylor's interesting book on time 18 months ago. Here he has produced a major work that recasts the story of human social evolution. The main argument is that developed humanity has been suffering from a collective psychosis for 6,000 years, following serious drought in the Saharasia region that drove people out of their original habitat and led them to disturb and conquer other societies that had hitherto been living in harmony with nature and at peace among themselves. Psychologically, this shift was due to an 'ego explosion' producing a sense of psychic insecurity resulting in war, patriarchy, inequality, child oppression and alienation from nature (including the body and sexuality). It also produced spectacular technical advances, but based on a separation of head and heart. Taylor thinks that there are signs that we are emerging from this dark period into a 'trans-fall era' with a corresponding new psyche where ego-separateness is transcended: 'we will no longer be separate, and so we will no longer be afraid - afraid of death, afraid of the world, afraid of God, afraid of our own selves, afraid of other people. The disharmony of the human psyche will be healed, and the insanity to which it gave rise will fade away.' It is a powerful message and a beacon of hope in a world in which fear still rules supreme.