“Gaia hypothesis”, or “Science of curse”

Abstract

The article is a review of the book by A. Etkind, which is based on the data of sociology, history, economics, political science and statistics: the author describes the relationship between raw materials and humankind to suggest a way out of the dramatic collision ( The Nature of Evil. Raw Materials and the State . Moscow: New Literary Review, 2023. 504 p.). The second edition of the book confirms the relevance of its agenda in the contemporary situation. The chronological framework of the book covers the history from antiquity to the present day: the author shows how the key raw materials changed from timber and grain in the past to oil and gas in the present, and how such changes affected not only tastes and lifestyle but also political systems and economic vectors, which, in turn, had the opposite effect on the choice of raw materials. The author argues that the desire to possess raw materials and the intensity of their extraction and processing determined the geopolitical interests of the states, led to wars and, ultimately, to new state borders. The author introduces the concept “addictivity of raw materials” in the life of the individual and societies, which implies an unjustified dependence on a certain type of raw materials (sugar, tobacco, opium or oil), and this dependence led to global disproportions and changed the ‘natural’ historical process.