Higher pyramids, more power to the king, ever more gruesome gifts to the gods

Roger Sandall doesn't think highly of the Mayans, especially when compared to the ancient Greeks, and doesn't shed a tear for the collapse of their empire in Mexico. On one hand, I've never ascribed to the view of Mayan and Incan civilizations as peaceful, coca leaf chewin' paradises, where everyone got along to build wonderful temples (mysteriously, of course, they would never use slaves); never mind that virgin being led up the steps...

On the other hand, I'm not sure I agree with Sandall, who sounds like your basic Australian reactionary -- what is it about Australian art critics, who turn every analysis into political commentary? After all, whether this is the Mayans' fault or our own, we still don't know all that much about the level of self-awareness they held as compared with the Greeks.

But what struck me about his essay was this passage...

Even Ronald Wright in A Short History of Progress (2004) seems to agree. His disdainful view of civilization is not one I share, and is designed to serve a familiar agenda. He tells us for example that between the 8th and the 10th century AD, as things went wrong in Mayaland, and then got a whole lot worse, that the Maya solution “was higher pyramids, more power to the kings, harder work for the masses, more foreign wars. In modern terms, the Maya elite became extremists, or ultra-conservatives, squeezing the last drops of profit from nature and humanity.”

Alas for such speculations, this isn’t what happened at all. It is simply not the case that the Maya once lived in warm, loving, supportive communities, reciting nature poetry and drinking jasmine tea… and then somehow lost their way. Instead they were doing what bellicose tribal populations have always done—straining the carrying capacity of the land, warring with neighbours, and trying in grisly ways to appease their gods.

I had never thought of the 21st Century United States as a "bellicose tribal population" before. Higher pyramids. More power to the king. Harder work for the masses. More foreign wars. Trying in grisly ways to appease their gods.