Brilliant essay. But we might have been more human when we were actually primitive (hunter-gatherers). Thorstein Veblen (of Theory of the Leisure Class and early ecological thinking fame) maintained progress is not a linear system, but a continuum, Falling back into barbarism is especially prevalent in our "predatory" political economy. This might interest you: http://www.paecon.net/PAEReview/issue102/Daneke102.pdf