John Scalzi, Peasant Farmer

Yet another reason to like John Scalzi: His current post on what he would be if he had lived during the "dark ages."

From his rejection of that silly, biased term to his acknowledgment that he, like most of us, would have been a peasant farmer if he'd lived in the 11th century (and that he'd likely be dead at his current age of 41), it was a big old splash of cold water on all the people who think they would have been royalty.

Not that many of those people read his blog anyway, but still. Scalzi fights the good fight.

His post reminded me of the Jared Diamond article The Worst Mistake in the History of the Human Race, which held that the invention of agriculture did a lot more harm than good to the average person. Shocking though that argument is to those of us who live in an agricultural world, I find it hard to argue with.