What Is to Be Done? is yet another book of selections from Ranko Bon’s vast Residua, which has been available on the World Wide Web since 2000 (www.residua.org). According to the author, it now counts about three-million words. This selection is dedicated to James Lovelock of Gaia fame. The author follows this student of planet earth of world renown, who claims that only about a twentieth of the human species will survive the ravages of climate change. However, he provides a glimpse of how the collapse of our civilization will look in socio-economic terms. According to the author, we will go backwards from capitalism to feudalism to slavery to hunting and gathering. This is where the road will eventually end for a considerable time, and the human species will find itself in a world that suits it perfectly one more time. Tribal life will flourish once again. The main message of the book is that the road to what the author calls posthistory will be horrendous, but that the destination will be most delightful. Prehistory is the cradle of the human species, and it is thus forever welcoming. On account of its mind-boggling conclusions and its punchy style, the book is a small marvel.

From Dario Dandolo’s “Posthistory for Beginners,” De natura verbalis, Vol. XXXII, No. 4, Winter 2014, p. 1021 (in Italian).