Surplus Is Not Neutral
Fire made us stay. Fermentation made us wait. Grain made us count. And once you count, someone keeps score. Once someone keeps score, someone argues about the scoreboard. That is when civilization becomes competitive.
Roasted meat disappears. Grain accumulates. That single difference reorganized human psychology.
Grain can be stored for years, measured in standardized units, guarded behind walls, taxed in predictable increments, and redistributed strategically. You cannot hoard a deer. You can hoard wheat. And when something can be hoarded, it can be leveraged.
James C. Scott (political theorist and author of Against the Grain) argues that early states depended on making populations “legible.”¹ Legible means countable. Countable means taxable. Taxable means controllable.
• Early states relied on cereal crops because they were visible, divisible, and taxable¹
• Grain storage enabled durable taxation systems¹
Surplus is not food. It is leverage. And leverage always finds a hand.
Counting Changes the Mood
In small forager bands of roughly 25–50 individuals², fairness is visible. You see who carved. You see who received. In a nation of roughly 333 million, fairness becomes statistical.
Statistics do not regulate nervous systems. Visible carving does.
George Carlin (stand-up comedian and social critic) said, “It’s called the American Dream because you have to be asleep to believe it.”³ The line lands because when the carving looks unfair, people start waking up.
• Mid-20th century CEO-to-worker pay ratio: ~20:1⁴
• Recent decades: ratios exceeding 300:1⁴
When surplus was grain, you saw the silo. When surplus is abstract capital, you see a number that requires a calculator and mild dissociation.
The Feast Is Theater
The feast looks generous. It is choreography.
Someone sits at the head. Someone carves. Someone distributes. Someone receives. The ritual matters as much as the calories.
Bruce Springsteen (musician chronicling working-class America) sang, “Everybody’s got a hungry heart.”⁵ Hunger is not only metabolic. It is comparative. It asks whether the knife divided fairly.
Sam Harris (philosopher focused on moral reasoning) writes, “A shared reality is the basis of cooperation.”⁶ If we cannot agree on how the bread was divided, cooperation collapses—not ideologically, but physiologically.
Wanda Sykes (comedian known for political sharpness) once said, “If you can’t say something nice, say it in a funny way.”⁷ The feast does the same thing. It wraps hierarchy in ritual so people can swallow it.
Beer Softens the Edges
Archaeological evidence suggests communal brewing tied to ritual gatherings⁸. Alcohol reduces inhibition. Inhibition reduction increases bonding. Bonding stabilizes hierarchy.
• Evidence of communal fermentation at early ritual sites⁸
• Alcohol consumption increases perceived social bonding
José Andrés (chef and humanitarian) has said, “Food is not just about eating energy. It’s about feeding community.”⁹ He builds kitchens first in disaster zones, because visible distribution restores order.
The feast is not indulgence. It is legitimacy rehearsal.
Surplus and Anxiety
When surplus becomes opaque, anxiety follows.
• Trust in U.S. federal government: ~20%¹⁰
• Adults reporting frequent loneliness: ~1 in 2¹¹
• Average adult screen time: >7 hours per day¹²
Acceleration increases comparison. Comparison increases threat perception. Threat perception increases cortisol. Cortisol destabilizes cooperation.
Maria Bamford (comedian who openly discusses anxiety) joked, “My anxiety has anxiety.”¹³ Modern surplus has anxiety about surplus. When inequality becomes opaque, people assume the worst.
John Mulaney (comedian known for observational absurdity) said, “I don’t look older, I just look worse.”¹⁴ Systems age like that. Not dramatic collapse. Gradual erosion. You do not notice until something snaps.
Structure, Improvisation, Fragility
Improvisation works only because invisible rules are honored.
Jerry Garcia (lead guitarist of the Grateful Dead) once said, “You don’t want to be the best at what you do. You want to be the only one who does what you do.”¹⁵ Freedom rests on shared structure. Governance works the same way.
Paul Bowles (novelist exploring civilizational fragility) wrote, “Because we don’t know when we will die, we get to think of life as an inexhaustible well.”¹⁶ Civilization feels permanent. It is not.
• Agricultural labor force in U.S.: <2%¹⁸
• Ultra-processed calories in U.S. diet: ~57–60%¹⁷
Most people do not see the grain. Most people do not see the carving. They see outcomes. And outcomes feel personal.
The Uncomfortable Question
What happens when the storehouse becomes digital? When distribution becomes algorithmic? When ritual becomes earnings calls?
• CEO-to-worker compensation ratio: >300:1⁴
• Ultra-processed calories in U.S. diet: ~57–60%¹⁷
• Agricultural labor force in U.S.: <2%¹⁸
If surplus becomes invisible, what replaces the feast?
When the scoreboard disappears, people do not become immoral. They become suspicious. Suspicion spreads faster than grain ever did. Suspicion does not build civilizations. It erodes them.
This is Part III of a four-part series
Fire made us stay. Bread made us trust what we could not see. Surplus made us compare. Part IV is preservation—salt, time, and what happens when stability feels temporary.
If you are in Boulder, stop by. I do not have a storehouse. But I have cookies. And at least you can watch me hand you one.
Footnotes
- Scott, James C. Against the Grain: A Deep History of the Earliest States. Yale University Press, 2017, pp. 121–145.
- Kelly, Robert L. The Foraging Spectrum. Smithsonian Institution Press, 1995, pp. 102–108.
- Carlin, George. Stand-up recordings and televised specials.
- Economic Policy Institute. “CEO Compensation Report.” 2022, p. 3.
- Springsteen, Bruce. “Hungry Heart.” 1980.
- Harris, Sam. The Moral Landscape. Free Press, 2010, p. 57.
- Sykes, Wanda. Stand-up material.
- Liu, Li et al. “Ritual Brewing at Early Neolithic Sites.” Journal of Archaeological Science, 2018.
- Andrés, José. We Fed an Island. Ecco, 2018, p. 45.
- Gallup. “Trust in Government.” 2023.
- U.S. Surgeon General. Advisory on Loneliness and Isolation. 2023, p. 7.
- Nielsen. Total Audience Report. 2022, pp. 14–18.
- Bamford, Maria. Stand-up recordings.
- Mulaney, John. Stand-up recordings.
- Garcia, Jerry. Rolling Stone interview, 1995.
- Bowles, Paul. The Sheltering Sky. 1949, p. 249.
- Monteiro, Carlos A., et al. “Ultra-Processed Foods.” Public Health Nutrition, 2019, pp. 936–941.
- USDA Economic Research Service. Agricultural Labor Data, 2023.
