A long, fascinating review of a book on what was perhaps the most horrible “civilization” in history.

This thought experiment has stuck with me ever since I read it. I think of it whenever I encounter a system that everybody hates but everybody is powerless to change, or some other stuck equilbrium or multipolar trap. When I first read it, the society he described sounded contrived and outlandish, but later I was to learn from my dear wife that the real world is far more outlandish than that thought experiment. The thing is that each of the societies chronicled in that book Jane reviewed is very small, very primitive, and very dysfunctional. What is so disturbing about the Mexica is that they were large, sophisticated, and oh-so-terribly functional. The streets of Tenochtitlan, as my elementary school textbooks told me, were wider and more beautiful than those of Paris or Seville. Their art, music, and poetry were sublime, their theology was subtle, and their intellectual life was vibrant. The Mexica would seem horrifying to us if they were barbarians. But I think they should be more horrifying precisely because they were not.

I knew they were awful, but hadn’t realized the extent of their cruelty. And the comparison with the Holocaust seems apt, except this was not just against a few disfavored groups, but all of society. It’s not clear whether that’s better, or worse.