"Colonize - Destroy - Move on"
Hardin begins the chapter with historical precedents for ecological disasters. The ancient historican Herodotus, in the 5th century BC, reported that it was once possible to walk across what is the modern day Sahara Desert - Herodotus also promptly followed with the declaration that "Man stalks across the landscape, and deserts follow in his footsteps". In Will Durant's The Age of Faith (famous collection of the history of civilizations), a Samanid prince once identified four earthly paradises: the regions of Samarkand, southern persia, southern Iraq, and Damascus - none of which are typically associated with idyllic destinations today.
History is filled with countless other instances of ecological disasters following in the footsteps of man: Easter Island, Anasaz Indians, Mayans, etc. Many of these examples are very well brought up in Jared Diamond's book Collapse: How Societies Choose to Fail or Succeed
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The Idea of Progress
Hardin argues that there are three great historical paradigms.
1) The Golden Age Paradigm - "presumes a wonderful world that once was but never more shall be" (ala, Garden of Eden)
2) Endless Cycle Paradigm - "unremitting repetitions in history with little enduring advance" (nothing new under the sun syndrome)
(Both were passed down from ancient times, and are products of a society ruled by its elders - gerontocracy)
3) Progress - thrust into society's limelight by Marquis de Concorcet; firm belief in the unstoppable march of (material) progress - after all, society today is not referring to moral or spiritual progress, but it is firmly confined to material things
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