Chesterton had a way of cutting right to the point.

Davids Graeber and Wengrow are (were) two very smart and well-read anarchists, and their The Dawn of Everything: A New History of Humanity is certainly a feast. But it is also a reminder of the sheer mule-headedness of intellectuals as a class. This best-selling archeologist-anthropologist team write a book of nearly 700 pages, arguing that humanity is not fated to be slaves like us, that we can all possess the fundamental freedoms to travel, exit relationships, and not obey orders. They tell us much about the prehistory of Native Americans, Middle Easterners, Europeans, and Asians in the process, sometimes based on pretty thin evidence, and sometimes ignoring contrary evidence -- but still, fascinating stuff.

And how did their book come to press? Is Farrar, Straus and Giroux run on anarchistic lines? Or do the printer and the copy editor have to obey someone?

How do G and W get to work? Do they some days choose to drive on the right side of the road, and sometimes on the left? Do they slavishly obey traffic lights, set up by representatives of (western, patriarchal, Anglo-Saxon) authority?

Why do they teach at the London School of Economics or University College, London? Shouldn't they be living life to the fullest in the Amazon jungle? Do they feel free to cut and run in the middle of a class or semester? Do their eyes sparkle and their smiles widen when students refuse to study or turn in essays on time?

To paraphrase Chesterton, "If you would consult your work experience instead of your ugly anarchist philosophy, you would know that refusing to obey orders is one of the commonest signs of a loser."