Even in the least developed countries on earth life expectancy is nearly double the 26 years quoted in the article. This article feels less like serious analysis, and instead the product of over-problematizing
The article specifies "Life expectancy at birth", which, many people have pointed out, is strongly skewed by the number of kids that die in childbirth or at a very young age. I'd be much more interested in life expectancy for those who survive to, say, 15 or 18. Unfortunately, Diamond doesn't give those numbers.
Well, I see this as a fearful worldview. Imagine instead a world without working in an office, or a world without living in a city. It takes a little, but not much, imagination to understand how that might be attractive to someone. Or perhaps imagine living in your evolutionarily suited habitat, if that’s easier to see. Sure, the shitty lives are particularly violent. But it’s a world where your life is dictated by your relationship with your environment and the people you know, not by people far away you have no access to.
Imagine a world where you can’t get clean water so you live a life where a worm uses acid to dig it self out of your foot once every few months then you contract some tropical disease and shit yourself to death.
Imagination isn’t lacking you don’t need to imagine anything just look towards Africa, parts of Latin America, S.E. Asia and anywhere remote that gets hit by a natural disaster.
What I can say quite confidently is that you likely never had to go thirsty because you couldn’t risk drinking the water or contracted cholera, heck you likely never even got a bad case of food poisoning thanks modern sanitary regulation and functional infrastructure.
You never had to worry about if that insect bite laid larva under your skin or if the blistering rash you got on your leg is going to spread and imobalize you.
You live a cushy comfortable and safe life which is afforded to the vast majority of people who live in developed nations.
If you want to go back to huts and other “evolutionary compatible habitats” be my guest there are plenty of places on the planet that are a bad day away from being completely sent back to the Stone Age which you can relocate too, just don’t forget to get your shots, bring your monthly supply of soylent and fill your instagram with the experience to your hearts content.