Massive self-aggrandizing factual error in the third paragraph: It's a life that philosophers have traditionally regarded as nasty, brutish, and short. Um, Jean Jacques Rousseau? Noble Savage? Only a few decades after Hobbes? It may not be relevant to the case being made here, but come on . I remember writing "compare and contrast" papers on Hobbes and Rousseau in high school.
Yes, the basic idea has been re-hashed endlessly: http://www.thecourier.com/manifest.htm It sort of bothers me that this is getting upmodded--not because it's off-topic, but because it's so painfully banal--every high schooler has already thought these things through completely, just like this: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=42398
I didn't see the article as a manifesto against industrialism, despite the sensationalist title. Jared Diamond is a researcher, after all - I just found it informative to learn something about ancient societies, without jumping to conclusions from that.