Chris Ryan on Sex at Dawn and how civilisation is the heart of what's wrong with everything

Christopher Ryan is an American author best known for co-authoring the book Sex at Dawn. He received a B.A. in English and American literature in 1984, and an M.A. and Ph.D. in psychology from Saybrook University, an accredited hybrid low-residency/online learning program based in San Francisco, twenty years later. His master's thesis examined differences in specific personality measures between working fashion models and the general public. His doctoral dissertation analyzed the prehistoric roots of human sexuality, and was guided by the psychologist Stanley Krippner, a humanistic psychologist, with additional committee members Sabrina Zirkel and Jürgen W. Kremer.

 

 

 

 

Lyrics to the song that was inspired by the interview:

 CIVILISED TO DEATH

You've got emergency surgery and antibiotics 
Half your work done by a team of robotics 
Still you've confessed 
You're depressed 
And distressed 
and oppressed   
What's the matter with you? 

You can travel through the sky sitting down in a chair 
Get a drink, eat a meal and there's wifi up there 
But at the slightest delay 
You complain 
Like it's the end of the world 

So why aren't you happy now? 
Why aren't you in awe 
You've been civilised to death 

You've got your mother in a home, kids at childcare 
You're working 7 days a week just to keep them there 
You've been promised all your free time 
When you're retired 

You're the pyre for the fire of incessant growth 
Where any movement's advancement or progress or both 
Youe’re like a falling man 
Who insists he’s flying 

So why aren't you happy now? 
Why aren't you in awe 
You've been civilised to death 

How much time still to put in? 
Can't be long 'til you're retiring 
Scratching on the walls until your time is up 
One last sup at the poisoned cup 

Take me back 
To the simple life 
When we surrendered 
To being alive 

We lived by the ocean 
And drank from the stream 
In a world of abundance 
Our lives were a dream 

We had all we needed 
Happy in our tribe 
Surrounded by beauty 
That you can't describe 

The trees gave us everything 
We worshipped the sun 
Nature was all 
And we were as one