> We are blissfully unaware that a few short centuries ago people often behaved in much more depraved ways as soon as they were far enough away from the tenuous rule of law.

What makes you think this is true? I have plenty of experience of people who play very nicely with each other, even when they are for all practical purposes not bound by law to.

> why it took us a hundred thousand years to escape a subsistence lifestyle

You use the word "escape" as though we are universally better off now than when we spent a few hours a day foraging. Do you have evidence for this? What if people preferred to live their lives the way they did -- much like, I suppose, you prefer to live life the way you do?

(No doubt do many people now have it better than many people then, but it sounds like you're asserting that the opposite is not the case too.)