Agriculture was certainly the first of humanity's ill-fated choices.

Sugar, in all it's forms, is the most efficient supplier of energy to biological systems.  It underlies the fermentation process that creates both beer and bread.  Elephants, giraffes, many mammals have learned, without understanding the chemistry behind it, that eating fermented fruits yields mind-bending results. 

Eventually humans learned to harness the power of this process,  cultivating the yeast and feeding it appropriate sugars to produce a desired result.  Religions formed around this new technology.

Malts and grains will eventually give you a drinkable beverage.  Emulsified wheat grains, finely ground and quickly cooked will give you bread.  This is foundational to early civilizations.  It allowed groups to travel far distances and preserved larger communities during times of environmental distress.

Its worth noting that on numerous occasions, Elephants in India and elsewhere have raided villages in pursuit of fermented fruit.  It's likely they can smell it.  They know what it's like to consume that devil's nectar; it's awesome.  It's also scary contemplating the requirements of navigating a drunk, rampaging elephant.

Elephants are one of the more intelligent and empathetic creatures on the planet.  Sadly, they've long been chained to spikes solely for the entertainment of an animal that would never win a one-on-one fight with one, even with a typical gun.

Even more sadly, higher-caliber guns were created solely for the purpose of killing this majestic symbol of care and compassion.

Thomas Hobbes, a British philosopher, well captured the capitular reason humanity builds civilization rather than simply living governance-free in nature.  The state of nature is war of all against all.  It is violent and unpredictable.

It is the promotion of chaos over order.

The Leviathan was a mythical sea beast that attacked human societies.  In various forms it appears in the texts of Judaism, Christianity and Islam.  It attacked sea-side villages and required an organized group effort to defeat.

Violent victory does not equate to truth.  Might does not make right, sometimes might doesn't even win.

A well organized system is superior to one in chaos.

Organized human systems defeat the Leviathan.  Disparate, disorganized human systems die.