You need to read "The Dawn of Everything" by David Graeber and David Wengrow. It details exactly that; thousands of years of human history, many different nations and tribes, all understanding the idea of balance and egalitarianism. The reason why ancients didn't go on the path of our economic growth and industrialisation, the authors say, isn't because they were primitive and stupid, as practically all history textbooks treat them, but because they exactly understood it is a trap. They were biologically as modern as we are today, there is no reason to believe they weren't able to figure it out. Read it and blog about it. I'd be happy to hear your reaction. To me, it completely blew me away with its conclusions.