The experience of scarcity

"In the Old Testament, memory and praise are the components of what we call "thanksgiving." Memory links the present to the past, and the deliberate recall and recounting of past benefits is itself a form of gratitude. Civilization, and culture generally, require memory and tradition. The latter (literally, from the Latin, "a handing on") means a kind of gift, from what has been learned through experience, from the past to the present. The society that now accepts the gift is therefore "grateful" to the past. And rejecting the past may be considered an act of "ingratitude."" (The Gift of Thanks, Margaret Visser, 2008; page 309). 

As gratitude is the first step to reciprocation, so memory and invocation is the first step to gratitude. This ceremonial invocation is one of the functions of miqdash, and one of the essential ingredients of shabbos. 

Remembrance and the invocation of past kindnesses is a luxury of abundance. The experience of scarcity, especially when the scarcity is prolonged, strips away the habit of memory and sets the stage for a society more brutish and coarse, less civilized, and resembling less the civilized, human traits in us and more our natural, animal-like traits.