The line that struck me most was, "Men return to the knotting of rope in place of writing."
I think a lot about the compulsion to write; namely because I'm afflicted by it. It does seem to me that the urge to write—especially philosophically—comes from a place of unhappiness or distress. It's a subconsciously motivated drive to work out and analyze problems.
In this simple culture, the men can go back to peaceably "tending to their existences" rather than feeling the need to dissect and troubleshoot their experience.