“You know what they say about human nature”
Frequently, when I discuss anarchism, veganism, environmental responsibility, or almost anything which challenges the status quo, people claim that my goals are impossibly idealistic; that they ignore "human nature": that people are selfish, greedy, fearful beings who need to be controlled, or something like that. Well, I've got a few things to say to ya.
When the question of human nature comes up, people always point to the history books to prove that all humans do is fight, command, obey, repeat. Before we look at those books, let's look at history itself: when people say history, which history do they mean? Time and space are both so vast that no one could possibly record either in full, therefore all records are snapshots; specific selections. Someone could just as well write a history book of children's games, kisses, and picnics… and proportionately speaking, these things take up a much greater part of human history than anything we read in the average history book.
Today's world is defined by hierarchy and coercion, and as such it only follows that the history we choose to tell is that of hierarchy and coercion: contests for economic and political power, books of laws and philosophical rationalizing, the trivia of "great men". Despite this, most of human history wasn't spent at D-day or the Battle of Hastings. Most of the time, humans were, and still are (any time the boss isn't watching), just preparing food, flirting, daydreaming, playing, or working on projects cooperatively. Times when slavemasters seized power and coerced masses of people have been the exceptions, even though western civilization has unfortunately seen more of these than usual.
It's important to remember that our species has been around for hundreds of thousands of years, but the kind of power and social control we see today is only a few thousand years old, and it's only become globalized in the past few hundred years. The human race has been around for over a million years, but centralized power and war have only existed for less than ten thousand years. In that period of time, only a small number of human communities have been as coercive and warlike as ours. Even today, only a small part of human interactions consists of this violence and subservience. And so, on every level, fighting, commanding, and obeying comprise maybe one percent of human history. What about games, kissing, and picnics? Aren't they the heritage of our species, representative of our "nature" if anything is?
Humans have been around for a while. Throughout this time, there have been examples of people doing almost any kind of thing physically possible you can imagine. It's foolish to claim that humans can't cooperate and live lives that make sense when it's happened so many times already. It's also foolish to think that humans can't do horrible things. Just look around you. When it comes down to it, we can do just about anything we imagine, so we might as well dream big and live our lives in the ways that make most sense.
When the question of human nature comes up, people always point to the history books to prove that all humans do is fight, command, obey, repeat. Before we look at those books, let's look at history itself: when people say history, which history do they mean? Time and space are both so vast that no one could possibly record either in full, therefore all records are snapshots; specific selections. Someone could just as well write a history book of children's games, kisses, and picnics… and proportionately speaking, these things take up a much greater part of human history than anything we read in the average history book.
Today's world is defined by hierarchy and coercion, and as such it only follows that the history we choose to tell is that of hierarchy and coercion: contests for economic and political power, books of laws and philosophical rationalizing, the trivia of "great men". Despite this, most of human history wasn't spent at D-day or the Battle of Hastings. Most of the time, humans were, and still are (any time the boss isn't watching), just preparing food, flirting, daydreaming, playing, or working on projects cooperatively. Times when slavemasters seized power and coerced masses of people have been the exceptions, even though western civilization has unfortunately seen more of these than usual.
It's important to remember that our species has been around for hundreds of thousands of years, but the kind of power and social control we see today is only a few thousand years old, and it's only become globalized in the past few hundred years. The human race has been around for over a million years, but centralized power and war have only existed for less than ten thousand years. In that period of time, only a small number of human communities have been as coercive and warlike as ours. Even today, only a small part of human interactions consists of this violence and subservience. And so, on every level, fighting, commanding, and obeying comprise maybe one percent of human history. What about games, kissing, and picnics? Aren't they the heritage of our species, representative of our "nature" if anything is?
Humans have been around for a while. Throughout this time, there have been examples of people doing almost any kind of thing physically possible you can imagine. It's foolish to claim that humans can't cooperate and live lives that make sense when it's happened so many times already. It's also foolish to think that humans can't do horrible things. Just look around you. When it comes down to it, we can do just about anything we imagine, so we might as well dream big and live our lives in the ways that make most sense.