What is human nature? Does it even exist? Undoubtedly there are many people out there who think that humans are naturally evil, and that equality for everyone, communism, anarchism, and so forth could never work. They make the factor of human nature bigger than it really is. Although a transformation to total altruism would be nice, socialists of all sorts have absolutely no plans to force it on anyone as hardcore libertarians would have you believe. Altruism is barely relevant to the formation of new societal and organizational structures and the development of new technologies which are required for communism to be achieved on a global scale. Such economics have more to do with producing an abundance of things, to generalize the plan, than they do with people’s attitudes.The people who automatically throw out the human nature argument have no knowledge of Marxist theory, but still want to feel as if they are contributing something intelligent to the debate. Unfortunately, it isn’t a sign of intelligence to robotically repeat an argument we are all familiar with due to the fact that it has been brought up billions of times. So now, in this video, I will bring it up again in order to neutralize it.
“…all history is nothing but a continuous transformation of human nature.” – Karl Marx
The famous philosopher John Locke once argued that humans are a blank slate and their so-called “nature,” their beliefs and desires, are instilled in them through their experiences in life. Basically, he said that people aren’t naturally anything. It’s simply monkey see, monkey do.
The way human beings view others is not the same in different societies. When humans were still tribal and living in the woods, we certainly didn’t have the same desires and outlooks which we have now. For example, John C. Cremony spent time with the Pima indigenous tribe in 1850. Because they were still living in tribes, obviously, these people lived in a different kind of society and were at a different stage of development than the white societies of today. Cremony noted that jealousy in relationships didn’t exist among tribe members. Jealousy, which is arguably an extension of competitive greed, is quite common in our modern, competitive, market society.
In the book Mutual Aid, by zoologist and evolutionary theorist Peter Kropotkin, it is also stated that the way people act towards each other depends on the economic structures in which they live. For example, when the traditional guild structures still existed people would look after the sick people who were poor. In modern times you are told to go to the nearest, cheapest medical establishment. In the South African tribal society of the Hottentots, people who had food would, of their own free will, see if others wanted to share it before they began eating. In modern capitalist society, you eat without sharing and shed no tears for those who are starving. Kropotkin also states that communal lands existed for thousands of years, and were a major part of human society, until the feudal rulers confiscated them. He continued by saying that the communal lands were always well taken care of when they weren’t under attack by the rich lords.
So Kropotkin was basically trying to argue that humans have an inclination to give each other mutual aid, that this is what helps the human race survive, and the given examples are reflections of that natural inclination. Based off of his research, one can safely conclude that human beings would naturally become more friendly and nice in a society with an organizational structure that promotes cooperation and mutual aid instead of competition and money-grubbing.
Another reason people might act a certain way which could fall under the category of man’s so-called “evil nature” is culture. Going back to the example of the Pima, the reason the jealousy situation was different for them is because their culture was very different from modern culture. However, it is important to note that culture changes with the economic structure of society, which is why, for example, a modern American would feel like a foreigner in his own country if he were transported back to the 1770’s. Pause here for a moment and seriously think about the differences between life in modern times and life over 200 years ago.
Here is an excerpt from an essay called Why Socialism by Albert Einstein, a man who needs no introduction and was far more intelligent than any capitalist who might disagree with him. The excerpt is entirely related to what I have been saying and what Locke and Marx said.
“Modern anthropology has taught us, through comparative investigation of so-called primitive cultures, that the social behavior of human beings may differ greatly, depending upon prevailing cultural patterns and the types of organization which predominate in society. It is on this that those who are striving to improve the lot of man may ground their hopes: human beings are not condemned, because of their biological constitution, to annihilate each other or to be at the mercy of a cruel, self-inflicted fate.”
He went on to say that: “Unlimited competition leads to a huge waste of labor, and to that crippling of the social consciousness of individuals which I mentioned before.
This crippling of individuals I consider the worst evil of capitalism. Our whole educational system suffers from this evil. An exaggerated competitive attitude is inculcated into the student, who is trained to worship acquisitive success as a preparation for his future career.
I am convinced there is only one way to eliminate these grave evils, namely through the establishment of a socialist economy, accompanied by an educational system which would be oriented toward social goals.”
In the pamphlet called The Soul of Man Under Socialism, the famous writer Oscar Wilde states that capitalism has destroyed individualism by causing people to confuse the individual with his property. He argued that man is simply living to collect more fancy things and not enjoying life.
“Indeed, so completely has man’s personality been absorbed by his possessions that the English law has always treated offences against a man’s property with far more severity than offences against his person,” said Wilde.
Wilde is certainly correct. Fake individualists, also known as capitalists, respect property rights more than human and civil rights, and care very little that their system would reduce workers to nothing more than consumers and objects controlled by their bosses. They seem to think freedom is somehow spawned solely from money and the amount of breathing room corporations have.
To finish, I would like to say that Taoism, an ancient Asian religion with over 200 million followers, believes that human beings are naturally good.
Sources:
“The Soul of Man Under Socialism” by Oscar Wilde.
“An Essay Concerning Human Understanding” by John Locke
http://www.marxists.org/archive/marx/works/1847/poverty-philosophy/ch02c.htm
http://www.hermitary.com/solitude/taoism.html
http://www.discoverseaz.com/History/Pimas.html
http://monthlyreview.org/598einstein.php
http://dwardmac.pitzer.edu/Anarchist_Archives/kropotkin/mutaidch7.html
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