I've lately come to the conclusion that the human race was f****d the moment it transitioned away from small tribal bands of, say, no more than a 150 people (Dunbar's number).
In such a group, a natural kind of socialism existed because everyone was dependent on the well-being of everyone else for survival. It didn't matter if you didn't like the guy who lived three huts down -- his contribution to the group was critical to your own survival. Thus you willingly preserved and shared with him his allotment of the common resources and even tended to him when he was injured or ill.
But in a society made up of hundreds of millions, or even billions, of souls, the concept of doing things for the "common good" becomes a meaningless abstraction in the minds of many people who, quite naturally, only care about looking out for "them and their own."
Certainly, genuine altruists exist, but they can't enforce their will on other people without themselves turning into fascists.
(Actually, considering all the contradictions in values and fragmentation of belief that exists in this country, it's rather amazing that it's as functional as it is, but I digress.)
And I can't really see how peaceful anarchy would work, given the size of the human population and the presence of so many selfish, sadistic, deluded and pathologically-disordered souls.
So I've basically concluded that our only hope is for some giant meteorite or supervirus to wipe out, like, 90% of the human population, and for us to start over, from scratch.
Thoughts?
In such a group, a natural kind of socialism existed because everyone was dependent on the well-being of everyone else for survival. It didn't matter if you didn't like the guy who lived three huts down -- his contribution to the group was critical to your own survival. Thus you willingly preserved and shared with him his allotment of the common resources and even tended to him when he was injured or ill.
But in a society made up of hundreds of millions, or even billions, of souls, the concept of doing things for the "common good" becomes a meaningless abstraction in the minds of many people who, quite naturally, only care about looking out for "them and their own."
Certainly, genuine altruists exist, but they can't enforce their will on other people without themselves turning into fascists.
(Actually, considering all the contradictions in values and fragmentation of belief that exists in this country, it's rather amazing that it's as functional as it is, but I digress.)
And I can't really see how peaceful anarchy would work, given the size of the human population and the presence of so many selfish, sadistic, deluded and pathologically-disordered souls.
So I've basically concluded that our only hope is for some giant meteorite or supervirus to wipe out, like, 90% of the human population, and for us to start over, from scratch.
Thoughts?
