by stevenc » Sun Jun 17, 2007 06:28:47 PM
Okeh...going back to the most recent post from "Correll & Gosden"...
First, to comment specifically on what I was more-or-less personally asked about:
Yes, I said...and I believe...that both competition and co-operation are basic "givens" for Homo Sapiens...and, in this XXI Jahrhundert, the former quality has become the most dominant one, at the expense of the latter! However, to reiterate what I first said, we humans HAD to co-operate, both as prey and as predators! One hapless single (proto?)-human...with no talons, no fangs, no built-in (on?) armour, and so on, stood little chance in eating any sort of large prey...or BEING eaten by large predators. What we DID have, though, was our ability to form temporary collective groups...as well as the intelligence, and communication abilities...to either bring down larger prey or to battle larger and more fearsome predators!
Of course, this concept rather disabuses the
Ayn-Randian "Collective=Evil" idea...!
Now...to comment on the rest of C&G's lengthy missive...
As humans (by then, "Homo Sapiens") evolved from wandering bands of hunter-gatherers into what we (erroneously or not...?!) call "civilized life," we began gathering at/into larger groups, and establishing more permanent communities (which became villages, then towns, the cities, and so on...) it became clear to these humans that, first, there had to be some control over human behaviour for such communities to successfully survive...and, second, there had to be some sort of enforced co-operation so that necessary amenities (either physical entities or services) could be provided to these communities as they became necessary.
This, in turn, led to two things! The first was the concept of some sort of leadership, either internally selected or externally imposed. Now, our hunter/gatherer ancestors had always had the loose concept of "leader," in such forms as a tribal chieftain...who, if nothing else, could impose a course of action if the tribe didn't/couldn't...! So, our barely-historic ancestors experimented with various ways of selecting a "leader" (often a
complicated hierarchy of them)...and we had chiefs, mayors, kings, tsars...along with their retinue of various sub-whatevers...
This, in turn, has evolved into a half-vast throng of various sysyems of administration, which operate with various degrees of efficiency, fairness, usw.
The second result of our "civilizin'" was the creation of a "priesthood" (again, based on items in our hunter/gatherer packs) and, by extension, another outside-imposed set of rules and regulations about our behaviour, intended to improve the chances of our species' survival...this time from "God" (or however this external supreme being is to be referred). Oddly enough, these are credited to different sources...but on the other hand are remarkably similar...so I leave it to our listeners from whence these came...and how!
Final comment: although the degree to which we endorse, or even agree with, the concept of a "government" varies widely...it is still a (very simple) fact that NO gathering/group of humans has ever successfully survived without one!
Imagine living in a community where "your property" (real estate, goods, mate, children, cat, usw...) remained "yours" until some larger/stronger/better organized opponent or group thereof forcibly took it from you...and your only option was to recover it by force! Imagine a community where roads had to be built by those who wanted them badly enough to co-operate long enough to construct them (in spite of those who DIDN'T want the road, and strove physically to prevent it...)...a community in which fire-fighting only existed when enough individuals decided "We better go stop Joe Gabroni's house from burning down, eh?!"
THIS is why governments exist...and, by extension, since providing these necessary services costs money...why taxes exist!
In the very earliest days of Canada, those whose land abutted "Concession Roads" were expected to provide a specified amount of labour toward clearing those road allowances! In fact, municipal sidewalks are still paid for in a similar way (except if the sidewalk runs across your lot, you pay in money rather than by shovelling or pouring concrete...)
Now, consider the "four-nothin'-one"...and imagine trying to build that by having every person whose land abuts its path show up, shovel in hand...?!
Na und?!
Steven C. Barr