On Tue, 22 Jan 2002, Doug Henwood wrote:
> Engels' reasoning seems less than sound here - why isn't it likely
> that the irrational religious beliefs are what keep the community
> together, and make their collectivism possible? Similarly, it's
> likely that the hunter-gatherers, so revered by many, were able to
> live their peaceful collective lives precisely because they didn't
> engage in production on anything but the smallest scale. Pointing to
> these models doesn't really offer much to the present and future,
> unless we all want to become millennarians and/or don skins.
>
> Doug
The lesson that I draw from these examples is not "this is how we should be". Rather, they are very clear refutations of the repeated claim that human nature is by nature acquisitive and selfish. Whatever human nature is, it's plastic enough to allow people to participate in a variety of economic systems, ranging from communal hunting & gathering to industrial capitalism.
Maybe I'm just naive, but this gives me hope that we're capable of something better than we have.
Miles