>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.
Yup, in the sense that we're greedy pricks by nature. But we're also products of the society that made us, and the society we live in has made lots of us greedy pricks a lot of the time. So while capitalism has given us the material base for a better society, psychosocially the mission's a bit more complicated.
Doug