[lbo-talk] RE: Film Notes

[Dennis Perrin]

> Man, I thought Justin just went over this.  If by "human nature"
> you mean some biological or genetic imperative, Luke and Woj's
> claim here is nonsensical.  One more time: any genetic or
> biological factors must be expressed in an environmental
> context.  There is no way to "strip away" the environment
> to assess the pure, isolated genetic effect.
> Thus to make the claim that X is "natural" or
> "inevitable", independent of environmental conditions, demonstrates
> a (willful?) ignorance of what has been learned about genetics and
> biology.
>
> Miles

This is microbe-splitting. We're talking about "human nature" as expressed
in a human environment (at least I was). Joanna appears to believe that
competition is a creation of capitalism (that's the drift I'm getting), and
clearly this isn't the case -- lacrosse, the "Creator's Game," was played by
the Creek, Choctaw and Iroquois. Tribes competed on incredibly large fields,
and games could last for days. The contests, oftentimes used as preparation
for war or as a means to settle land disputes, resulted in massive injuries
and at times death. I would view this as a form of competition, but I
wouldn't say that the Iroquois were free marketers.

DP