On Wed, 17 Sep 2003, Luke Weiger wrote:
> People are naturally inclined (in the same sense that many species of
> monkeys are naturally inclined to swing through trees) to compete against,
> cooperate with, and come to (without any expectation of future
> reciprocation) the aid of one another in various social contexts. The
> challenge for those to the left of social democrats like me is to conceive
> of a social order that would provide for people better than Western European
> social democracy but would do so by relying solely on altruism and (probably
> predominantly) equally advantageous (or very nearly equally advantageous)
> cooperation. Such a conception, if it is to be actualized (I'm not sure it
> could be), would have to take human nature into account, and not merely hope
> that a new sort of man would be produced by altering relations of
> production.
>
> -- Luke
This assumes a "human nature" substrate or foundation upon which is political and social relations must be built. I think it's much more useful to take the (Marxist) view that human nature is a product of social relations, not simply a precondition for social relations. I make this claim not just because I'm an optimist about human potential but because research clearly demonstrates that humans adapt to and effectively function in a bewildering variety of social contexts, from hunting and gathering societies to "postindustrial" societies. For the most part, when people say "Given human nature, X is unrealistic" (X = socialism, world peace, eliminating poverty, whatever), it means that human nature as conceived and produced in a given society is inconsistent with X, not that X is beyond humans' capacity.
Miles