"This is mine"

I've been blogging off and on lately about the connections between evolution and our social and political life. It seems that recent research has pretty much busted the bubble of those who thought that people are blank slates on which society writes whatever it will.

If that idea was true, then it might follow that all our nasty traits are due to the corrupting influence of society and could be removed given a different environment. If, on the other hand, we carry a lot of evolutionary baggage from our pre-human ancestors, this might not be so easily done.

In a classic passage, the 18th century philosopher Jean Jacques Rousseau finds the source of human corruption in the primal sin of private property:

The first man who, having enclosed a piece of ground, bethought himself of saying 'This is mine,' and found people simple enough to believe him, was the real founder of civil society. From how many crimes, wars, and murders, from how many horrors and misfortunes might not any one have saved mankind, by pulling up the stakes, or filling up the ditch, and crying to his fellows: 'Beware of listening to this impostor; you are undone if you once forget that the fruits of the earth belong to us all, and the earth itself to nobody.'

Rousseau and others in this tradition believed that with a reorganized society, we might be free of this corruption and spare ourselves any number or crimes, wars and murders.

It can't be denied that greed for private wealth has caused all kinds of carnage. And it shouldn't be forgotten that people like Rousseau played an important role in opposing arbitrary tyranny and absolutism and making real social gains. But the utopian vision has run aground these days, and part of the problem might be the raw materials with which the reformer has to work.

DEATH OF A THOUSAND CUTS. Republicans plan to kill or weaken health care reform bit by bit if victorious in November.

HAIR OF THE DOG. This sampling from a new book looks at how right wing "philanthropy" helped pave the way for the Great Recession.

COLD COMFORT. Speaking of the Great Recession, the National Bureau of Economic Research said it officially ended in June 2009. Just not so's anyone could tell.

STEPPING UP. In this op-ed, a wealthy entrepreneur argues for ending Bush era tax cuts for wealthy Americans.

INDULGE ME. Longtime readers of Goat Rope will remember El Cabrero's fondness for the martial arts. Here's an interesting item from the Washington Post about how China's newly wealthy are hiring martial arts experts as bodyguards.

SOME BIRD. Imagine one with teeth and a 17 foot wingspan.

GOAT ROPE ADVISORY LEVEL: ELEVATED

Freedom and chains

"Man is born free; and everywhere he is in chains."

Those are the opening lines of The Social Contract, a very influential work by the 18th century philosopher Jean Jacques Rousseau (1712-1778).

Those words express a long held belief on the political left that attributes our unsavory characteristics--such as greed, lust for power, servility, etc.--to the corrupting influence of society. If that was the case, then presumably a new social environment would yield new and better people.

The radicals of the French Revolution tried to wipe the slate clean and create a republic of virtue. The Terror unleashed on their opponents was seen almost as a salutary public health measure which both educated the people and wiped out decadent aristocrats.

The Revolution at various points wanted not merely to change old laws but to remake the calendar, the system of weights and measures, and even replace the old religion with cults of Reason and the Supreme Being. The year 1789 became Year One; the months were renamed, the seven day week was replaced by "decades" of ten days. Most of those measures, with the exception of the metric system, didn't last too long.

Neither did liberty, equality and fraternity for that matter.

The history of that and other radical revolutions suggests that while society certainly can have a corrupting influence, the human animal has its own evolutionary baggage that may always be an obstacle to perfect social harmony. That doesn't excuse any particular social injustice and isn't an argument for not trying to improve things, as conservatives might argue. But it is something to keep in mind. One must work with the materials at hand.

SPEAKING OF EVOLUTION, a controversy over the origins of altruism is raging these days.

JOB CUTTING CEOS are doing just fine. That's a relief.

ONE IN SIX AMERICANS are relying on anti-poverty programs.

OLD OR NEW? This Gazette editorial argues that the Tea Party is just the latest example of an often repeated pattern.

GOAT ROPE ADVISORY LEVEL: ELEVATED