Human nature at root is what we are -- what it means to be human, if anything. Human nature is an old idea, once humanity began to get a sense of itself, beginning with early philosophy.
The oldest view of human nature is a negative view of humanity. It holds that we are basically savage animals, would-be murderers -- evil, flawed beings. At first glance, there is much to support this notion, which has been most strenuously asserted in the idea of Original Sin, a Christian idea.
Original Sin holds that every human is born with sin, which is synonymous with evil. The only way to salvation is through obedience to Christian dogma, which is then supposed to wash you of this Original Sin and let you begin a newer, fuller life as a servant of God.
The notion of Original Sin keeps to a resoundingly negative view of human nature. Think about it -- religious stalwarts hold that babies are somehow born sinners! Now, I don't know about you, but I have never seen an evil baby! So right away there's a question as to where this apparent evil comes from -- is it intrinsic, as the faithful would have you believe, or is it learned, or perhaps both?
To me, what we consider evil is a learned behavior -- it comes about from a bad upbringing and bad life experiences which teach the would-be offender that a given behavior will bring them rewards.
An example would be the schoolyard bully -- they learn that if they physically threaten others, they can gain from this, whether in the form of lunch money or whatever. Doubtless this lesson was drummed into the child by one or both of their parents. Primate see, primate do.
This is why child abusers tend to themselves come from abusive homes -- the behavior is learned, and thereby passed along from generation to generation. Most cycles of abuse come from abusive environments, rather than some intrinsic evil (Original Sin). People learn to be "bad," rather than being intrinsically evil.
Related to the idea of intrinsic human evil is the idea that human nature is somehow static -- that people are born bad and will always remain that way. A static, negative view of human nature is the foundation for all the major political ideologies in our society today. All of the systems at heart view us as would-be monsters held in check only by the power of the State. This is the underlying attitude of all authoritarian systems.
Law is supposed to be the force which provides this protection. Now, the people who tend to have this negative view of humanity almost always apply it externally -- that is, they say that people are bad or crazy or foolish, but when you ask them if they are evil or insane or stupid, they will disagree. They're okay -- it's just everyone else who's screwed.
When you stop to think about it, you realize that this is a dodge -- if people are as evil as we're led to believe we are, then you'd think we'd see a lot more wickedness than we do. How many rapists, murderers, or molesters do you know personally? Are we each a potential serial killer, or are these people exceptions?
What you find borne out statistically is personal crimes are exceptional instances -- hardly commonplace events. Moreover, you find that in the majority of cases, when people become rapists or serial murderers or molestors (the groups of criminals which people generally associate with human evil), you find that they grew up in a bad environment which made this type of behavior more likely to occur.
So, the rational person is left with a paradox -- is human nature static and negative? Are we all these would-be monsters, or are we not? And if we aren't, then who is? What you find with the slightest inquiry is that people on the whole are pretty decent. We don't go around killing and raping each other. In fact, the rapists and serial murderers are exceptions, not the rule.
Either human nature has changed considerably over the past few thousand years, or society has, or the original ideas were wrong.
To a would-be car thief, committing the theft is almost a rational decision -- crime is the result of a lack of opportunities in society. If the choice is flipping burgers for $4.50 an hour (for over eight hours) or stealing a car and pocketing a few hundred dollars for about a minute's work, you see the temptation!
Moreover, it's no accident that crime flourishes in poor areas. Poverty breeds crime. The Original Sin crowd likes to paint criminals as evil people, or lunkheads, when in reality they're people who have decided to work outside a system which offers them nothing. And for most of these criminals, jail isn't a deterrent -- at least in jail you get three meals a day and lodging for free (what's freedom in a ghetto? You have the landlord on you for rent, bills to pay, food to buy -- jail is almost desirable by comparison!)
Crime is a social failure -- a natural outcropping of property relations, and will never be eliminated by law enforcement. But the "humanity is evil" crew pretend that the Final Solution to crime is more jails and more police -- more regulation of human conduct. One wing of this sect are the ones who are putting video cameras up everywhere -- Big Brother coming to life among us.
So, what you have from the Original Sinners is the idea that people are eternally bad and in need of control, which they then provide through more and more social control. The end result of their logic is the complete negation of human will and freedom. Their "perfect" society is one where we're all too afraid and isolated to think for ourselves and have to rely on an authority to direct us.
The worst criminals in human history are the statesmen -- those with the authority of the State to back them. The State is the single largest serial killer around, and has a seemingly unquenchable thirst for blood.
This is yet another paradox put up by the Original Sin crowd -- they deny the existence of human society. We're just all isolated sociopaths bouncing around, awaiting opportunities to slay, maim, dominate, and control. There is no society, just individuals.
But this seems a self-serving, spurious idea to me. No society? Everyone out for themselves? Bullshit. People help each other all the time, in manifold ways. In fact, it takes a degree of socialization to dull that human instinct for solidarity. Who among you wouldn't help out a baby who's crying and alone, or answer a person's call for help?
Some people do, but these folks are bourgeois -- they have assimilated capitalist values, which have weakened their social instincts.
Authoritarians brand anarchists as unduly optimistic about human nature -- but we hold fast to our view of people as basically good. And the wealth of evidence backs us up, because social evils are explainable, whether serial killings or wars, or purges, or genocide -- they are explainable.
The other road is to simply throw your hands skyward and give up on humanity as too evil, too wicked, or too foolish to ever mend our ways. The next time you hear someone blow off humanity, try challenging them to explain why a person would do such a thing. I think every human evil is explainable, and it almost always stems from the abuse of authority, whether through parental authority, religious authority, secular authority -- whatever.
I hold that people are basically good unless it is more profitable for them to be otherwise, or if they are in some way damaged and (mis)behave accordingly. This is a far more consistent view of people than the gumbo we're expected to swallow by the Original Sinner crowd, who "treat" social ills through more lavish applications of force and violence.
This lunacy explains the behavior of nations, who, were they individuals, would be quickly locked away as insane! Imagine brewing nerve gas in your basement, along with atom bombs, and biological weapons, and then strutting down the street, picking fights with anyone you see -- the State represents the worst aspects of human behavior. We tolerate behavior in the State which we'd deplore in our next door neighbor!
And it's worse because in this century, this insane State has created world-destroying weapons (well, in truth, we can't destroy the world -- we can only wipe out our habitat, the first and only case of self-extinction in history). In essence, we're being held hostage by this all-powerful demigod called the State.
But this doesn't mean we're helpless; not by any means. Those in power want us to feel tiny, apathetic, alone, isolated, helpless -- that's our "ideal" condition. But the anarchist is not unlike a virus within a larger body, spreading memes instead of genes. Memes are basic units of thought.
The anarchist memes are our ideas about human nature -- that we're basically decent, social animals who would get along if not for the arbitrary and false distinctions created by ruling elites around things like race, gender, nationality, sexual preference, etc. (which are memes themselves).
So, what does this mean? Well, if you begin seeing the good in good people (and I'll be the first to admit that not all people are good), you'll be well on your way to understanding anarchism. When you see a person do a bad thing, try to understand why they did that -- if it's part of an overall pattern of misbehavior, or what allows them to act this way. I'm confident that you'll be able to find causes behind their actions, which is more empowering than simply shaking your head and marvelling at man's wickedness.
What you'll end up with is a self-fulfilling prophecy -- if you see the good in people (and let them know you see it), they'll reciprocate, and you'll have the foundations of solidarity already established.
Conversely, if you write everyone off (except yourself, of course) as loonies, or freaks, or killers, you'll set yourself up for hermetic isolation, and cling to some abstraction like the State to protect you from these phantasms you've conjured up from your own paranoia!
When you get a sense of people's goodness (and your own goodness -- you have to start there, btw), you begin to understand how cartoonlike Authority is -- and how unnecessary. Yes, anarchists are optimistic about humanity, but we are not idealists or utopians.
Rather, we find human nature to be explainable and understandable, rather than out of our hands -- and this is the basis of individual empowerment and community responsbility that makes anarchism possible. It sets the stage for social revolution.
Dave Neal
12/3/97
Return to Anarchy for Anybody