Traditional Human Economics

IN OUR ATTEMPT to find the proper perspective on a whole variety of current events, we've been examining the first, and biggest event in human history.

That was the event which made us human—which separated us from our animal cousins, the apes.

Last time, we spotted two political differences between humans and apes:

1. Human society is naturally democratic, while ape society is naturally dictatorial.
2. Human society is naturally free, while ape society is naturally hierarchical and authoritarian.

The modern equivalent of human society, politically, would be a democracy—like America, Canada, the European Union, India, South Africa, or Australia.

The modern equivalent of ape societies, in terms of political structure, would be the former Monarchy in England, the former Soviet Union, States like Egypt, until recently, in which a "state of emergency" has been in effect for years allowing those in power to enforce a hierarchical government, or Afghanistan under the Taliban.

But every society has an economic system as well as a political system.

How do humans compare apes on that score?

It turns out that we were different there as well.

Unlike apes, traditional human cultures had ways—often very elaborate ways—of making sure that resources were distributed with rough equality among individuals.

The most powerful human did not automatically get the most comfortable place to sleep, first pick of food, or best access to the females.

Human society was egalitarian—not just politically, but economically as well.

We all cared for each other, working together to make a better life and to care for the next generation.

We also appeared to have a bit of free trade.

So our earliest and most natural traditional economic system was a mixture of socialism and free trade.

It's important to notice, at this point, the difference between a political system and an economic system.

We have been trained, in recent history, to identity democracy with Capitalism, and dictatorship with socialism, but that is an unfortunate historic accident.

In fact, Capitalism is profoundly undemocratic by nature, since it depends on concentrated wealth, which in practice means concentrated power: control at the top of the hierarchy.

Like ape society, where the best of everything gravitated to the top.

On the other hand, Socialism—such things as public roads, public fire departments, public schools, police departments, universal health care, social security, and even welfare—shift the balance of power back toward the average person by creating a situation in which they are less dependent on those above them in the hierarchy of wealth, and make the society more democratic, more free.

Likewise, a free market requires, as does free country, certain controls to keep all of the money (and therefore power) from ending up in the hands of a few at the top.

So this first great event in human history—the break between us and our animal cousins when we first became human—can be summarized like this:

This is the deepest tradition of humanity.

It's why we treasure such ideas as fairness, and care for others, so strongly.

It's why we are so dedicated to freedom, and justice, why we hate tyranny and greed and poverty—both for ourselves and others.

It's built into our deepest values.

It's part of what it means to be human.

This first great event was, in fact, the first blow for freedom against the ongoing warfare of the upper class upon the lower class.

Before we became human, when we were still like our ape cousins, we suffered under the dictatorship of the hierarchy, the persecution of the upper class apes, who could treat us with contempt because they held the power.

Somehow we managed to revolt, to recreate ourselves as human beings with equal dignity and freedom.

But this first great event was followed by another one, about 12,000 years ago, which forced a great step backward upon us.

Next: The Return of the Apes...