Agreed – Like many animals and all primates, humans form hierarchies of dominance. It is easy to recognize social hierarchies in modern life. Corporations, government, chess clubs, and churches all have formal hierarchical structures of officers. Where does it say we should strive to equal everything out so nobody has more than anybody else? And what would the cost be of trying to achieve such perfect equality?
In the spring of 1845, Karl Marx wrote, “… the human essence is no abstraction inherent in each single individual. In its reality it is the ensemble of social relations.” Marx’s idea was that a change in the “ensemble of social relations” can change “the human essence.”
“In England in the seventeenth century, almost two-thirds of land was owned by landlords and worked by peasant tenants. The previous two centuries were characterised by violent struggles between peasant tenants and landlords over the rents and fines the latter could impose on the former. It was, Brenner observed, the victory of the landlords over the tenants that created the incredibly unequal property relations that would characterise English land ownership up until the present day.”
Right-wingers defend capitalism as a system necessitated by human nature, but the market emerged out of specific historic conditions – it isn’t hardwired into our species.
Should have enjoyed it while you could – now it’s gone!
Agreed – Like many animals and all primates, humans form hierarchies of dominance. It is easy to recognize social hierarchies in modern life. Corporations, government, chess clubs, and churches all have formal hierarchical structures of officers. Where does it say we should strive to equal everything out so nobody has more than anybody else? And what would the cost be of trying to achieve such perfect equality?
“In England in the seventeenth century, almost two-thirds of land was owned by landlords and worked by peasant tenants. The previous two centuries were characterised by violent struggles between peasant tenants and landlords over the rents and fines the latter could impose on the former. It was, Brenner observed, the victory of the landlords over the tenants that created the incredibly unequal property relations that would characterise English land ownership up until the present day.”