Challenging Human Nature

 Many critics dismiss socialism as impossible because of human nature, that people are inherently selfish and greedy. The human nature basic argument typically goes like this: “Socialism will never work because you can’t change human nature. This is why there will always be capitalism and why a better system than capitalism is impossible ” Human “nature” not unchangeable, it is not the nature of human beings to be greedy and selfish. The human “nature” argument is plausible because it has such a long pedigree. Even the Bible, for example, teaches “original sin” and that people were all born ‘wicked’. It is also plausible because it seems to fit with the history that all past attempts to achieve a society of freedom and equality failed. Finally, it is plausible because it seems to explain a lot of our personal experience – all those occasions when we have been treated badly or let down by friends. All this plausibility, however, does not make the argument sound. Yes, it is true that everyday life presents plenty of examples of selfishness, callousness, lack of sympathy and so on, but it is also the case that it offers many examples of the opposite, of kindness, self-sacrifice, and solidarity – of people who support and defend each other in the workplace, who help strangers in difficulties, who risk their lives to save those in danger, who devote their lives to what they see as good causes. IF it really were human nature to be selfish such altruistic behaviour would either be non-existent or at best extremely rare, but it is not.  If our ancestors had been driven primarily by self-interest and greed, our species would never have survived. People have lived in societies for the vast majority of human history where greed and selfishness were alien to the band. One anthropologist after another, of all political stripes, have reached the same general conclusion that greed and selfishness are not a fixed part of our nature; and that, on the contrary, co-operation and mutual aid was a dominant feature of much of human society for the vast majority of our history.

It is certainly true that an elite and their hangers-on who own the vast majority of the world’s wealth are motivated by greed and selfishness. But the vast majority of us are not "naturally" selfish – though some of us can, indeed, learn to be so.  The capitalist system is based on exploitation. Surplus value is extracted from the working class by the capitalists and is the source of all their profits. It has caused and continues to cause, untold human misery and suffering. It is certainly a system where the devil can take the hindmost. Greed and selfishness are actively promoted as virtues. In capitalism, the greedy of the world have discovered their ideal legitimating cover: the promotion and defence of an exploitative system that turns the vice of selfishness into the highest virtue human beings can attain. Self-interest, envy, and greed epitomising the ideal of the “self-made man” is simply the ideological expression of the economic reality of capitalism and has nothing to do with “human nature”.

 Capitalism gave rise to the working class which learned to combine and unite, to give each other mutual support in order to defend itself against the capitalist predator, providing a counterweight to the dominating idea of individualism.  It pushes them towards association and solidarity as soon as the social conditions allow it. Solidarity and altruism are essential needs. People need the solidarity of others, but they also need to show solidarity to others. This is something which can be seen even in a society as alienated as ours. Some argue that altruism is also a form of selfishness because those who practice it do it above all for their own gain or pleasure. That may be so, but that’s just another way of putting forward the idea defended by socialists that there is no essential opposition between individual interest and collective interest, quite the contrary in fact. The opposition between the individual and society is an expression of societies based on exploitation and private property because how could there be a harmony between those who suffer from oppression and exploitation and the very institutions that guarantee and perpetuate this oppression and exploitation?

It is capitalism, which separates the producer from what he/she produces. In socialism, where there is no state dominating society and no classes either since there is no form of exploitation, where everything that it is produced is purely for human needs and not profit, each member of society will be living in true freedom. Because humanity can only realise its innumerable potentialities in a social way, and because the antagonisms between individual interest and collective interest will have disappeared, new and immense vistas will be opened up for the flowering of each individual. Socialism will be above all a society of diversity because it will break down the division of labour that obliges almost everyone to limited, restricted roles for their entire lives.

Abridged and adapted from here

https://libcom.org/blog/human-nature-communism-16062018