137 lines
5.0 KiB
Plaintext
137 lines
5.0 KiB
Plaintext
******** What about human nature? *********
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from Workers Solidarity No 33
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A WORLD without war, famine, poverty,
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racism? A world where there are no bosses
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ordering us around and living off our work? A
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world where competition is replaced by co-
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operation and individual freedom?
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Sounds nice. Who wouldn't like to see it? But it can
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never happen, it runs against human nature. How
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many times have you heard that line? How many
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times have you been told that people are naturally
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selfish, greedy, prone to violence and short-sighted?
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We are constantly being told that there will always
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be leaders and led, rulers and ruled. These ideas are
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powerful because they seem to make sense. We do
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live in a nasty, competitive society.
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IT WOULD BE A MIRACLE
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Capitalism is based on competition. Countries
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compete, companies compete. At work you are
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encouraged to compete for promotion (or to avoid
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being let go), in school you compete against other
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students to get the best exam results. With so
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much competition around it would be miraculous if
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people were not competitive.
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The question is whether this is natural? The idea
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that there is some eternally flawed human nature
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that we can't do much about gets lots of support
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from those with a stake in the existing set-up.
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Anarchists reject this as self serving nonsense
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churned out by those who are doing well out of
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capitalism and don't want to see it got rid of.
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WHO DOESN'T CARE?
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Despite the odds stacked against it we can find just
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as many examples of caring and co-operation as we
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can of selfishness and competition. Solidarity
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strikes are an obvious one. We even saw workers in
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Dunnes Stores go on strike for months in support of
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black workers in South Africa whom they had never
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even met.
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Look at any working class neighbourhood and you
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will find people caring for each other. They are
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organising football teams for the teenagers, summer
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projects for the younger children. This doesn't make
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sense if greed is part of our human nature.
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WILLIE BERMINGHAM
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Greed and selfishness don't motivate people to carry
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kidney donor cards or make them want to donate
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blood to the transfusion service. Greed did not
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inspire the late Willie Bermingham to start up
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ALONE to care for the elderly living on their own.
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Selfishness does not lead people to give money to
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charities. It does not explain why nurses volunteer
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to work unpaid for Concern projects in the less
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developed countries.
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But, we are told, there are those better suited to
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ruling, that inequality is natural and inevitable.
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Before capitalism the ruling class used the
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argument that God had chosen them, the 'divine
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right of kings'. With capitalism came a new
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justification. We are told that our bosses and rulers
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owe their position to superior talent. They 'merit'
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their position.
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ARE THEY BETTER
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THAN YOU?
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We are told that with intelligence and hard work
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anyone can make it. The other side of the coin is
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that those at the bottom of society are there
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because of their own laziness or because they are
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not as bright as the likes of Haughey or Ben Dunne.
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Are we really expected to accept that Dan Quayle is
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an intellectual giant? Are we to believe that the
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child of a millionaire has only the same chances as
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the rest of us?
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This is crap pushed at us to stop us questioning why
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the many do all the work while the few make all the
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important decisions and live off the fat of the land.
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The true story is that we are products both of the
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environment we live in and of the changes we make
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on it. We have no control over what sort of society
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we are born into but we can change it.
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CHANGING VIEWS OF 'NATURAL'
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To law-abiding parents stopping the heroin dealers
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was a job for the gardai. When the gardai were not
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moving against the Larry Dunnes and Ma Bakers
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those same law-abiding parents thought it quite
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natural to organise into the CPAD and put the
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pushers out of their areas - even though doing that
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was illegal.
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To the conscripted American soldier in Vietnam
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blindly obeying orders from officers seemed perfectly
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natural. After years of slaughter and massacres,
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desertion and even mutiny seemed natural.
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To most workers getting in to work each Monday
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morning and taking orders from the boss seems
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natural until they are forced to strike. They may
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even challenge the right of the boss to control their
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workplace by occupying it.
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WE CAN DO IT
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We have the power to change the world. The ruling
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class know this and try to divide us. They split us
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into Protestant and Catholic, gay and straight,
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black and white, working class and so-called middle
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class (white collar workers).
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But again and again the system throws us together
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in struggle. It is in struggle that we we come to
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depend on each other and co-operate for a common
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goal. This is the first step towards building a society
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where selfishness is replaced by co-operation, where
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the dictate of the boss is replaced by freedom, where
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we take control of our own lives and futures.
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Alan MacSim—in
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