I feel like people with the “kindness is weak! Dog eat dog” attitude have this distorted vision of human nature where if you removed all of the societal constraints, people would just start opportunistically killing each other.
Empathy is the reason we didn’t go extinct at the peak of the afro/eurasian bottleneck when we numbered less than 2,000 individuals. Sure, we find neolithic mass graves with skulls piled upon skulls. Cracked limbs, gnawed bones, maimed hands, you name it. All kinds of cruelty.
But if human nature is entirely self-serving, why do we find evidence of aincent surgeries? Of healed femur marrow, removed parasites, and makeshift stints? Why do we see marked burial sites made for individuals who aren’t necessarily even related? Wouldn’t it serve you better to let your competitors die?
Empathy was * literally* a prerequisite for the emergence of civilization. It was “let’s stick together, and make a better future for everyone” not “hey, let’s fly this guy to Mars so he doesn’t die”
But you know what. I’m sure the hebephilic misanthrope will do a wonderful job improving the human condition with AI generated child pornography, and over priced cars.
I have read that domestication of horses was an inflection point for the economics and violence in the bronze age societies. A horse makes raiding distant villages a possibility as a horse can outrun humans. These tribal raids turn into organised warfare to the extent that steppe cultures had one of the first cities to be built with fortifications. And all of this happened only the last 5000 years ago.
The history of violence isn’t as old as it’s claimed to be and it is definitely not innate but something we discovered on the way. I am also not trying to argue that all humans aren’t violent but maybe the steppe people are. You find various examples of guest-host relationships in steppe cultures. Even the word guest and host etymologically traces its roots to Proto Indo European, the language of steppe nomads!
I feel like people with the “kindness is weak! Dog eat dog” attitude have this distorted vision of human nature where if you removed all of the societal constraints, people would just start opportunistically killing each other. Empathy is the reason we didn’t go extinct at the peak of the afro/eurasian bottleneck when we numbered less than 2,000 individuals. Sure, we find neolithic mass graves with skulls piled upon skulls. Cracked limbs, gnawed bones, maimed hands, you name it. All kinds of cruelty.
But if human nature is entirely self-serving, why do we find evidence of aincent surgeries? Of healed femur marrow, removed parasites, and makeshift stints? Why do we see marked burial sites made for individuals who aren’t necessarily even related? Wouldn’t it serve you better to let your competitors die? Empathy was * literally* a prerequisite for the emergence of civilization. It was “let’s stick together, and make a better future for everyone” not “hey, let’s fly this guy to Mars so he doesn’t die”
But you know what. I’m sure the hebephilic misanthrope will do a wonderful job improving the human condition with AI generated child pornography, and over priced cars.
I have read that domestication of horses was an inflection point for the economics and violence in the bronze age societies. A horse makes raiding distant villages a possibility as a horse can outrun humans. These tribal raids turn into organised warfare to the extent that steppe cultures had one of the first cities to be built with fortifications. And all of this happened only the last 5000 years ago.
The history of violence isn’t as old as it’s claimed to be and it is definitely not innate but something we discovered on the way. I am also not trying to argue that all humans aren’t violent but maybe the steppe people are. You find various examples of guest-host relationships in steppe cultures. Even the word guest and host etymologically traces its roots to Proto Indo European, the language of steppe nomads!