4 ms·

Yes, but are there any political philosophies that advocate the adoption of elements of the hunter-gatherer lifestyle? I mean, sure, you can speculatively post

Yes, but are there any political philosophies that advocate the adoption of elements of the hunter-gatherer lifestyle? I mean, sure, you can speculatively postulate that HG-like egalitarianism is possible in non-HG societies. But that goes against the overwhelming mass of evidence.

random314 5y ago
Whether egalitarianism exists in non HG societies is a separate question that is not relevant here. The overwhelming history of humans has been in egalitarian societies. Stating that humans innately prefer a hierarchical society is patently absurd when you look at the millions of years of human evolution where we most definitely weren't. The problem is that the article quotes conservative philosophy as a given scientific fact.
- prionassembly 5y ago
  I agree that innateness claims are very very seldom true or even plausible. I make a different claim: hunter-gatherer H. sapiens was a different kind of “human” in almost every political and social sense, even if there’s significant biological continuity. And conservatism properly understood (at least when it avoids specious arguments) concerns politics and society, not raw biology.
  - random314 5y ago
    Agricultural societies are very recent; current humans are no different from HG humans 7K years ago. Innateness comes from biology, not politics, evolved over several million years as primates. Conservatism is a very thinly veiled biological argument in favor of a hierarchical society, which is seen as just. The majority of the society is expected to be bottom feeders serving those above them, this is the right way of things. The French revolution which overthrew the feudal lords was seen as a threat to conservatism. Capitalism was seen as a solution to the possibility that superiority might not be fully heritable. However, conservatism inevitably leads to biological justifications, such as white nationalism and objections to inheritance taxes. Conservatism is really a series of polemics against egalitarianism that intend to say that society is hierarchical and those that belong to the top are people who look and act like me. On another note, the philosophy of libertarian socialism comes closest in modern day societies to egalitarianism.
ebcode 5y ago
> Yes, but are there any political philosophies that advocate the adoption of elements of the hunter-gatherer lifestyle? I don't know if existentialism qualifies as "political philosophy" or not, but if all philosophies are political, then I think existentialism fits that description. "Once freedom lights its beacon in a man’s heart, the gods are powerless against him. It’s a matter between man and man, and it is for other men, and for them only, to let him go his gait, or to throttle him." -- Jean-Paul Sartre, The Flies

random314 5y ago

Whether egalitarianism exists in non HG societies is a separate question that is not relevant here. The overwhelming history of humans has been in egalitarian societies. Stating that humans innately prefer a hierarchical society is patently absurd when you look at the millions of years of human evolution where we most definitely weren't. The problem is that the article quotes conservative philosophy as a given scientific fact.

prionassembly 5y ago
I agree that innateness claims are very very seldom true or even plausible. I make a different claim: hunter-gatherer H. sapiens was a different kind of “human” in almost every political and social sense, even if there’s significant biological continuity. And conservatism properly understood (at least when it avoids specious arguments) concerns politics and society, not raw biology.
- random314 5y ago
  Agricultural societies are very recent; current humans are no different from HG humans 7K years ago. Innateness comes from biology, not politics, evolved over several million years as primates. Conservatism is a very thinly veiled biological argument in favor of a hierarchical society, which is seen as just. The majority of the society is expected to be bottom feeders serving those above them, this is the right way of things. The French revolution which overthrew the feudal lords was seen as a threat to conservatism. Capitalism was seen as a solution to the possibility that superiority might not be fully heritable. However, conservatism inevitably leads to biological justifications, such as white nationalism and objections to inheritance taxes. Conservatism is really a series of polemics against egalitarianism that intend to say that society is hierarchical and those that belong to the top are people who look and act like me. On another note, the philosophy of libertarian socialism comes closest in modern day societies to egalitarianism.

ebcode 5y ago

> Yes, but are there any political philosophies that advocate the adoption of elements of the hunter-gatherer lifestyle? I don't know if existentialism qualifies as "political philosophy" or not, but if all philosophies are political, then I think existentialism fits that description. "Once freedom lights its beacon in a man’s heart, the gods are powerless against him. It’s a matter between man and man, and it is for other men, and for them only, to let him go his gait, or to throttle him." -- Jean-Paul Sartre, The Flies