The Root Cause

 
The balance between good and bad in human society is, likely, constant in all of history.
 
This is a simple enough matter to confirm.
 
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We may be better off today, in some regards, .e.g. common basic amenities, leastways within limited urban confines, than 200 years ago.
 
But our ability and willingness to inflict catastrophic harm on a global scale has also been augmented disproportionately..
 
Why is this so?
 
My answer will not be found politically acceptable , though obvious.
 
This is because the protocols of EM pre-legislate , a priori, ‘acceptable’ causes.
 
So I will simply state it here as self evident.
 
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The source of all societal instability , in human society, has always been the ‘animal spirits‘ of the human male.
 
This ‘adventurousness’ can pertain to wealth, or power, or usually, both.
 
It is the root cause of conflict, war, slavery, exploitation, annexation, colonisation, and empire.
 
It is also the cause of the break=up of simple tribal forms, where humankind achieves its most hospitable home – in mutual care, consideration, and conviviality – in line with its innate, species-being.
 
And because this propensity has remained unchanged, the relatively unaltered balance between good and bad reflects the critical import of that parameter.
 
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All the EM (EuroModernist) political economy and political theory of the world – largely crafted by men – cannot refute that simple proposition.
 
In fact, it does the very opposite: it covers it up in a thicket of
specious ‘theory’.
 
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So, let’s get real.
 
Over half the human race bears NO responsibility for the appalling state of affairs of the world in current times, as we skirt WW3; as it did not when we survived WW1 and WW2, and all the myriad wars preceding.
 
Human society remains an ever dangerous mine-field owing to that.
 
This is why an enduring peace is impossible in human society, past or present: at best, we can hope for a transient armistice.
 
If evidence is needed – though I have indicated it is plain as day – have a look at the mind-boggling data on US mass-shootings, now averaging almost 2 per day.
 
How many of them were perpetrated by women?
 
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So let us stop concocting new , and improved, ‘utopias’, in the hoary EM vein : ‘communism’, the ‘free society’, et. al..
 
They are all chimera.
 
They all flounder on the rock I have identified.
 
Instead, let us try and find ways to ‘tame’ these ‘animal spirits’.
 
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Btw I assign causation only, not blame: because such behavior is entirely instinctual.
 
We are animals – giving ourselves high airs.
 
To understand male behavior, study chimps: female behavior, study bonobos.
 
That’s it.
 
You will learn more , and more quickly, about human society, I warrant, than from all the ponderous tomes of EM social theory.

 
[©R.Kanth 2023]

Professor Rajani Kanth, is Author of Coda (A Novel), A Day in the Life (Novel), Expiations (Verse), and Farewell to Modernism (Political Economy Tract).