Kropotkin -vs- Darwin. Humanity, Cooperation and Mutual Aid -vs- Egoism and Pitiless Struggle; Socialism/Communism -vs- Competitive Capitalism/Darwinism. (Russia -vs- West)
Mutual Aid: A Factor of Evolution is a book by Peter Kropotkin https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mutual_Aid:_A_Factor_of_Evolution https://www.marxists.org/reference/archive/kropotkin-peter/1902/mutual-aid/ Written partly in response to social Darwinism and in particular to Thomas H. Huxley's Nineteenth Century essay, "The Struggle for Existence", Kropotkin's book drew on his experiences in scientific expeditions in Siberia to illustrate the phenomenon of cooperation. After examining the evidence of cooperation in nonhuman animals, in pre-feudal societies and medieval cities, and in modern times, he concluded that *cooperation and mutual aid, and not Darwin's pitiless struggle, are the most important factors in the evolution of species and the ability to survive.*
Dear Friends and Colleagues, sorry for the pdf attachment. I know most of us have got a "vomit reflex" on pdf and alike... The pdf version of the book (after a light check of it) was intended only for my friend Zenaan in a private correspondence. With respect, Alexander.
This work is such a tremendous FRESH AIR for us... after reading-seeing & being zombified by the "social Darwinists" with their endless examples of pitiless and brutal struggle in the Nature (-> thus it "must be" between us too!). Rereading this wonderful work (now on English)...i meet again Kropotkin's (and other researchers) great examples of mutual aid in the animal kingdom. One of these examples is truly amazing: Facts illustrating mutual aid amidst the termites, the ants, and the bees
are so well known to the general reader, especially through the works of Romanes, L. Büchner, and Sir John Lubbock, that I may limit my remarks to a very few hints.(7*) If we take an ants' nest, we not only see that every description of work- rearing of progeny, foraging, building, rearing of aphides, and so on -- is performed according to the principles of voluntary mutual aid; we must also recognize, with Forel, that the chief, the fundamental feature of the life of many species of ants is the fact and the obligation for every ant of sharing its food, already swallowed and partly digested, with every member of the community which may apply for it. Two ants belonging to two different species or to two hostile nests, when they occasionally meet together, will avoid each other. But two ants belonging to the same nest or to the same colony of nests will approach each other, exchange a few movements with the antennae, and "if one of them is hungry or thirsty, and especially if the other has its crop full... it immediately asks for food." The individual thus requested never refuses; it sets apart its mandibles, takes a proper position, and regurgitates a drop of transparent fluid which is licked up by the hungry ant. Regurgitating food for other ants is so prominent a feature in the life of ants (at liberty), and it so constantly recurs both for feeding hungry comrades and for feeding larvae, that Forel considers the digestive tube of the ants as consisting of two different parts, one of which, the posterior, is for the special use of the individual, and the other, the anterior part, is chiefly for the use of the community. If an ant which has its crop full has been selfish enough to refuse feeding a comrade, it will be treated as an enemy, or even worse. If the refusal has been made while its kinsfolk were fighting with some other species, they will fall back upon the greedy individual with greater vehemence than even upon the enemies themselves. And if an ant has not refused to feed another ant belonging to an enemy species, it will be treated by the kinsfolk of the latter as a friend.
All this is confirmed by most accurate observation and decisive experiments.(8*)
-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE----- Hash: SHA1 On 06/17/2016 05:09 AM, Александр wrote:
This work is such a tremendous FRESH AIR for us... after reading-seeing & being zombified by the "social Darwinists" with their endless examples of pitiless and brutal struggle in the Nature (-> thus it "must be" between us too!).
Rereading this wonderful work (now on English)...i meet again Kropotkin's (and other researchers) great examples of mutual aid in the animal kingdom.
One of these examples is truly amazing:
Here's mine: Over the years three people have told me the same curious story about how their dog died: Old and sick, about ready to go, the dog went out and disappeared: To be found later, having dug a fairly deep hole in the ground some distance away from the house, backed into it, and died there. None of these animals was "in the habit" of digging holes and camping there. An animal that is about to die will not reproduce. That beast has already been dealt out of the game. Yet somehow, the domesticated canine has acquired a genetic program for a solitary funeral rite: A practical one, that inhibits the spread of disease and minimizes attraction of scavengers etc. to the site. How is that possible? The all-conquering Dominant Individual may or may not contribute to the survival of a community that includes his or her own offspring. But the individual whose behavior actually does contribute to the survival of that community increases the odds of his or her descendants out-competing those of other local communities. Add massively iterated trial and error and viola: Whatever neurophysical mechanism inspires a dying dog to do that unlikely ritual became a factory stock feature in the canine world. The recently popular book Sex At Dawn includes a fatal critique of "what we think we know" about those horrible killer apes whose example supposedly explains and excuses human ultra-violence. Among other examples, it turns out that foraging apes, when presented with a single super high value food source daily by anthropologists who want to study them, do begin to fight over control of that pile of fruit. The most dominant individuals "would rather let it rot" than allow others to share it: A massively iterated genetic trial and error process prepared them to defend high value food items "as if" there was only enough for one or two individuals - because that is usually true of "rare goodies" found while foraging. But meanwhile, when observed foraging in the wild, members of the same species tend to announce their finds to attract others to areas where more goodies are likely to be found, by bragging on the way cool find /they/ own. Among Homo Saps, the massive advantages of language and technology have given a free ride to individuals who get top marks in intelligence, strength and psychopathy. They organize for mutual advantage and spread their contra-survival social traits through the population like a wildfire. Thanks to abstract language, the capacity to lie gives them a powerful arsenal of behavioral manipulation techniques and they will seize on any opportunity to rationalize and glorify their violent behavior. Their cult of the "rugged individual" and deification of those who accumulate the most wealth and power at the expense of the community has yet to be bred out of the human species by massively iterated trial and error. One of these days I'm gonna create a propaganda poster modeled on the heroic art of the NSDAP, featuring our favorite Objectivist, with the inspirational slogan: "Ein Volk, Ein Reich, Ayn Rand." :o) -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- Version: GnuPG v2.0.22 (GNU/Linux) iQEcBAEBAgAGBQJXZCujAAoJEECU6c5XzmuqNCYH/1wubp64zk+S86M3TuCAfQXu a8asvbOL0DnoACNg5iVAzHdSpIBV3fyDBmlSd1fW9id0A9PJkL85GiLHtDfOJhM4 1s3E8gwHmm1mzLHTDQEgHrrBkGVKxJjWPxWRfTDBQOTbP/Uyd/2/E/46pwNRb8xK CqbCybW7kGtlPwlPPTO9jaHNYHh5M5Pq8vNPRhvg2hZr2iQnahKTjG7GLpsH/Uie Fj6WEfL6eFgqBMBlfNh4diONZL6xoEowLtpa1IvI54jPLWmKCWKDkwT1j2F6NxPr nA/Glw8uUhhMdio4do4Y+0B1BqZKi9fShNMXNyPPnUmp0uck/1STlpHKwVjDPQE= =Ak01 -----END PGP SIGNATURE-----
they will seize on any opportunity to rationalize and glorify their violent behavior.
BINGO, Steve! That's why (in this case) Darwin's pitiless struggle as the
basic law of nature is so convenient for them -> for the media/education/propaganda. p.s. thank you very much for your thoughts/examples on the subject.
Kropotkin said only one salient thing: If there were a God, we would need to assassinate him. The characterization of Darwinism as egoism and pitiless struggle is so odd as to be not even wrong, though it was popular. Evolutionary theory (and Darwinism) is about differential reproduction, not the Hobbesian war of all against all. It certainly admits of, and has been demonstrated to use, cooperation. Kurt On Thu, Jun 16, 2016 at 11:12 PM, Александр <afalex169@gmail.com> wrote:
Mutual Aid: A Factor of Evolution is a book by Peter Kropotkin
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mutual_Aid:_A_Factor_of_Evolution https://www.marxists.org/reference/archive/kropotkin-peter/1902/mutual-aid/
Written partly in response to social Darwinism and in particular to Thomas H. Huxley's Nineteenth Century essay, "The Struggle for Existence", Kropotkin's book drew on his experiences in scientific expeditions in Siberia to illustrate the phenomenon of cooperation. After examining the evidence of cooperation in nonhuman animals, in pre-feudal societies and medieval cities, and in modern times, he concluded that cooperation and mutual aid, and not Darwin's pitiless struggle, are the most important factors in the evolution of species and the ability to survive.
participants (3)
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Kurt Buff -
Steve Kinney -
Александр