Proof That Altruism is Natural and Democracy Works

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Hi all. Right now I feel a bit angry because of an argument that I keep hearing.

I hate it when people claim that human beings are naturally sociopathic, and that every last ounce of our morality comes from governments and/or gods.

In the past, various people have written long essays proving that altruism is natural, but I can prove it very quickly.

Consider the Following: In the prehistoric era, there were no governments and people were generally animists. Why didn't they kill their own children? There was no government stopping them. The Ten Commandments didn't exist yet.

Humans must possess some form of natural altruism or else we wouldn't have even survived prehistory. Keep in mind that we evolved from bipedal apes around 300,000 years ago. Civilisation has only existed since around 11,000 BC. This means that the Middle Eastern people survived without any formal legal code for 290,000 years. Other races survived without any formal legal code for even longer.

"Mob mentality" is an overrated concept. Can little children survive in a world run by angry mobs? Of course not.

Pay no attention to the fundies, statists, and other misanthropes. Democracy works.

The problems with the modern world do not come from democracy. They exist because we aren't as democratic as the man on TV says we are.

This is an argument, basically, between the "glass half full" people and the "glass half empty" people.

I have faith in the basic altruism of most people. It is not in the best interest of most people to be sociopathic, ultimately.

Power does corrupt, though.

Even "primitive" people live under a "government," however informal. There's almost always a "council of elders" or some such thing. People don't just run amok; it's not like how it is portrayed in the movies.

We, in the US, have a "modified democracy." A true democracy would be almost akin to communism, except that absolute communism demands absolute egalitarianism. For the most part, it works. And has worked at least fairly well since its inception. Obviously, it is not perfect----but the alternative, most likely, is far worse.

The people who formulated the Constitution were able to make considerable compromises, and sacrifice some of their most sacred principles. Especially that which, like the Articles of Confederation, gives almost sovereign power to individual states.

My morals come from empathy. When I saw a boy hit his head, my head instantly hurt. Most people are this way when others have troubles. That's why people cry when they watch sad movies. However, emotional trauma numbs these feelings.

I am one of those who believe humans are naturally born to be sociopaths.

Fact of the matter is, the reason people don't kill each other is because they might not succeed in the killing, because people would naturally protect themselves. Also, you end up getting killed yourself, that's why humans will make laws to exist.

The fact that we need laws is evidence humans are naturally sociopaths.

If we were naturally altruists we wouldn't need laws.

So contrary to proving humans are not sociopaths, you actually provided the evidence for the opposite. Thank you!

And this, even before modern times, “primitive” groups weren’t always with the greatest intention either.

What about this: some are sociopaths, others are not. The end.

I don't know which morons are saying humans are not altruistic, sounds like something a statist would say. Humans are not, however, universally altruistic. That is, humans do not show the same level of altruism to all members of the species. Family comes first, then ethnicity, then the ties of religion and culture. Everyone else can f**k right off as far as most of humanity is concerned.