“Socialism will never work because human beings are naturally selfish.” You’ve probably encountered this argument before.
The thing about “human nature” is that it doesn’t remain static. Like all things in nature, human consciousness and society are always in a state of change. Marx explained that “conditions determine consciousness.” In other words, our environment heavily impacts the way we think and behave. The Ancient Romans considered pants barbaric but slavery perfectly natural. Two thousand years later, Big Fashion has to conceal the abhorrent sweatshop labor they use to produce the latest pair of jeans.
If we probe even deeper into our past, we see that our most defining instinct as a species is cooperation. Human beings lack powerful claws or teeth to hunt, or extraordinary senses to find edible plants. Only by cooperating were humans able to combine their resources to hunt, build shelters, domesticate plants and animals, and develop language and technology. One distinguishing feature of the human species is the helplessness of our young. Unlike a deer, which can walk mere minutes after birth, a human baby requires years of attention and care. Primitive humans needed to cooperate if they were to survive.
Even today, long after humanity evolved from hunter-gatherer tribes, we are highly dependent on the expansive division of globalized production. Take the automobile. Can anyone alone process the materials in the frame, engine, and tires, build the factory, and assemble it themselves? To even pose the question shows how absurd the idea is. And what about the gasoline to fuel it? Or the roads to drive it on?
Millions of workers collaborate in a highly complex, worldwide division of labor. Yet the fruits of that labor go mainly to the handful of individuals who own the means of production. That is why hundreds of millions go hungry every year, and yet we can produce enough food to feed over 10 billion people. The same general situation prevails in every field of the economy. There are some 28 empty homes for every homeless person in the US. Insulin costs a few dollars to produce and hundreds to purchase out of pocket.
Although we have become desensitized to such absurdities, it’s far from rational or natural to our species. The ruling class would like you to think otherwise. They do everything in their power to affect the way we think. Through the schools, the media, the Church, etc., we are raised with the “values” of the capitalist system. And what values are these? Precisely the “dog-eat-dog” attitude which states that the only way to get ahead is to stomp on your neighbors.
The capitalists live in fear of the vast potential power of the united, class-conscious working class. So it’s to their benefit if people see things from an individual perspective: “If I work hard, I can get ahead!” or, “I can pull myself up by my bootstraps!”
Under conditions of artificial scarcity, the vast majority of society are left to fight over scraps. This inevitably shapes our outlook and behavior. A baby born into a world with no hunger, no want, no poverty, and no lack of jobs would see the world in an entirely different way than we do today. Under socialism, people will relate to each other as people, and not as mere commodities to be bought and sold.
The ruling class wants you to think capitalism is eternal, and that its morality and ideology are part of an inherently egoistic “human nature.” But if we imagine the timeline of human existence as a 12-hour clock, we have lived under capitalism for less than 40 seconds. For 98% of human existence, we lived without classes, states, prisons, police, armies, exploitation, or oppression. We lived communally in small bands and villages, dividing up the work and wealth in everyone’s interests.
During that time, our survival depended on mutual cooperation. Under communism, we will come full circle, but on an incredibly higher technological level. The only thing standing between us and a better world are the unnatural parasites at the top.