"Human nature?"
Where do we look for human nature, in taoist philosophy, in Australian
aboriginal cultures, or in Hobbes?
This pseudo-religion of "human nature" is too consistantly used to justify
everything from capital punishment to privatizing public schools in the
attempt at constructing a rationale for the policy configurations
of American governments and corporations.
The song goes like this."Human's by nature are greedy. Any attempt to reform
the existing system
is doomed to failure, because the reforms are "artificial" and ideological,
lead by a bunch of intellectuals who are doomed to fail."
Yet the ideologues of "pro-market" reform aren't held accontable.
In an "Economist" magazine article, the writer praised "pro-market"
reforms in Chile. The article stated that the standard of living had risen.
Yet the article stated that the gap between the rich and poor had grown.
What has gone on in Chile? As with America in the 1980-1996 period,
assessment of as Reagan put it, "are you better off now than you were
before," are highly charged with political baggage.
For the 35-year-old fast food worker or security guard (two rapidly growing
industries) life may not be as good as it was for his dad, the shipyard
worker.
For the lap-top crowd, the positive economic indices are trustworthy.
As long as the fast-food workers don't spit in the food (the minimum wage
has not gone up this year) the lap-toppers are very happy.
"Human nature" as a rationalization of the existing scheme of things
in America just isn't bought by many Americans.
The Buchanan presidential candidacy, the resentment towards
"restructuring" outsourcing has pissed a lot of people off.
Even Alan Greenspan recently said that the gaping inequalities in the US
threaten the stability of our social fabric.
The task of social scientists is to understand what's going on,
and maybe suggest some policies that can be adopted by corporations and
governments so as to prevent the "Blade Runnerization" of America.
Pegging anything "human nature" is a waste of intellectual resources.