
David Graeber Left Us a Parting Gift – His Thoughts on Kropotkin’s “Mutual Aid” - kkwteh
https://truthout.org/articles/david-graeber-left-us-a-parting-gift-his-thoughts-on-kropotkins-mutual-aid/
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jhbadger
The problem is that we _understand_ why animals work together in "mutual aid"
and unlike what Kropotkin thought, it doesn't really apply to human societies.
It's not a general instinct of helpfulness, it's just kin selection -- that is
animals help other animals related to them because genes that make animals do
that get spread more than ones that don't. Graeber seems to have understood
this at one level and even dismissively mentions "selfish genes" and Haldane's
joke about dying for eight cousins, but he seems to have thought that this is
some sort of reactionary political belief rather than just actual science.

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mempko
It's not actual science though. The "selfish gene" explanation is just wrong.
There are plenty of traits that have nothing to do with spreading genes. Some
traits simply have no measurable impact on gene selection and therefore just
exist and can pass along without cost.

By putting every trait through the "it must help gene selection somehow" is
simply wrong and isn't scientific.

Also, why doesn't mutual aid apply to human societies? I haven't seen any
evidence why it wouldn't considering the fact that its so pervasive. I
literally see it everyday.

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jhbadger
No. There are certainly _mutations_ that have no measurable impact on fitness
(as per Kimura's neutral theory), but the very reason they don't affect
fitness is because they don't have any impact on traits. The problem with
imagining a trait that has no selective impact is that there is no way it
could have come into existence in the first place. Even the simplest trait
would require many mutations to evolve, and without the power of selection
driving it, that would be just statistically impossible.

In terms of mutual aid not applying to human societies I mean Kropotkin's idea
of it as something he thought was a natural instinct of helpfulness. Obviously
humans can and should help each other, but this has nothing to do with our
instincts. Humans share the genetic programming of other animals, but because
of our greater reasoning powers we can go beyond our instincts.

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mempko
I read this in David Graeber's voice. Beautiful read.

