Blogs For Victory

The Commies over at Pamphlets posted this on X:

I noted that the thing about pre-history is that it is prehistoric – nobody really knows. But by the time human beings started writing things down, we had government, laws, property and trade. But it is far more fun – and politically useful – for people to stick with what isn’t known and make it how you prefer. I think it was H G Wells in his histories where we get an assertion that primitive society was the law of the club. That is, the biggest, meanest guy would just beat down everyone until they accepted his rule. This leaves off the fact that the second and third biggest, meanest guys could take down the biggest, meanest guy with ease. It should be noted that Wells also thought our ancestors rather stupid – he acknowledged that the “cave man” could create art, but Wells still just put him down as a brute savage. But, here’s the thing: the “cave man” was, well, a man. Human. Just as inherently smart as anyone alive today. That is the real problem with the people who cast their current views on the deep past: they somehow forget that the prehistoric people were people.

Wells is just as silly in his assertion of brute savagery as our Commies are of people living in Communist bliss. First and foremost: we don’t know. But, additionally, they were human beings…so you kinda have to put yourself in their shoes if you want to get any sensible thought about them. That is, pretend you were suddenly set down with twenty of your fellows in a howling wilderness with no tools whatsoever. What would you do? Perhaps any one of a thousand things – but the people who are going to survive are first going to start gathering food, making tools and building shelters. There will be cooperation – and there will be property. Share and share alike, sure: but the lazy butt is being left out in the cold. And the guy who finds a jackpot of wild vegetables is going to trade his surplus to the guy who figured out how to make a rabbit trap. Who will then trade some of the veggies to the person who actually worked out how to turn a flint rock into a knife. And suppose someone tries to take over by strength and fear and start ordering everyone about? If the guy is useful – that is he can envision the ends as well as will the means – then his rule might be ratified…but if he’s just a crazy guy lording it over physically weaker people then the flint knife will be inserted into his rib cage when he’s asleep.

And this, more than likely, was how primitive human societies operated. There were rules, and there were the means of bending or breaking the rules at need. There were leaders…and there were councils of some type which could check the leaders. There was cooperation because human beings can’t live without it – and there was property because people like to hold their own. In fact, one of my pet theories is that it was women who created agriculture and, eventually, civilization. Think about it: in those olden days pregnancy was regular and children were numerous. And while women will cooperate a great deal with each other, a woman’s children will always come first in her heart and mind. And the primary concern of a mother back then was having a secure supply of food. The men may or may not be able to kill the mastodon…but those berries always grow on that slope of the hill at this time of year.

And that sort of knowledge does both stick in the brain and get you thinking: if they grow well on this hillside at this time of year, why not on that other hillside at the same time of year? Maybe we should plant some of the seeds in places similar to where we find them? And maybe pull up plants that are near them so that they can grow bigger and faster? And, hey, this is my hillside and those are my berries (or primitive wheat, or corn, or tomatoes or what have you) so, clear off you interloper and find your own hillside. So, now this is property – and it is my husband’s property because he’s the only man I can be sure of protecting me…and if he dies it becomes my son’s property because, once again, he’s the only man I can be sure of protecting me. And the gods honor the men who protect the property…and plow the fields and isn’t it time you put up that fence so that we don’t get interlopers wandering across our lands?

That, in my view, is probably how it worked. Humans learning how to do things and then wanting to make sure that their efforts were rewarded. Once again, no problem providing a little charity…but it begins at home and only after me and mine are secure can we spare something for you…and, hey, why don’t you work as hard as we do? Perhaps if you’re in a bad way and need help, you should spend some time in my fields? And that is probably how slavery began. And with property of various types came a need to adjudicate disputes about property other than by physically fighting over it…so government would develop from primitive chieftains and tribal councils to Kings and Senates. Oral law gives way to written laws. Barter gives way to trade and contracts…and before you know if you need a lawyer. Which is a strike against civilization but human beings found that the more they went forward into the whole property and law thing, the better life got for them.

Main thing, there almost certainly wasn’t a Communist past – which is a central tenet of Marxism: that we had Communism, got it wrecked by Capitalism and now we’ll return to Communism. The primitives owned as much property as they could – might have started with a spear, knife and a leather bag to hold stuff…but it was as much property as a hundred acre farm, and as jealously guarded by the owner. The only reason the “cave man” didn’t have land he owned was because he hadn’t learned how to do agriculture yet. He was finding fruits and vegetables but it took a little while to put two and two together on the whole seed to plant thing. As soon as people figured that out, the concept of landed property emerged…simply because the one who sows wants to be the one who reaps.

Another thing to consider about the deep past is that most of it is lost and gone forever. That is, what bits and pieces of prehistoric humanity we have found represent only a fraction of a fraction of what once was. For all we know highly complex civilizations existed in parts of the world that are now drowned under rising sea levels since the last glacial maximum. We know that most of what is today the North Sea was Doggerland until just 7,000 years ago. This land was tundra and we now know it had huge amounts of wildlife on it with the Thames and the Rhine flowing together into one river which seems to have flowed down what is now known as the English Channel. Humans loved themselves some mammoth meat (human beings probably hunted them to extinction) and we also love to live near fresh water rivers. So, whatever our primitive ancestors were doing in that area is now underwater…we just don’t know about it. So, too, all around the world: sea levels have risen hundreds of feet since the last glacial maximum…most of our past is drowned (and probably laid the basis for the Atlantis legend). You think about the megaliths we’ve found – some of them dating back eleven or twelve thousand years…how many more were there that are now under water? What symbols and such might have been carved on them to form the earliest basis of writing? All gone. Never to be known. So, trying to impose our own fancies on the past is really rather silly…the ancients might have got much further along than we suspect before disasters overcame them.

But here’s the really important thing: suppose a person from 15,000 years ago suddenly showed up – traveled through some wormhole in time and appeared at your local Wal Mart. He’d be in shock (you would, too, at his sudden appearance) and would stare in wonder at the things we’ve got on the shelves. But he would be human, just like you. Just as smart as you. Once the first shock is past and you both settle down you’d start to communicate. That person can speak – not English, of course and probably not with as varied a vocabulary as we have today, but speak. The two of you could eventually start to sort out some basic words and mental concepts for each other…to start to tell each other your stories. And that person is going to figure out things – like what a lighter is, what a metal knife can be used for…and so on and on. With a bit of patience, that “cave man” in five years has learned to live in our society and is regularly on the talk show circuit telling us what life was like back in the Ice Age. He’d joke about the high skill he has in tracking down a mastodon but how much easier it is to just buy some chicken nuggets.