Part III explores more recent attempts to reach back into the original principles by which human communities were organized, which I call the paradigm of political equality. We begin where we left off, seeking in the end for a solid foundation for a revolution which will reclaim our ancient heritage and end the slaughter which has been presented to us as inevitable.
At any rate, the evidence is clear that "primitive man" did not have wars or massacres. But since the Agricultural Revolution 10-15,000 years ago, human society has been racked by slavery and wars, exploitation and violence. Here is the reason:
The early communities lived in an abundant environment where they could survive, working part of the day, by gathering fruits and seeds. In hard times, they would scavenge the remains of animals killed by lions, etc. In very hard times, they would resort to hunting in a co-operative way and then sharing the results. They did not store foods...as there was no need to. And thus they accumulated no "wealth" or surpluses. Thus, there was no motive to kill, to steal or to disrupt the co-operation needed for survival. As Darwin wrote, co-operation is the highest level of evolution. The paradigm was a politics of co-operation based on sharing, both food gathering and sharing with no guardians or rulers needed to control the surpluses that only arose in the later settled agricultural societies.
With the Agricultural Revolution, surpluses were saved, hoarding began to prepare for lean years. As a result, a guardian class protected and distributed the resources.
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