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Originally Posted by Ustwo
Nothing in ape evolution is even remotely socialist.
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When we were in our hunter gatherer stage, between 20k and maybe 15k years ago, humans moved in and lived in packs, or family units. It's here where humans derive the concepts of egalitarianism (and maybe the beginning of stoicism). It was when we had these non-hierarchical, small, roving bands of humans that we were socialist. One could even argue that before this time when we moved in troops when we were still Cro-Magnons, we were also socialist.
The basic idea was that each member of a family unit contributed to the whole unit first. Preceding the Neolithic Revolution, there was not agriculture or proper infrastructure. As hunter-gatherers, humans could not often live on their own because conditions made that difficult. The consistency and safety of larger numbers all contributing to the whole created a better environment for humans to flourish. At this time, things like food, clothing, and tools were shared by a group, and the spoils of any kill were equally distributed even to those who were not involved in the hunt. That's socialism. If you need a more current example, many Native American tribes were deeply socialist (nonsecular polytheistic socialism), and were very successful. Had the Americas had more germs and steel, the Europeans may not have been able to get ahead in their technology, and we might all be speaking Mohican.
/Might be a threadjack, not 100% sure.