To the Editor:

TAKE A WALK ON THE WILD SIDE

I am no fan of government. Common sense practically shouts that without its vexatious presence and all its regulations, taxes, wars, destructive cultural manipulation and the like, the majority of us would be vastly better off. On the basis of this appealing logic, I have long classified myself as a libertarian, and have enjoyed the Voluntaryist and its acerbic observations of government shortcomings. It's nice to know that there are a few kindred spirits swimming about in the seething sea of human chaos. However, one can hardly contemplate the warts and pustules of government without confronting daunting questions, to wit: Why was government invented in the first place, and why does it so stubbornly persist? Can it be improved? How can it be that in America, blessed as it was with the revolutionary ideals of Paine, Franklin and Jefferson, and where oppressive government was expelled at so terrible a cost, the wretched organization has mysteriously re-appeared like the proverbial Phoenix and grown bigger and badder than ever? Ditto for France, whose revolutionary adventure was even more horrific and was succeeded by Napoleon, empire and war even within the living memory of Voltaire and the philosophs. Are government dynamics so powerful that we can never rid ourselves of its presence? Could it be that no matter who is chosen as a leader or how leaders are chosen, government policies will remain essentially unchanged? These questions lead ultimately to the most disturbing question of all: Is government the product of the innate behavioral characteristics of man? Is it possible that government can be neither eradicated nor even improved without first changing the essential nature of human beings? These questions are both unpleasant and difficult to answer, because the precise origins of government are obviously lost to the sands of time. They suggest that human existence may forever be doomed to suffer the inescapable brutalities and inefficiencies of government, and that sooner or later all civilizations must collapse beneath the weight of its destructive effects. Is there no hope? Are we libertarians little more than the philosophical black stuff between the toes of the Hobbes Leviathan (i.e. slow natives)?

Science routinely confronts similar mysteries of the physical world, including those of biology. The scientific approach to finding answers to such problems involves proposing explanations of observed facts and then challenging them with careful observations in an effort to find exceptions that render them invalid. Such proposed explanations are called "hypotheses" and if experimental challenges fail to show them defective, and they are able to predict results, then they become accepted as "truth" by the majority of scientists and are elevated to the status of "theory". However, a theory remains in good graces only until it fails to explain a critical observation. In the hope of obtaining a more accurate understanding of the origins and nature of government, the better to eradicate it, or at least improve it, I propose a hypothesis: Human beings are animals, and government is the product of their innate social nature.

The animal kingdom offers considerable evidence that government is not exclusive to humans. Few animal species consist of individuals so formidable as to be immune to attack from other species, and these generally lead solitary lives and avoid contact with one another. Polar bears and orangutans offer examples, but even these have been observed to engage in social behavior in rare circumstances. There is strength in numbers, and individual survival is generally enhanced by group formation. The vast majority of animal species form social hierarchies spontaneously and instinctively, and the forms and styles of these hierarchies are characteristic of animal classes. These animal behaviors are generally called "social behaviors". When viewed in perspective, it is obvious that the social behavior of animals, which serves both military and productive purposes, is a manifestation of government. We even have names for the various types of animal government. Wolves dwell in "packs". Cats exist in "prides". Ungulates form "herds". Whales form "pods". Fish form "schools". Ants and termites live in "colonies". Bees form "hives". Birds form "flocks". Each animal family type has distinctive group-related styles and methods of seeking food and shelter, breeding, fighting, and selecting leaders. The leaders organize their followers in a manner that enhances attack and defense and sustains productive activities necessary for survival. The process of determining leadership may be called "politics". In lower forms of animals, such as insects, this behavior is instinctive and genetically programmed. In higher animals, it often involves learned behavior including deceit, treachery, guile, bluffs, threats, and lethal violence, these being the tools necessary to gull or force lesser group members to submit to the will of the leader. As everyone familiar with animal husbandry knows, the aggressive temperament associated with such animal "social" behavior is largely determined by genetics and can be exaggerated or mitigated via selective breeding.

Not surprisingly, food and sex are the primary benefits of successful animal leadership. Animal leaders generally gain improved access to food and sexual opportunities, both of which might be expected to enhance their ability to transmit their genetic characteristics to subsequent generations. However, the pursuit of leadership roles often entails an increased risk of death, for animal leaders are often obliged to take the lead in attack and defense activities, while less aggressive animals may enjoy greater longevity that enhances their reproductive success and helps to maintain a "balance" of dominant and submissive behavior within animal populations that facilitates group formation.

Chimpanzees, the closest living relatives of humans, have a form of government that is called a "troupe". Their political behavior is documented by Fritz van der Waal in a book called "Chimpanzee Politics" that describes the behavior of a group of chimpanzees brought together in a Belgian zoo from disparate origins. The males and females formed semi-independent social hierarchies, with the males superficially dominating the females. However, the females exhibited a form of "biological supremacy" similar to that which prevails in human society, so as to be largely free of male political harassment. The male hierarchy was dominated by a political alliance between an old chimpanzee named "Yeroen" and a young male named "Nikkie". This alliance consistently dominated all other members of the troupe, including"Luit", the largest and strongest individual male. This elementary "gang" alliance illustrates how politics can enable the weak to dominate the strong. The politically dominant pair led various attempts to escape from the confines of the zoo, and provided "justice" for the troupe by settling conflicts among both males and females, the obvious motive being to enhance their political prestige and power. In the wild, chimp leadership has been observed to engineer highly organized attacks on neighboring chimpanzee troupes to expand foraging territory, and to organize group hunting expeditions to attack less intelligent monkeys to obtain food. Thus chimpanzees, which until recently were thought to be peaceful vegetarians, are now recognized to be territorial and highly formidable group predators. Near the end of the observation period, a zoo keeper placed Luit in the same cage with Nikkie and Yeroen, and before this disastrous mistake was discovered the next morning, Luit had been mortally wounded and his testicles bitten off.

The fundamental form of human government is the "tribe", and the similarity between the social behavior of humans and chimpanzees at this level is striking. Humans, like most other animals, appear to instinctively form dominance hierarchies (i.e. gangs and governments) that are primarily military in nature. These facilitate organized defense as well as attack, and enhance individual survival in the face of a hostile world. Seen in this context, "evil", "leadership" and "politics" may be synonymous. So-called "evil" human behavior, including lying, cheating, deceit, treachery, stealing, threats and violence may all be manifestations of the instinctive drive to dominate and control, otherwise known as "leadership", as these forms of behavior are essential elements of group formation and function.

In the case of humans, the considerations of leadership and power influence nearly every aspect of life, including sexual activity, dress, language, and religion. Marriage may serve as an example. It is a habit promoted by government to enhance the discipline of those tiny savages we all know and love, to produce better soldiers. The institution may be arranged as polygamy in order to facilitate fertility, or as monotony (monogamy) to optimize economic productivity by relieving the husband of the time and energy-consuming necessity of dealing with more than one mate. Homosexuality and heterosexuality are encouraged relative to one another for similar political purposes. However, severe forms of monotony eventually spell doom for any civilization, because of the disastrous effect on fertility, as exemplified by our present society. The ever-changing mix of cultural values observed in human society are thus induced on behalf of the ever-changing plans and objectives of political leadership.

Like two tarantulas trapped in the same box, governments cannot "peacefully co-exist" if located in the same neighborhood. Sooner or later, one must attack the other and either destroy it, be destroyed by it, merge with it, or incorporate it into an empire. For leaders, the stakes are high, because the leadership of the losing party in war is typically put to death. This principle is clearly observed in the behavior of human and chimpanzee governments, and even different sub-species of ant colonies attack one another when they occupy the same territory. The historical landscape is littered with the remnants of destroyed civilizations, such as the Indian nations of the Americas that existed before the arrival of Europeans or the Etruscans who once shared the Italian peninsula with the Romans. At the dawn of recorded Western History, it was customary for the "winning side" to methodically murder every man, woman and child on the "losing side" lest they "counter-attack" at a later time. We thus have no way of knowing how many civilizations have been destroyed so thoroughly as to leave no traces of their existence. True mergers of governments, such the peaceful incorporation of Scotland into England (after centuries of horrific warfare) are uncommon, due to the vast differences in language and customs that are usually present. More commonly, governments incorporate one another into empires, such as the Roman Empire, the ancient Chinese dynasties, or the Anglo-American Empire that now controls practically all the countries of the world. Empires flourish by promoting common laws and currencies that facilitate trade and commerce and inhibit warfare, but the warfare necessary to establish empires tends to slaughter the healthiest and most intelligent individuals only to foster circumstances where unhealthy specimens proliferate.

Regardless of the style of government that emerges successful over time, the innate characteristics of human social behavior remain unchanged. The political struggle rages quietly at all levels of every society, and though it may sometimes strengthen individual families and business organizations, it forever tears at the bowels of civilization, disrupting productive human activity and threatening disorder and disaster. New gangs form and flourish even within the territory controlled by a government. In the name of justice and order, human governments employ police and courts to suppress so-called "criminal" activity which is an expression of the instinctive leadership paradigm, though it is seldom recognized as such. Unfortunately, the primary objective of courts and police is power and control, as opposed to justice, and they probably facilitate the occult objectives of political/criminal machination more often than suppress them. Sooner or later, even the most successful examples of government and civilization find themselves torn apart from within by the unceasing corrosive effects political activity, and collapse.

A libertarian such as yours truly would prefer to believe that human beings are gifted with the ability to reason and thereby achieve a state of ultimate civilized behavior, peace and prosperity. The animal evidence as well as recorded human history suggests otherwise. The innate limitations of instinctive human social behavior appears to impose natural limits on the ability of human beings to achieve a state of true civilized existence. Government appears to be an inevitable fact of life, and human civilizations are doomed to fail and collapse. I challenge and implore the readership of the Voluntaryist to find fatal flaws with my hypothesis.

Lewis S. Coleman
Bakersfield, Ca.