Human nature: The Recurring Pattern of Human Society
Looking across the long arc of human history, a recurring pattern in the way societies are organized seems to emerge. Although institutions, technologies, cultures, and political systems have changed enormously from one age to another, certain relationships between production, power, security, and control appear to persist. Again and again, those who produce the material foundations of society seem to coexist with—and often become subordinate to—those who possess the means to organize, enforce, or appropriate power. The names, institutions, and technologies change with the times, but the underlying dynamic can be remarkably familiar. Perhaps what changes throughout history is less the fundamental structure of these relationships than the mechanisms through which they are maintained. The warrior becomes the feudal lord, the feudal lord becomes the aristocrat, and the aristocrat gives way to the modern political and economic elite. Tribute becomes taxation; physical protection bec...