Is communism against human nature Spectre of Communism Podcast

Spectre Of Communism · 2024-01-30

Here is the structured analytical summary of the Spectre of Communism podcast episode, "Is communism against human nature?".

Core Argument¶

The central thesis is that the claim "communism is against human nature" is an ideological weapon of the ruling class, not a scientific observation. The episode argues that "human nature" is not a fixed, transhistorical essence but is itself a product of the mode of production. Therefore, the selfish, competitive, and acquisitive behaviour attributed to "human nature" under capitalism is not innate but is a specific historical product of class society. Communism, far from being unnatural, represents a return to the cooperative social relations that characterised the vast majority of human history (primitive communism) and a leap forward to a new, consciously shaped human nature based on abundance rather than scarcity.

Theoretical Grounding¶

The analysis is firmly rooted in historical materialism. It draws on several key Marxist concepts:

Historical Materialism and the Mode of Production: The core argument is that human nature changes with the mode of production. The episode uses the historical sequence—primitive communism, slavery, feudalism, capitalism—to demonstrate that morality, law, and social psychology are not eternal but correspond to the economic base.
The Ruling Ideas are the Ideas of the Ruling Class: The episode explicitly deploys this concept to explain why capitalism is presented as natural and eternal. It is in the interest of the bourgeoisie to naturalise a system that serves its power.
Marx's Concept of Labour and Species-Being: The discussion of humans transforming nature through labour, creating new needs, and thereby transforming themselves is a direct reference to Marx’s early writings on alienation and species-being. The key quote from The Poverty of Philosophy — "all history is nothing but a continuous transformation of human nature" — anchors the entire argument.
The Critique of Malthusianism: The episode correctly identifies Malthus's population theory as the classical bourgeois economic justification for poverty and inequality, framing it as a natural law rather than a consequence of capitalist accumulation.
Primitive Accumulation and the Source of Poverty: The argument that "the poor are poor because the rich are rich" is a concise restatement of Marx's theory of primitive accumulation and the general law of capitalist accumulation, which posits that wealth at one pole creates poverty at the other.

The episode sits within the classical Marxist tradition, directly engaging with Marx and Engels rather than later Western Marxist or critical theory currents. It is a polemical defence of the revolutionary potential of the working class against biological and psychological reductionism.

Conjunctural Relevance¶

The argument is highly relevant to the current conjuncture, which is marked by a deep crisis of legitimacy for neoliberal capitalism. The episode connects to this moment by:

Countering the "Jordan Peterson" phenomenon: The explicit refutation of Jordan Peterson's lobster-hierarchy argument is a direct intervention in a prominent contemporary ideological battle. Peterson's pseudo-scientific justification for hierarchy is a key example of the ruling class updating its "human nature" argument for a new generation.
Responding to Evolutionary Psychology: The critique of Richard Dawkins' "selfish gene" and sociobiology targets a powerful, widely-diffused intellectual framework that naturalises competition, racism, and nationalism. This is a necessary corrective to the dominant biological determinism in popular science and public discourse.
Grounding the Argument in Recent Struggles: The episode cites the Sudanese Revolution, the Sri Lankan Revolution, the Chilean protests, the movement in Iran, and the fightback against the coup in Peru. These are not abstract examples; they are concrete, recent events that the episode uses as evidence that the working class is capable of immense solidarity, sacrifice, and collective action, directly refuting the "greedy human nature" thesis.
The Crisis of Capitalism: The episode frames the current period as a "worldwide revolutionary epoch" characterised by a system "staggering from one crisis to another." This situates the ideological battle over human nature within a material context of economic instability, war, and escalating class struggle.

Where the Argument Continues¶

This episode is an introductory polemic. It deliberately leaves several threads open for further development:

The Nature of the Revolutionary Party: The episode concludes by stating the question is not the capacity of the working class, but the capacity of "Communists to become that factor that can give the working class the leadership." This is a direct lead-in to discussions on the Spectre of Communism and Against the Stream podcasts about the need for a revolutionary party, its strategy, and its relationship to the class.
The Transitional Society: The episode acknowledges that socialism will "bear the birthmarks" of capitalism. The concrete economic and political forms of this transitional society—the dictatorship of the proletariat, the withering away of the state, the nature of planning—are not explored here but are central to the broader Marxist tradition and other RCI output.
The Material Basis of Prejudice: While the episode correctly roots sexism and racism in class society, it does not fully develop the specific economic functions of these oppressions under capitalism (e.g., the reserve army of labour, super-exploitation). This is a thread that is developed in other episodes dealing with the national question, gender oppression, and the role of the state.

Connections¶

Marx, The Poverty of Philosophy: The source of the key quote on the transformation of human nature.
Marx, Capital, Volume 1: For the general law of capitalist accumulation and the critique of Malthus.
Engels, Socialism: Utopian and Scientific: For the "leap from the realm of necessity to the realm of freedom."
Engels, The Origin of the Family, Private Property and the State: For the historical analysis of the emergence of class society and the oppression of women from primitive communism.
Against the Stream / Spectre of Communism episodes on:
- The state and revolution.
- The national question and racism.
- The nature of the revolutionary party.
- The crisis of capitalism and the current conjuncture.
Richard Dawkins, The Selfish Gene: The primary text of the sociobiological position being critiqued.
Jordan Peterson, 12 Rules for Life: A contemporary popularisation of the hierarchical "human nature" argument.

Key Quotes¶

"All history is nothing but a continuous transformation of human nature."
"The poor are poor because the rich are rich... capitalism depends upon the fact that the vast majority are expropriated from the means of production and a tiny minority are those that own the means of production."
"The ruling ideas in any society are the ideas of the ruling class... every ruling class has regarded its social system as being the most natural and eternal... because the interests of the ruling class are precisely bound up with the unchanging static nature of that system."
"It's through practice and revolutionary struggle in particular by the working class that the working class is going to transform itself and... rid itself of all the muck of Ages and become fitted to found society anew."
"Once we do away with scarcity, once we have a society of super abundance for the first time in human history, it will represent the biggest revolution in human nature that we as a species have ever experienced."