James Scott is a political scientist at Yale University, an
advocate of anarchy lite — not “smash the state” but “make the state more wise
and fair.” Originally, the ancestors of
all humans were wild folks living in sweet freedom on open lands owned by no
one. Then came agriculture, private
property, inequality, and the rise of creepy states, in which well-fed rulers
exploited mobs of unlucky subjects and slaves.
The Art of Not Being Governed examines the power dramas between
free folks and states in Southeast Asia.
In this region, states first arose in the valleys and
lowlands, especially in locations suitable for growing rice in flooded
paddies. Rice produces high yields, but
is labor intensive. Land that is ideal
for raising crops only generates wealth when there is an adequate workforce of fairly
obedient taxpayers and slaves. Alas, wading
in paddies, in clouds of mosquitoes, baking in the heat, constantly bent over, was
not everyone’s idea of a good time. Persistent
misery inspired many non-elites to envision a beautiful alternative — escape!!!
Most of the landscape surrounding the valley states was
mountainous and rugged, unsuited for conventional agriculture, but ideal terrain
for state-evading sanctuaries of freedom.
So, the higher elevations were home to small groups of hill people who
preferred autonomy to subservience. They
hunted, foraged, and grew food in scattered locations. Root and tuber foods, like yams, cassava, potatoes,
and sweet potatoes, did not ripen at once, or require storage. They could be left in the ground up to two years,
and dug up as needed. Scattered amidst
the natural vegetation, they were not easy for outsiders to discover.
These scattered communities of hill people often had little,
if any, contact with outsiders. Their primary
desire was to live in freedom. All of
them were refugees, coming from a diverse mixture of cultural, ethnic, and
religious traditions. Hill folks had no official
name, so a scholar invented one. He
called them Zomians, the people of Zomia (highlands). The numerous remote hill communities that
comprised Zomia were widely dispersed across an area the size of Europe. Zomian groups inhabited a region that spanned
across five nations, and four Chinese provinces. [MAP]
Down in the valleys, the rice producing states were often
disrupted by ongoing conflicts and instability.
Scott noted that these states “tended to be remarkably short-lived.” The lives of subjects and slaves were
miserable, which is why they never stopped running off into the hills. From most rice paddies, the hills of Zomia
were always visible. In a prison without
cages or walls, freedom was just a walk away.
Physical flight was the primary check on state power. It was usually less dangerous than revolt.
The constant loss of manpower was a serious challenge that
required constant efforts to snatch fresh replacements. Military campaigns brought home prisoners who
were forced to begin exciting new careers in slavery. States often sent slave raiders into the hills
of Zomia, in efforts to find free folks and drag them back to the rice paddies.
Classroom history books focus on stuff like wars, empires,
heroes, and progress. Slavery gets
slight mention, if any. Students will read
about classical Greek intellect, art, and architecture; not slavery. There were times when the population in
Athens had five times as many slaves as full citizens. Around the world, slavery was a standard
component of most agriculture-based civilizations, until recently, when
mechanization sharply reduced the need for two-legged farm implements. Your extended family tree likely contains
more than a few slaves. Visit
Wikipedia’s article on slavery. [HERE]
Clive
Ponting published an excellent history that focused much attention on how
the hungry dirty commoners actually lived, suffered, and died. He wrote, “Until about the last two centuries
in every part of the world nearly everyone lived on the edge of
starvation.” J.
R. McNeill noted that in preindustrial times, horses and oxen were often
luxuries that were too expensive for poor farmers. Humans were far more energy efficient than
draft animals, and they were capable of performing clever tricks, like digging
up spuds, or planting rice. Having a
gang of slaves boosted the net profits for their masters. Lords adored hoards of gold.
In the hills, Zomians were wizards at utilizing “geographical
friction” to make it harder for slave raiders to find them. Rather than courteously providing their
pursuers with smooth well-marked paths, they deliberately preferred to reside
in locations that were not highly visible, or easily accessible. Some locations were perfect for defensive
warfare, because they enabled a small number of guardians to block or ambush a
larger force of aggressors. The most
secure refuges were places “only accessible to monkeys.”
Geographical friction is an interesting idea. Our wild ancestors lived in lands where free
movement originally had many natural obstacles.
Friction was provided by rugged mountains, swamps, dense jungles, vast
deserts, rivers, seas, etc. Friction
hampered the expansion of early states. It
wasn’t quick or easy to suppress a revolt ten miles away. Friction could be reduced by roads, bridges,
boats, beasts of burden, and contraptions with wheels. Today, far less geographical friction
remains. We have long distance travel
via highways, railroads, air travel, and cargo ships. We can instantly send info anywhere. Scott refers to these as “distance demolishing
technologies.” With great pride, we have
dumped trash on the moon.
Scott was fascinated by the deep human desire to live in
freedom. Genetically, we are alert and intelligent
wild omnivores, not dimwitted feedlot critters, or hive insects. His discussion of Zomia revealed patterns
that parallel a similar downward spiral of trends around the world. Folks went from nomadic to sedentary, which
led to plant and animal domestication, slavery, patriarchy, population growth,
perpetual conflict, civilization, industrialization, and our remarkably
victorious world war on everything.
For almost the entire human saga, our ancestors enjoyed the
freedom of living in small nomadic groups.
Our mental equipment is fine-tuned for this way of life. The hill people of Zomia focused on equality,
autonomy, and mobility. For them, the
concept of “chief” was incomprehensible. Lads who got too assertive sometimes had to be
ethically euthanized, in order to maintain the coherence of the group. Smooth cooperation worked far better than compulsory
obedience to sharp orders from big daddy buttheads.
Societies took a sharp turn for the worse with the shift
toward private property, when the open commons got chopped into chunks of exclusive,
inheritable, real estate. Equality was
displaced by hierarchies based on wealth, class, and status. Social rank was based on wealth. More was always better. Strive to climb the social pyramid. Primary emphasis shifted from “we” to
“me.” It’s like a silly goofy bratty children’s
game.
When our wild ancestors evolved in the tropics, food was
available year round, nobody owned it, and it was acquired when needed. Later, when folks colonized temperate
regions, food storage was required for winter survival. This eventually inspired plant and animal
domestication, which created food that was owned, and held in concentrated
locations — granaries and enslaved herds.
These treasure chests of valuable grain, meat, and muscle power were “appropriable
and raidable.” They provided
irresistible temptation to ruthless geeks who were allergic to hard work and
honesty.
Indeed, this led to the creation of a new career path. Stealing food required far less labor than
producing it, and raiding was far more adventurous and exciting for adults who
had testicles. At this point, the need
to eradicate looters led to the emergence of armed defenders, a military class. These warriors could also serve as armed
aggressors, looting the treasure chests of other communities. Since then, the military sphere has never
stopped growing in size and power.
With the transition to hierarchy, the old fashioned tradition
of mutual support took the back seat to a competition-based, winner take all
culture. When you’re a slave in a rice
paddy, and your master is a cruel bastard, and your foreseeable future is
perpetual misery, you begin to contemplate the meaning of life. You can go crazy, you can flee into the
hills, or you can float away into magical thinking.
The hill people were primarily animists. They enjoyed a life of freedom in places of
healthy wild nature. They developed
intimate relationships with the surrounding flora, fauna, and landscape — here
and now reality that you could see, touch, and smell. For them, the living world was spiritually
alive. Directly experiencing this profound
coherence did not require imagination or belief. It was deeply meaningful.
The stressed and oppressed valley people were more inclined
to seek solace in salvation religions, primarily Buddhism and Islam. Christianity arrived more recently. Slavery was an institution with deep roots in
many cultures around the world. Until
recently, salvation religions treated it as normal. Slaves must be obedient. What these religions promised was that the
sucky life you have today will pass, and your soul will continue its journey
forever via reincarnation, or admittance to a beautiful eternal paradise (if
you weren’t too naughty). Religion
provided something to hope for, a better future.
Multinational salvation religions can be practiced anywhere
on Earth. They are highly portable
because their focus is on great mysteries.
Worship often takes place inside buildings, shut away from the family of
life. Paradise is somewhere unseen, a
faraway realm. Some preach millenarian
visions of a new and enduring era of peace, justice, and prosperity — a
miraculous transition that is inevitable, and may arrive soon. Wickedness will be destroyed, and the righteous
will receive their just rewards.
Even though the hill people enjoyed some advantages over the
valley slaves, nobody in the realm of Zomia enjoyed a life of bliss. Hill folks were frequently pursued by hostile
outsiders, and valley slaves were frequently abused by their masters. Many folks passionately dreamed that their painful
way of life would somehow someday be completely turned upside down, and then move
in a new and better direction.
Prophets and messiahs often fell out of the sky, describing
their divine revelations, fanning the flames of resentment, and triggering
thousands of uprisings and rebellions.
Make Zomia great again! Folks desperate
for any possibility of emancipation were vulnerable to the tempting promises of
ambitious, slick talking, charismatic blowhards.
Sadly, a better tomorrow missed the bus somewhere down the
road. States got bigger and more
powerful, and then they got blindsided by steamroller colonizers from outer
space, like the empire-building British, French, and Japanese. By 1945 it was pretty much bedtime for Zomian
freedom. Variations of this tragic drama
took place around much of the world. Today,
virtually all humans are subjects of states.
Fleeing to zones of refuge is nearly impossible. Tyrants now have fighter jets, helicopters, tanks,
missiles, cluster bombs, land mines, drones, satellites. Good luck with that rebellion.
Scott laments the outcome. “The future of our freedom lies in the
daunting task of taming Leviathan, not evading it.” He says that our best tool for the challenge
is representative democracy. Good luck conjuring
virtuous government. He was writing in
2009, back in the happy days when there were a billion fewer primates on the
ark. More recently, hopping mad, power-hungry,
nationalist psychopaths have been popping up in nations all over the place, like
mushrooms after an autumn shower.
Oh wow! Look! A pair of 800 pound gorillas has jumped into
the brawl — the climate crisis and resource limits — two invincible giants
spawned by the unintended consequences of our obsession with idiotic cleverness.
Their plan is to act like bulls in a
china shop, and smash up Fantasyland. This
should be interesting.
Scott, James C., The Art of Not Being Governed, Yale
University Press, New Haven, 2009.
2 comments:
Wilson and Wilson (unrelated) have been arguing that selfishness is good for the individual while altruism is advantageous for the group and the latter may play a part in evolution. It is rejected by majority of evolutionists since natural selection occurs at the individual level. In my opinion treating the members of your group fairly (a better word than altruistically) is advantageous not only for the group but also helps the individual in survival. KROPOTKIN recognized this. According to (Mutual Aid: An Illuminated Factor of Evolution) selection for mutual aid directly benefits each individual in its own struggle for personal success.
I agree. The game of dog eat dog competition does not make for a happy camp.
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