this post was submitted on 11 Apr 2026
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Memes of Production
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This one’s silly. Lots of animals display greed. They gather way more food than they need for the winter. They steal each other’s food. They engage in surplus killing. Greed is everywhere. Nature, Red in Tooth and Claw.
Counterpoint: Kropotkin
I wasn’t advancing a position that cooperation did not exist in nature (that would be absurd). Multicellular life is essentially defined by cooperation. No, I was arguing against the meme’s implication that greed is unnatural or even unique to humans.
As for a counterpoint to Kropotkin, I would advance game theory, which shows that greed and selfishness are successful strategies in otherwise cooperative environments (Free rider problem). In nature (and in human society) we find free riders everywhere we look.
I don't think the meme implies greed is unnatural, just that it isn't the sum of human nature as some seem to think.
Who thinks that? Usually when I see “X is human nature” it’s implied that “X is part of human nature.” I’ve never heard anyone suggest that anything was the sum total of human nature, never mind greed.
As for capitalism being human nature, that’s quite silly too, given how long humans have lived without capitalism in the past (the majority of our species’ existence). And as for capitalism being interchangeable with greed, that’s a fallacy of composition. Capitalism attempts to leverage individual greed for wider good. It doesn’t always succeed, but who has?