Ben's Blog

April 2026

When the world is beset by endless war, as it is from time to time,
we find ourselves saying, “what can we do? It‘s just ‘human nature”
But what is human nature?

Our understanding of human nature is based on the behaviour of jut one single society, our own -‘palliative stage capitalism.’ Admittedly, 99% of the world’s population are members of this society, (whether they like it or not) but there are still over 5,000 indigenous groups intact in the world today who have no wish to join our gang. Preserved in those groups is 99% of human social and political diversity! Each one of them has a unique way of operating that is totally different to how we behave here in the modernworld. Over the last 15,000 years we have spent much blood, sweat and tears perfecting a hierarchical society ruled by the threat of violence as our preferred form of social control. More recently we have made some attempt to limit our use of violence to resolve our differences, with some limited success at the society level, (with the notable exception of the suppression of protests) less success at the domestic level, and very little success at all at the international level, obviously.

You may be surprized to learn that some indigenous groups who have managed to avoid being swallowed up by the maw of modern society have  strict policies against the use of violence, except in defence of the community itself. They do not hit their children or anyone else for that matter. In order to justify our treatment of them, we have tended to think of indigenous people as savages, always at war with one tribe or another. (much like ourselves, ironically. But we like to have our wars on a national scale, ideally in someone else’s nation, far from our own) In our society we are prone to using violence as part of caring for each other. This begins in the home, where many feel it is acceptable, even necessary to use corporal punishment like smacking, as an integral part of caring for our children.( but hey, if you can’t outsmart a 3 year old, maybe you aren’t smart enough to be a parent)

Traditionally, the man has been given free rein to use whatever means necessary to control his spouse, though that is frowned upon nowadays in polite society. (some men find it even more difficult to manage a woman than a 3 year old, and resort to the same primitive methods)

Here in the west our laws are based on Roman law, which is founded on property rights. A man has unfeterred rights to use his property as he sees fit. While he must obey those above him, he is given free reign over his property: his land, his spouse, his children and his slaves.

He can kill them if he so desires. Nearing the end of Roman rule Tiberius did actually decree that a council permit was required to execute a slave via ‘quartering’ – tying a person’s limbs to 4 horses, then whipping the horses – the first glimmer of human compassion in a sadistic society, that happens to be the foundation of our way of life.  For two thousand year we have been attempting to break down those fundamental male privileges bestowed by Julius Caesar himself, but they are still deeply ingrained in our unconscious, and tend to pop up from time to time, especially for the male of the species, like when we lose our temper, and occasionally burn our wife and children to death in a fit of pike.

It was not always like this. For 200,000 years the world was sparsely populated by small bands of very independent people. They were not all savages. They were not lacking an  understanding of politics. In fact many of them went to extraordinary lengths to maintain their hard won peaceful independence and egalitarian ways. While other groups preferred the constant excitement of war and the rewards it offered. Luckily, in those days you could escape your warlike neighbours simply by going over the hill to the next valley and find it empty and fertile. Those were the days my friend…

Nowadays that is not an option. Even the heart of the Amazon jungle is subject to demarcation disputes that are sometime settled by violence…. sometimes not.

Many archaeological anthropologists and anthropological archaeologists tell us that the structure of a society tends to be modelled on the structure of  the family, or the household – the basic unit of society. Roman law was based on the male dominated house hold, (dominate- from domicile)  and your typical roman male believed in violence as the best way to control and care for those under his dominion. Whereas societies that modelled their structure  on matriarchal households, where violence played no part in the running of the household, naturally eschewed violence as a method of control in the society at large.

We live in violent times. The use of violence is so ingrained in our thinking we find it hard to believe a society could function without it, but some do. We must seek them out and find their secret, before they are wiped out completely.

Ben Boyang April 2026

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