My family and I are in Holland on a visit

[Fantastic Anarchist]

49. You'll find this interesting:

The anarchist, Prince Peter Kropotkin, in 1903 studied the animal kingdom inter- and intra-species (including humans) cooperation vs competition, essentially building on Darwin. He came up with Mutual Aid: A Factor of Evolution (available for free online).

His conclusion was that societies that cooperated tended to survive over societies that competed.

Wiki:

Mutual Aid: A Factor of Evolution is a 1902 essay collection by Russian anarchist philosopher Peter Kropotkin. The essays, initially published in the English periodical The Nineteenth Century between 1890 and 1896, explore the role of mutually-beneficial cooperation and reciprocity (or "mutual aid&quot in the animal kingdom and human societies both past and present. It is an argument against the competition-centred theories of so-called social Darwinism, as well as the romantic depictions of cooperation presented by writers such as Jean-Jacques Rousseau, who argued it was motivated by universal love rather than self-interest. Mutual Aid is considered a fundamental text in anarchist communism, presenting a scientific basis for communism alternative to the historical materialism of the Marxists. Many biologists also consider it an important catalyst in the scientific study of cooperation.

Daniel P. Todes, in his account of Russian naturalism in the 19th century, concludes that Kropotkin’s work "cannot be dismissed as the idiosyncratic product of an anarchist dabbling in biology" and that his views "were but one expression of a broad current in Russian evolutionary thought that pre-dated, indeed encouraged, his work on the subject and was by no means confined to leftist thinkers."[1]

Kropotkin pointed out the distinction between the direct struggle among individuals for limited resources (generally called competition) and the more metaphorical struggle between organisms and the environment (tending to be cooperative). He therefore did not deny the competitive form of struggle, but argued that the cooperative counterpart has been underemphasized: "There is an immense amount of warfare and extermination going on amidst various species; there is, at the same time, as much, or perhaps even more, of mutual support, mutual aid, and mutual defense...Sociability is as much a law of nature as mutual struggle."[2]

As a description of biology, Kropotkin's work has been confirmed by recent research. Stephen Jay Gould admired Kropotkin's observations, noting that cooperation, if it increases individual survival, is not ruled out by natural selection, and is in fact encouraged.[3] Modern biology confirms Kropotkin's observations in two ways. When different species appear to aid each other, it is a case of mutualism. When individuals within a species aid each other, it is a case of altruism in animals, including kin selection and reciprocal altruism. Douglas H. Boucher places Kropotkin's book as a precursor to the development of mutualism as a theory.[4]

It's a fascinating read, and should be shared as much as possible.

The society is nothing without the individual, however, the individual is nothing without society.

It's this sort of interconnectedness between the individual and society that makes up the whole. You cannot damage one part without damaging the other.

This is what the reactionaries do not get. They can't think outside of their immediate body or tribe. Reactionary thinking is incapable of thinking of the whole except as a tool for fascism. It doesn't matter if you are a Buckley uber-capitalist or a Leninist Bolshevik. Both reactionary foundations limit the perception of the whole to the individuals (make no mistake, the Leninists see the same individualist few who would be masters of the economy, just as the Buckley capitalists, who would use society for their fascist ends). In both, you have the managerial class that would govern on behalf of the masses (mixing political authority with economic authority). One is a dictatorship of the proletariat, the other, a dictatorship of the capitalists. Words mean nothing here, because guess who owned and dictated? The same people! Just refer to Right-Wing Authoritarianism for more information. The term is not a political term here as it explains the American Libertarians just as much as it explains the Communist Party Apparatchiks - subservience to authority.

Much editing due to making this post on my phone, apologies for any errors or incoherence.