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noam-chomsky:

Interviewer: Wow. Well another unquestionable idea is that people are naturally competitive, and that therefore, capitalism is the only proper way to organize society. Do you agree?

NoamChomsky: Look around you. In a family for example, if the parents are hungry do they steal food from the children? They would if they were competitive. In most social groupings that are even semi-sane people support each other and are sympathetic and helpful and care about other people and so on. Those are normal human emotions. It takes plenty of training to drive those feelings out of peoples heads, and they show up all over the place.

It’s true that you can say the humans are competitive, but humans are anything you like. Humans are mass murderers, humans are courageous and honorable and magnificent in many of the things that they do. The whole spectrum is there. Particular institutions and modes of education and so on bring out one or another characteristic of people. There has been a tremendous effort, its been going on for a couple of hundred years now, to try to emphasize particular traits, mainly, the sort of, “Look out for Number One” trait. Well that’s sort of hidden there in all of us. I’m sure under certain circumstances it would probably come out along with others. But that’s the tendency in human character that is enormously supported and amplified by institutional structures, by the propaganda system, by education, by the entertainment industry, by everything. So sure, people are naturally competitive, and they’re naturally cooperative and eager to give up what they have for the benefit of others.

Noam hits home.

(Source: chomsky.info, via 99anon)