The Law of the Jungle
One way to justify the exploitation of others is to blame nature. We are all familiar with the "law of the jungle". In the jungle, we believe, life is a harsh struggle for survival where the strongest and fittest individuals win and might makes right. We are particularly fond of referring to pack animals like wolves and chimpanzees, noting that they actually bully one another to the benefit of the group and seeing this as proof that it is natural to favor the group at the expense of certain individuals. Am I really claiming we humans still follow the cruel order of wild animals? No, not at all. It is far more complicated than that. The truth is, we use nature to prove that our society is not based on exploitation even though it is, a conclusion we reach through a kind of circular reasoning: 1. We see the fact that animals eat each other and maintain hierarchies as proof that the exploitation of powerless is a trait we have inherited from them. 2. We then see the fact that...