During the 20th century, anthropologists expanded our knowledge of hundreds of thousand years of human cultural and political evolution, during which, humans existed 98% of the time (8,000 generations) within nomadic egalitarian hunter-gatherer societies.
But this egalitarian ethos of altruism and communal equality has continuously been challenged by authoritarianism. America’s early Northern sense and sentiments of egalitarian morality were incompatible with the Old South slave society’s authoritarian aristocratic governance. This persistent cultural war of human values versus religious ethno-cultural discrimination endures.
In 2019, 90% of Republican House members were white men; two-thirds of Democrats were not white men. In 2012, Pew Research Center reported 63% of Republicans disagreed that “government should guarantee every citizen enough to eat and a place to sleep,” while 78% of Democrats agreed and 65% thought “more support for the needy should be provided.” Nationally, Japan’s capitalist democracy and Scandinavia’s social democracies and egalitarianism have the highest international rankings for democracy and median population well-being.
Anthropologist Christopher Boehm notes: “Democratic origins … are not recent and historical, but evolutionary and ancient … intimately involved with the development of human nature itself. … Both egalitarianism and [authoritarian] hierarchy are natural conditions of humanity.”
Between 4 million and 13 million years ago, humans biologically emerged from the hominoid family transmitting unique DNA, genetic coding and hereditary survival traits to future generations. For thousands of generations, humans embraced egalitarian values of social cohesion and classless societies while shunning, banishing and executing unruly authoritarian upstarts. However, egalitarian values were often corrupted when bands transitioned to tribes and ancient nation states and inherited traits were contaminated by extreme authoritarianism, exemplified by the ultimate collapse of Western nations from Ancient Greece to Great Britain.
So, what explains human history’s continuous conflict between egalitarianism (Presidents Barack Obama and Joe Biden) and authoritarianism (President Donald Trump and Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis)? About 200,000 years ago, egalitarian societies and anatomically modern humans reached full maturity. Consequently, during the last 10,000 years, the rate of human biological evolution has been infinitesimal compared to exponential increases of knowledge, technology, human cognitive demands, and societal complexity, disorder and dysfunction. Anthropologist Brian Klaas explains: “Our social world has changed, but our brains haven’t. … Our bodies and minds evolved for a lifestyle that no longer exists.” Likewise, deer inherently fear and evade barking dogs but not speeding cars, a modern “evolutionary mismatch” with the deer’s Stone Age brain.
Klaas links inherited hominid family traits with both authoritarian and egalitarian behavior: “Hierarchy and power are neither good nor bad. They provide a tool … to facilitate cooperation and community or to exploit people.” Think Norway versus Russia. “Humans have learned to pick leaders for reasons that no longer reflect modern realities,” i.e., seek one’s own kind of people. Consequently, loyal politicians, lacking competence, integrity and courage to oppose challenges to democracy and egalitarian roots, utilize outrageous media behavior and dark money to attain continuous reelection. “We are attracted to bad leaders … give them power … for irrational reasons.” Trump, having ethical, governing and legal issues, has overwhelming 2024 Republican support.
Meanwhile, an irrational anti-science, anti-intellectual mentality is responsible for needless suffering and death from guns, anti-COVID falsehoods and denial of gender-affirming health care. Also, for decades, Congress has failed to enact rational legislation for immigration reform, common-sense gun restrictions, voting and civil rights, and women’s reproductive rights. And, judges have become politicians in robes dismissing established knowledge and research of science and medicine.
Consider how few voters comprehend the modern economic complexities of inflation, the Federal Reserve, national debt, etc. Such intricacies have become more incomprehensible due to intentional social media and political party falsehoods and fear mongering, motivating voters to seek the security of a political cult and authoritarian saviors. “Modern skulls house a Stone Age mind” in need of a rigorous educational system.
Tom Wallace of Virginia Beach is a former vice president for academic affairs at Old Dominion University.
