The Nomadic Alternative – Page 101

defend their capital against the envy of the have-nots. For the rate of production is a victim of limitless variables and cannot proceed uniformly among all men.

The Neolithic Revolution inaugurated the transition from 'primitive communism' to a capitalist ethic. The germs of capitalism lie in production, while communism - not that the Marxist would understand it this way - denies the value of production. Sceptics have insisted that communism contravenes human nature. They are quite wrong. The original contract of social and economic equality remains firmly rooted in the nature of every individual, but was perverted by an unfortunate turn in human culture. But since the populations of the world cannot suddenly revert to hunting and gathering, would-be communists must reconcile themselves to the idea that we are capital-ists by the very fact of the way we live, and set about finding ways to alleviate the maladaptive consequences of this condition. The answer will lie in "killing wealth", in decreased production and voluntary attempts at bankruptcy.

The change to agriculture did not liberate man from passive dependence on the caprices of nature, nor did it bring him the leisure hours in which to develop his 'creative' capabilities. Rather it substituted longer hours of back-breaking work for the excite-ments of the chase and deprived the hunter of his infinite capacity for leisured discourse. Monotony and inertia replaced his need for struggle and the unpredictable danger, and forced him to look else-where for stimulants. Originally the women alone had busied them-selves with the vegetable world. Now while some men herded the flocks up the mountains, others became peasant planters. Work in the fields effeminized them, deprived them of their self-confidence, and inflamed antagonisms between the sexes. Leisure became the prerogative of those who could starve others into working for them.

In terms of its benefits the Neolithic Revolution was a fraud.

"God planted a garden eastward in Eden: and there he put the man whom he had formed." Eden was a place and an idea. The idea, if not the place, survives. It was a happy hunting ground where men