Mutual Aid: A Factor in Evolution (Peter Kropotkin)

Peter Kropotkin

Mutual Aid: A Factor in Evolution

A riposte to philosophers and political economists who assert that Darwin's theories on survival of the fittest lead to a dog eat dog society where every man is out for himself. Which is unfair on dogs and indeed ignores women. This philosophy has justified and supported the capitalist system and whilst times have changed since 1902 when this was first published much is the same. Some of the statements could be made by the media and politicians today such as the poor are only there because of their vices and shouldn't be helped, or at least only enough to stop widespread social unrest. Kropotkin asserts that survival is based on mutual aid rather than individuals fighting each other and starts by giving examples in the animal kingdom (including the much maligned dog) then through the various stages of human society from "savages" in tribes to "barbarians" in villages. The removal of common land in medieval times has led to the decrease in mutual aid as a way of life but despite the state and religions attempts to remove mutual aid (including outlawing gatherings in societies) it still continues across the globe and within various class boundaries. He is obviously hopeful that mutual aid will replace central state control of our lives and that common ownership of land and industry will develop and rise across the world. Although an anarchist Kropotkin's mutual aid is very close to theoretical communism and indeed that's a term he uses a lot to describe societies run on mutual aid lines (rather than calling it anarchism). Kropotkin is very clear that the state cannot be trusted and is ineffective in the further evolving of humans but that individualism is also dangerous as this is what capitalism is based on. Indeed his view of a state being used to keep certain individuals rich and the mass of people poor is exactly the direction that we are going in our current societies globally. There again the willingness of most people to help each other (i.e. mutual aid) has been, once again, highlighted in a moment of crisis the current one being Covid-19 where even the Tory MPs who voted down an increase in nurses pay have had to show solidarity by clapping the NHS key workers on a Thursday. Whilst that is obviously paying lip service for media photo ops it shows that mutual aid is not dead and indeed is expected within societies. There is yet hope...