Exactly so.
This isn’t to say that our “natural” state can’t also include being wary and suspicious of others, because that’s also been a means of protecting our communities. But clearly, we managed to get over that, and build larger communities, even well before civilization. People traveled, traded, and communicated with other groups for all of our existence. It’s true we came into conflict with people, and we sometimes can be defensive, but it’s never been just rugged individuals carving their way in the world. Never. Empathy is central to our survival, and the stigmatizing of others who might be different in some way is obviously destructive and dangerous, and those two impulses (which are inevitably shaped by whatever culture we happen to be living in) need to be balanced against one another.
At this point in human history, whether we like it or not, we live in a globalized society. And those warring ways of thinking about the world (empathetic vs. tribalist) must shift towards the empathetic, or we’re all fucked. All of our well-being depends on uprooting the damage that capitalism has done to our sense of community (and to the whole fucking planet, etc, etc), and finding a more productive way forward. We’re destroying ourselves when we destroy who we perceive to be “the stranger”… How can anyone on this rock now really be a stranger anymore! Have we really not learned anything at this point about our common humanity?
Exactly this, too. They still keep claiming that they are “small government conservatives” but it’s clearly bullshit now, and really has always been bullshit. People should pay mind to what they do, not to what they keep claiming.
