Читать книгу Mutual Aid - Pablo Servigne - Страница 13

We were surprised to see what an incredible diversity of processes, feelings and mechanisms has been at work since the beginnings of time. But what name are we to give this infinitely complex, rich and colourful world – this tendency which describes both an association between bacteria and an agreement between humans or great apes, involving feelings as subtle as altruism, kindness, friendship, gratitude, reconciliation and a sense of justice? We needed a term that included both actions and intentions, but also all living organisms and all processes.

We have chosen the term mutual aid, aware that it is not defined in the same way by everyone, and that it can sometimes involve a hint of anthropomorphism, especially when it comes to describing the behaviour of living creatures that are nothing like us. But today this term has the advantage of being both accepted in everyday language and sufficiently forgotten in science to be immune from too narrow a definition. It is also, and above all, a nod to the great geographer and anarchist Peter Kropotkin, one of the pioneers of this scientific adventure, who in 1902 wrote a remarkable synthesis, Mutual Aid.¹⁵

The subject is obviously colossal. Each chapter of our book could be the subject of a multi-volume treatise! The goal was not to turn it into an encyclopaedia, but to build bridges between disciplines, and in particular between the human sciences and the biological sciences. Seeing their disciplines being given such a broad-brush treatment will obviously frustrate the specialists – we share their feelings, as we would have liked to share even more extraordinary details of the mechanisms of living creaturses.¹⁶

We started this project a dozen years ago, with as much enthusiasm as naïvety. Our ‘biological’ label¹⁷ had not prepared us to absorb the incredible advances in the human sciences, nor the paradoxes that were emerging from this vast wealth of new discoveries.¹⁸ Exploring all of this was a real adventure which only stoked our curiosity the more. Our conclusions are therefore far from definitive, and ultimately turn out to be an invitation to continue exploring.

This book is not a treatise on collapsology, nor a critique of consumer society and capitalism, nor a naturalistic encyclopaedia or a philosophical treatise. It’s an attempt to tie it all together and indicate a route for our generation.

We will begin our journey by demolishing the myth of an aggressive nature ruled by one sole law. Then, over the course of the chapters, we will discover the mechanisms and subtleties of human mutual aid. Finally, we will return to the whole of the living world, which will allow us to touch on some major principles of life on earth.