People love to imagine that chaos and socipathy are our natural state, and compassion and enlightened organization are fantasies, but that was never true:
We evolved, beginning seven million years ago, from species that were already highly sociable and live naturally, gregariously, and peacefully in groups of dozens or even hundreds. Chaos and sociopathy are illnesses.
On top of that, we have the intelligence to reason about what works better (let's use it).
And if you have a source stating authoritatively how society functioned seven million years ago, as we parted evolutionary ways with the baboons and chimpanzees, I would love to read it.
>I live in a village of hundreds. We live gregariously and peacefully. But how about those people living in cities whose populations exceed the entire protohuman population?
I live in a city of almost nine million. Which far exceeds such a population, and not of proto-humans, but of fully modern ones (assuming the Toba Catastrophe Theory[0] is correct). As such, it's a pretty good bet that those few thousand who survived such a bottleneck 50-75k years ago lived similar lives (albeit with less technology) as we do today.
And while we do have some issues with anti-social behavior (which, I'm sure, is present in your village on a much smaller scale -- and only because it's a much smaller population) in my city of almost nine million, on the whole people are cooperative, supportive and pro-social.
If you don't like cities, that's fine -- don't live in one. But while Dunbar's Number[1] isn't applicable in my city, for the most part, we live pretty good lives.
[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Toba_catastrophe_theory
[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dunbar's_number
> how about those people living in cities whose populations exceed the entire protohuman population?
How about it? I spend lots of time in cities; they are generally peaceful, gregarious and friendly.
> if you have a source stating authoritatively how society functioned seven million years ago, as we parted evolutionary ways with the baboons and chimpanzees, I would love to read it.
What is your point here?
> I spend lots of time in cities
Which ones?
Many of those that the right-wing news likes to promote as dangerous, chaotic, etc. They are wonderful; it's a great time to be in cities. Crime is very low, they are buzzing with energy. People are really missing out because of all the politicization.
All in america? Does that include SF?
> We evolved, beginning seven million years ago, from species that were already highly sociable and live naturally, gregariously, and peacefully in groups of dozens or even hundreds.
I take issue with "peacefully".
Hunter gatherer adult violent death rates are often estimated at 2% to 10% (googling seems to confirm my memory here). While people in developed countries have around 0.01% violent death rates.
> species that were already highly sociable
Which species? Bonobos are fairly peaceful, but Chimps aren't.