It is a myth because power structures existed from the start.
What is the first power structure? Family. Families vs families. It is not individuals. Individuals were created in the 17th century. There were hero myths, yes, but the notion of free rational economic man is very very modern.
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a free market requires the enforcement of individualism. without it, pools of power quickly emerge and the market is clogged with lots of extra stuff that makes it not free
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a free market requires the enforcement of individualism. without it, pools of power quickly emerge and the market is clogged with lots of extra stuff that makes it not free
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“individual choice”.
See, that’s the concept that’s modern.
It was not conceivable until at LEAST the end of the Greek/beginning of Roman empires.
Prior to that, everybody was in classes.
Classes come from family structures.
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Our culture – yours and mine both – think of self-first, community-second. It comes naturally to us because that is how we were programmed/raised/socially encultured to believe through our parents, tv, educational system, movies, everything around us reinforces that notion.
But it’s new on the world stage relatively speaking.
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It was rarely collectives of equals though but collectives of many little imperfect hierarchical structures, families, teenage/adult gangs in less civilized situations, etc.
Maybe once free from the shackles of clan and caste and family, THEN you have the beginnings of a notion of free trade.
Who knows how many of the early traders on the Silk Road in China were family-free and clanless and had to rely only on their wits to survive? It’s a romantic notion. Maybe true, maybe not. It appeals to the standard Rugged American Individualism that we’re trained in. So who knows.
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Anyway I wish you the best regardless. It’s your path and journey in life and all good things are possible if you listen for opportunity and avail yourself without fear of them, knowing your capabilities and weaknesses, always striving to grow past them, learn from every exchange with people and experience you have, etc and trolling is a fine way to blow off steam sometimes, etc. Thank you for the challenge – it’s how I learn about myself and I learn something from everybody I exchange with online.
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