The Social Safety Network

Christakis and Fowler discuss natural selection, and the ways in which it encouraged us to help each other out as a means of helping ourselves survive. This has great relevance for current politics, and even political movements of the past few centuries. Government is a construction made to protect ourselves from ourselves, in the words of Hobbs. It is thought to be a uniquely human construction, derived from our superior standpoint as the species with the most highly developed mental capacity.

Do Christakis and Fowler suggest that socialism, and at an even more base level all government, is not only altruistic, but is a result of evolutionary processes? Are our social networks a key reason why our species survived and thrived?

In the book, Christakis and Fowler outline the use of social networks as crucial to human survival, similarly to the way that apes use social networks. The saying “two heads are better than one” seems to hold true here; a single individual would not be able construct their own residence, grow all of their own food, etc. Society is built around the group or community because it is endlessly more efficient to collectively produce all of the things that humans need based on specialization of each individual. Social constructs are the way in which our world operates. It takes social networks to have an operating economy and marketplace for goods. Social networks are the method by which information is dispersed still to this day. We need these networks to organize and operate our lives, which is why it makes sense that we evolved to favor them.

In this way, our habit of protecting the weak, the sick, the elderly, and the young seems to come from our evolution. In the United States our welfare system, the social safety net that prevents a family or individual from falling through the cracks, can also be seen as network. Networks keep us alive, healthy, and productive.