Click here to access article by Martin Iqbal from Empire Strikes Black.
The dichotomy of human beings that the author delineates is only a superficial truth which hides much more discriminating insights. Human beings are very much influenced by their social system to behave in certain ways and exhibit certain characteristics, but they are not infinitely malleable. (Erich Fromm has written extensively on this subject.)
Innate human nature exists independent of society, has a variety of potentials, but it is the interaction of people in society that determines what characteristics and behaviors become manifest. Since the first major agriculture revolution in human history which saw the transition from hunting and gathering into settled agriculture communities in prehistory, societies gradually became subject to the development of class structures. The ruling class has always sought to influence their subordinate classes in ways that would legitimate their rule in order to insure the acquiescence of the latter in this arrangement, and encourage behaviors that supported the interests of the ruling class.
The second type of human the author describes is a perfect example of those individuals who have succumbed to the comprehensive indoctrination of the current ruling class of capitalists. The latter want their workers to only focus on pleasure seeking and their individual interests. This results in consumerist values and extreme individualism that serves the interests of power and profit for the dominant class. The fact that human nature is not infinitely malleable is exemplified by the occurrence of the first type of human that the author describes. This type has been subject to mostly the same influences as the second type, but yet shows remarkably different behaviors.
