PUNCHING ABOVE YOUR WEIGHT

ACROSS A BROAD RANGE of species—chimpanzees, walruses, lions, elk, mice—larger males and groups of males invariably win physical confrontations with smaller ones, but that is not the case with humans. Were this not so, freedom would effectively be impossible: Every group would be led by a single large male, and the world would be dominated by fascist mega-states that could easily crush insubordinate populations. But that’s not what the world looks like. Large armies—or people—are stronger than small ones, but usually slower and less efficient. This is true at every scale, from open warfare to street corner fistfights. Because the outcome of any human conflict cannot be predicted with certainty, the powerful often end up having to negotiate with the weak, and those negotiations invariably revolve around freedom.

Human violence reaches way back into our evolutionary past and is usually about the same things